WhatsApp ordering for restaurants and takeaways in Ireland

WhatsApp ordering lets a customer message your restaurant's number, tap a link to your menu, order and pay, then get each update in the same chat. In Ireland, Meta charges about €0.014 for each order update and €0.049 for each promotional message, billed to your own WhatsApp Business account. Two Irish rules shape how you use it: promotions need the customer's consent under the ePrivacy Regulations, and allergen information has to be in writing before the order. Menuthere connects your own number on the Pro plan (US$39 a month) and takes no commission and no cut of Meta's charges.

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How WhatsApp ordering works with Menuthere

1. The customer says "Hi" to your number, from your Google profile, a QR sticker on the bag or a Click-to-WhatsApp ad.
2. A flow replies with an Order Now link to your Menuthere menu. Replies inside a chat the customer started are service messages.
3. They order on your menu, see each dish's allergens, and pay by card through your own Stripe account or choose cash on collection.
4. Updates arrive in the chat: placed, accepted, food ready, dispatched (with a Track Order button), completed (with a Reorder button) or cancelled. You switch on the ones you want.

Paying inside WhatsApp itself isn't available in Ireland: Meta offers it only in India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia. The payment page is your own Stripe checkout.

On the Free plan there's a simpler version: after a customer orders on your menu, a Send Order to WhatsApp button opens a chat with you with the order already written. No automatic messages are sent from your number. See orders to your WhatsApp.

What WhatsApp costs per order in Ireland

Meta prices each message by the country of the number that receives it. Irish numbers (+353) sit in Meta's "Rest of Western Europe" market, together with Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland.

Worked example: a Cork takeaway with 300 WhatsApp orders a month

Three updates per order is plenty; the tracking page shows progress for free, however often the customer opens it. Compare that with app commission on the same 300 orders at €30: Just Eat's own example rate of 30% when it delivers comes to €2,700 a month before VAT. See Just Eat commission in Ireland and price your own mix with the WhatsApp cost calculator.

Irish rules for WhatsApp offers

The Data Protection Commission's guidance on electronic direct marketing says the general rule is the clear, affirmative consent of the recipient, such as specifically opting in, under Regulation 13 of the ePrivacy Regulations (S.I. No. 336 of 2011). Silence, pre-ticked boxes or inactivity don't count. The DPC's guidance names phone, text message and email; treat a WhatsApp promotion the same way.

There is one exception, for existing customers. Consent isn't needed when all four conditions are met:

The first marketing message must also go within 12 months of the sale. The DPC's examples are written for email, so if you rely on the exception for WhatsApp, take advice; asking for opt-in is the safe route.

How Menuthere helps. Broadcasts and comeback messages are Pro features that send only approved Marketing templates. Customers who reply STOP (or unsubscribe, opt out and similar words) go on your Blocklist and never receive another broadcast; START puts them back. See opt-outs and the blocklist and broadcasts.

Order updates are utility messages about an order the customer placed, not marketing.

Allergens before the order, in writing

S.I. No. 489 of 2014 requires allergen information for food that isn't prepacked to be given in writing. For distance selling, which includes WhatsApp and phone orders, the FSAI says it must be given before the purchase is concluded and again at delivery, in writing at one of those stages at least.

That's one reason Menuthere sends the customer to your web menu instead of taking the order as free text in the chat: every dish carries its 14 allergen tags, on every plan, before the customer orders. If you also take orders typed into the chat, send the allergen information in writing before you confirm. See allergens and nutrition.

Your own riders, with tracking in the chat

On Pro, your riders use the Menuthere rider app for iPhone and Android. You assign each order to a rider with one tap; the dispatched message carries a Track Order button, and the customer follows the rider on a live map with no app to install. There's no per-delivery fee from Menuthere. Read more on WhatsApp ordering with your own delivery, WhatsApp order tracking and the rider app.

The 24-hour window

A normal WhatsApp message only reaches a customer who has messaged your number in the last 24 hours. A customer who starts with "Hi" is inside that window for the whole order. Customers who order on your website and never write to you are outside it, so your updates to them need an approved template. Set this up with a condition on the window in your flows. See the 24-hour window and order updates.

Set it up

1. Create your store at /get-started, set the currency to EUR and import your menu from a photo or PDF.
2. Tag allergens and set VAT: 9% on hot food, 23% on soft drinks. See the online ordering system for Ireland.
3. Move to Pro and connect your WhatsApp Business number under Sales channel → WhatsApp. Meta bills your own account.
4. Switch on the order flows you want: accepted, dispatched and completed is a good start.
5. Collect opt-ins for offers at checkout or in the chat, and keep the Blocklist clean.
6. Put a WhatsApp QR sticker on every bag with the free WhatsApp QR sticker maker.

Running sites in Northern Ireland too? UK numbers are priced separately (utility £0.0159 on the GBP rate card); see WhatsApp ordering in the UK. Plans are billed in US dollars: Free US$0, Lite US$17, Pro US$39 a month. See pricing.

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