How to take online orders for food, step by step

To take online orders you need three things: somewhere for customers to see the menu and tap "add", a way to take the money, and a way for the order to reach the kitchen. You can have all three live today on a hosted ordering page, with no website and no setup fee. With Menuthere the page is free, you keep 0% commission, and card payments go straight to your own Stripe account. This guide walks through every step and the one number that decides whether it pays off: the card fee on a small order.

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Step 1: Choose how customers will order

There are three ways to take an order online. Most independents use the first.

A hosted page is the fastest free route: you get a link, build the menu, connect a card processor, and share it. You don't need a website at all. If you already have a website, you add the link or embed the page. A delivery-app listing finds you new customers but takes a big cut and keeps their details, so many shops list on the apps and run their own page, then nudge repeat customers to the cheaper direct link.

Step 2: Build the menu

Your online menu is the shop. Get it in fast, then tidy it.

1. Pull it in from a photo or PDF. Instead of typing every dish, start from a photo of your printed menu or a PDF; most hosted tools can read dishes and prices from it, and you fix the rest.
2. Group dishes into categories customers scan quickly: Starters, Mains, Sides, Drinks.
3. Add choices as add-ons. Size, spice level, extra toppings. Mark a group Required (pick a size) or capped ("up to 3 toppings") so the kitchen never guesses.
4. Mark allergens and, if you need to, calories. Customers see them when they open a dish.
5. Add one good photo per bestseller. Dishes with photos get ordered more.

For the prices themselves, work out your food cost first; see how to price menu items and the menu price calculator.

Step 3: Decide pickup, delivery, or both

• Pickup (collection). Simplest. The customer chooses "as soon as possible" or a time slot, and collects.
• Dine-in. Print a QR code for each table so guests order from their seat; see QR codes for restaurants.
• Delivery. Either your own drivers (you set a delivery radius, a fee and a minimum order) or a delivery app's drivers. Running your own delivery keeps the commission, but you take on the logistics.

Set a minimum order for delivery so a single drink doesn't cost you a driver, and working hours so orders only arrive when you're open. Let customers pre-order for later if you take party and office orders.

Step 4: Take the payment

You have two options, and you can offer both:

• Pay online by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Connect a processor such as Stripe; the money lands in your own account, usually minus about 2.9% + 30¢ per order in the US.
• Pay on collection or on delivery (cash or your own card terminal). Good for regulars, but you carry the no-show risk on pickup.

Here's the honest math on a small order. On a $12 pickup order, Stripe's fee is $12 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $0.65, or 5.4%. The same order on a delivery app's full-service rate (say 25%) costs $3.00. On pickup-only app rates (6–7%) it's $0.72–$0.84. So your own page is cheaper than full delivery and about level with pickup-only rates, and the customer stays yours. App rates are on our DoorDash and Uber Eats pages.

Step 5: Get the order to the kitchen

An order you don't see is a bad review waiting to happen. Pick one and test it before you share the link:

• A ringing app. New orders ring on a phone or counter device until someone accepts. A plain browser tab doesn't ring, so use the dedicated app.
• Auto-print. The ticket prints by itself on a connected printer, with the items, choices and any note.
• Auto-accept (optional). If nobody taps Accept within a minute or two, the order is accepted and printed on its own, so a busy kitchen never misses one.

Then place a test order yourself end to end: order, pay, watch it ring, print the ticket, and refund the test.

Step 6: Get seen

A link nobody knows about takes no orders.

• Add the "Order online" link and button to your Google Business Profile so it shows in Search and Maps.
• Put the link in your Instagram and Facebook bio.
• Print a QR code for the counter, the window and every takeaway bag.
• Tell regulars at the till: "Next time, order from our own link, it's the same food and we keep more of it."

Honest limits

• A hosted page is not a full website. If you want a blog, lots of pages or a custom domain, use the website-builder route or embed the ordering page in a site you already have.
• No ready-made POS link. A hosted ordering tool like Menuthere doesn't push orders into Square, Toast or Clover automatically; orders arrive in its own dashboard and print from there.
• Delivery apps still win on discovery. If your problem is that nobody knows you exist yet, an app listing finds customers faster, you just pay for it. Use both and move repeat customers to your link.

Take online orders for food in a day

1. Pick a hosted ordering page (fastest, free to start).
2. Create your store and pull the menu in from a photo or PDF.
3. Set pickup, delivery or both, with a minimum order and your hours.
4. Connect Stripe so card payments reach your own account.
5. Turn on order alerts or auto-print so the kitchen sees every order.
6. Place a test order end to end, then refund it.
7. Share the link on Google, Instagram and a QR code, and tell regulars.

0% commission, $0 to start.

Create your free ordering pageSee pricing