Online Ordering Menu: How to Create and Optimize your Digital Menu

Having a digital menu online for your food business is essential to surviving online. Relying mainly on food delivery apps may not be the smartest idea if you want to see your business grow and succeed profitably. Your online ordering menu is not only imperative for online success, but having a QR code menu in-store with contactless payment is in fact a great way to make your customers feel safe when visiting you for dine-in or pick-up.

If you're new to online and mobile ordering, this blog will help you learn everything you need to get started. If you already have a digital menu, keep reading to explore new ways to optimize your menu through ChatFood's online ordering system.

How to optimize your online menu?

Setting up your online menu is not enough to succeed online; your digital menu needs to be optimized and marketed properly. Here are some recommendations that you can follow to make sure your online menu is easy to navigate and use!

1. Create food categories

To ensure a great online ordering experience, you will need to enhance your menus layout. The customer should have the closest possible experience to actually flipping through a real menu. Creating easy to navigate through food categories is the first step to achieving this sense of usability. This can help the user easily narrow down his choices and move quickly to the items he is looking for.

2. Use high-quality photos

Your online ordering menu is the only representation of your restaurant or food business to those who never tried it before. Including high-quality and appetizing pictures of your menu items is the best way to keep customers scrolling through your menu instead of moving on to another option altogether.

The photos should reflect the food quality and the valuable and unique experience your restaurant offers. You can even take high quality photos of your food without professional help. Just make sure you use indirect natural lighting, take the pictures near a window and in a nice setting. Also try to make the portions look as close to how they will be when delivered as possible, and that the ingredients can be easily spotted.

3. Use clear menu item names

For menu item names, it is best to be clear and descriptive. Even if you have your own quirky favourite and uniquely named dishes, try to be clearer on your online ordering menu. Using self-explanatory names in your online ordering menu simply makes it easier to flip through the dishes quickly and make a choice faster.

4. Tailor your descriptions carefully

Restaurant menu descriptions can really make a huge difference! If you market yourself as a healthy food business for example, it makes perfect sense to include nutritional information that you can easily calculate. In addition to being informative, menu items’ descriptions should also be appetizing and interesting!

It's also important to mention using organic and locally sourced ingredients to indicate food quality. Another way to make sure your descriptions are doing your dishes justice, is to use sensory words that reflect how unique and delicious the items are! Use adjectives that focus on smell, texture, taste  and method of preparation to trigger the customers‚Äô senses.

5. Highlight your bestsellers

The most popular or bestsellers category can be a very helpful way to highlight certain items that you know your customers love! Adding this category to the top of your online ordering menu and including the highest-margin dishes in it is a great way to boost sales. It also helps customers know what to order from you for the first time when they reach your online ordering menu through your website or social media channels.

6. Allow customers to make customizations

When ordering in person, customers are able to articulate their customizations and make changes to the dishes. That's why it is important to allow for customization in your online ordering menu. Make sure to include customization options for items that can be prepared in different ways or for ingredients and sides that can be replaced with other options to optimize your customers experience.

How to create an online menu with ChatFood?

Creating your customized and on brand online restaurant menu, or a digital menu for customers in-store, is extremely easy and simple with ChatFood. You can sign up to build your online menu in less than an hour and start selling immediately. Our dashboard is extremely user-friendly; By following very simple steps and filling in the required information, you will be able to build your online restaurant or food business menu quickly and easily.

You can also create more than one menu and customize them separately if you have multiple outlets. Our online menu maker also allows you to use your brand colours and creative assets to make sure the menu is aligned with your brands look and feel.

Additionally, you can turn your in-store ordering menu into a digital QR code menu with contactless payment to make your customers feel safe when dining in!

Have full control over your online ordering process and sell directly to customers on your website or social channels with ChatFood!