Recently a long time customer, Blue Agave Mexican Bar and Grill presented us with a particular challenge. Could Zibster’s ecommerce platform replace the third party online ordering system they were using for their restaurant?
Restaurants have had the option of adding a point-of-sale (POS) system to their websites for quite some time now. Most restaurants agree that giving customers the opportunity to place food orders online with their favorite restaurants without having to leave home is a great idea.
Although GrubHub was working for them, they were just not happy with several things. First, it’s expensive, and high monthly fees and commissions were taking a big bite into their profits. Second, it’s not very customizable. Beyond adding a logo (if even that), there is practically nothing that can be changed, and doesn’t look appealing.
But worst of all was that their online ordering wasn’t even on their own website. When a customer clicked “Online Ordering” on Blue Agave’s website, they actually went to a page on GrubHub’s site. There, the order is placed and then ‘forwarded’ to Blue Agave where the order is prepared.
They considered other third party restaurant POS systems; eHungry, Toasttab, BeyondMenu, (there are a ton to choose from now), and discovered they are all pretty much the same. Then they remembered that Zibster has an ecommerce product that they had not been using and decided to give us a call.
Could we do it? You betcha! We even had the perfect sample site to show them: the Second Avenue Store, which proved to be a good starting place. (A small caveat here – the Blue Agave owner’s daughter is a very talented professional photographer).
Now when a customer clicks on “Online Ordering,” they go to a page within the website. The menu is arranged into different categories, each illustrated by a gorgeous photo and nifty rollover graphics. Clicking on a category takes you to . . .
A page showing the items within a particular category, again with a beautiful photo, identifying text, and pricing. It’s worth taking a moment to point out a few features of the page. The navigation menu is displayed on every page and a ‘Sort By’ button allows the site to be searched. They even chose to add a facebook icon – let’s see the other restaurant POS do that!
The specific item page has bread crumb navigation just below the name and price. A written description of the item can be fairly lengthy if needed. Option buttons can be added for various ingredient choices, and several option buttons can be used on a given page. A quantity selection drop down tabulates the price for that item automatically before adding to the cart.
The customer continues ordering until they get all the items they want and they are ready to complete the order. The cart page lists all the items, individual pricing, and subtotal. Coupons or discounts can be added to this page. Zibster’s secure checkout is among the best in the business and is easy to complete.
When orders are submitted, there is instant notification to the store management system, where the order can then be processed. There is a free Zibster ToGo app available that could be used for mobile convenience. Zibster never charges a commission and our ecommerce it is only $10 more per month than our regular website.
As we mentioned, Blue Agave Mexican Bar and Grill has been a long time customer. They set up their online ordering almost entirely themselves. The only help they needed was a bit of a tweak to accommodate tipping and delivery fees.
Did they do it? Did they create a professional looking online ordering site for their restaurant? We think so! They released their site only a few weeks ago and already their orders have tripled.
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