WhatsApp ordering for cloud kitchens: repeat orders without a shopfront

A cloud kitchen has no street frontage and no walk-ins, so its regulars are the only customers it doesn't pay to find. WhatsApp ordering turns their phone number into your shopfront. With Menuthere on the Pro plan (US$39 a month), a customer messages your number and your bot replies with a button to order, already signed in. The order goes into your dashboard, and your number sends "accepted", "on its way" with a Track Order button, and "delivered" with a one-tap Reorder button. Carts left behind get a reminder, and customers who go quiet get a win-back message. You pay 0% commission. Meta charges per message on your own WhatsApp Business account.

Create your free ordering pageBook a demo (opens in a new tab)

Why WhatsApp fits a delivery-only kitchen

A marketplace gives you the customer once and keeps their contact details. A direct order on your own Menuthere link gives you the customer's phone number, and WhatsApp is where that number gets used. The Order completed message carries a Reorder button, and flows can use a reorder link and the items from the customer's last order. For a kitchen that sells the same bowls, wraps or biryani every week, that is the shortest route to the second order.

It also keeps the delivery questions off your phone line. "Where is my order?" is answered by the Order dispatched message, which carries driver details when known and a Track Order button.

The messages one order sends, and which to keep

Each status update is one WhatsApp message, and Meta bills each message. Here is what a cloud kitchen typically keeps.

Worked example. Order updates go out as Meta-approved utility templates, and every one is billed at Meta's utility rate. A kitchen doing 600 direct orders a month with the five everyday updates on (placed, accepted, food ready, dispatched, completed) sends 3,000 utility messages a month, plus one for each canceled order. Turning off Order food ready cuts that to 2,400, and the customer loses nothing: the live order tracking page is a web page, with no per-message charge however often it's opened. Price your own month with the WhatsApp cost calculator, which lists Meta's published rates by country.

Which messages are free? Because order updates are templates, they reach customers who ordered on your website and never wrote to you, and none of them is free. The only free messages are service messages: your bot's free-form reply when a customer writes "hi", within Meta's 1,000 free service messages per number a month. After those 1,000, service messages are charged too.

Win back the orders you'd otherwise lose

We're open again suits kitchens that close in the afternoon or open only for dinner. Comeback messages use approved marketing templates, the costliest category, and use at most about a third of your number's daily limit, so order updates are never crowded out. Customers who reply STOP are skipped by all three.

One WhatsApp number, or one per brand?

Many cloud kitchens run two or more brands from one kitchen. Menuthere lets you connect several WhatsApp numbers.

Each brand can be its own outlet with its own menu and link. Running several outlets from one head-office login is a Pro feature, and each outlet has its own plan. More detail in can my outlets share one WhatsApp catalog.

Measure it

• Message analytics counts the month's messages split into marketing, utility, authentication and service, and shows how much of the 1,000 free service messages you've used, with a forecast for the month.
• Welcome message to order: how many customers who got your welcome message placed an order within 24 hours, and how many were lost. Canceled and unpaid orders don't count.
• Order link taps lists who opened your menu from a WhatsApp link, and when.

If many customers are lost after the welcome message, check that it has one clear order button. Running ads that open a WhatsApp chat? Read what click-to-WhatsApp ads are and whether those chats are free.

How to set it up

1. Create your store and menu. Start free at /get-started and add your dishes with photos.
2. Start Pro and connect your number. In Sales channel → WhatsApp, press Connect WhatsApp and sign in with Facebook. You can link the number you already use in the WhatsApp Business app.
3. Switch on the order flows you want. In Flows, turn on placed, accepted, dispatched and completed, and edit the wording if you like.
4. Add a greeting and the recovery flows. From the Global flows library, add a greeting flow, Abandoned cart and We're open again. Added flows start off until you switch them on.
5. Write and submit your templates. Meta reviews each template, usually within about 24 hours. Templates are what reach customers outside the 24-hour window.
6. Put your number everywhere you sell. Inserts in the delivery bag, your Instagram bio and your Google listing.

What it costs, and what it replaces

Menuthere Pro is US$39 a month with a 7-day free trial (a card is needed to start; nothing is charged until it ends). Meta's message charges go on your own WhatsApp Business account. There is no percentage taken from any order. Compare that with marketplace commission in your market: DoorDash in the US, Uber Eats in the UK or Talabat in the UAE.

For the delivery side, riders, zones and fees, see delivery app for cloud kitchens. For the full platform, see cloud kitchen software.