Online ordering for cafés, where the ticket is small and the queue is long

Running pre-orders without breaking the queue

Pre-orders are easy to switch on and easy to get wrong. The order screen is not the hard part. The hard part is that a pre-order competes for the same machine and the same barista as the person standing at the counter, and if the two are not managed, both get worse.

Pick a lead time, then protect it

The lead time is the gap between the order arriving and the drink being ready. For a two-group machine with one barista, ten minutes for drinks is realistic at 8am and generous at 2pm. Food that needs toasting adds five. Set it slightly longer than you think and shorten it later; a customer who arrives to a drink that is ready is pleased, and one who waits three minutes past the promise is not.

Protect the lead time by deciding, in advance, whether pre-orders jump the counter queue. Most cafés say yes, because the pre-order was placed first, and they tell counter customers so. A small sign (“online orders are made in the order received”) settles most arguments.

Give the pickup shelf a name

Orders need somewhere to go. A shelf or a corner of the counter, labelled, with the customer’s name on the cup or the bag. The order screen shows the name the customer entered; use it. Calling names rather than order numbers feels like a café, not a depot.

Structure modifiers so the barista reads them in one glance

Three levels are enough for almost any café menu. Sizes as variants, because they change the base price. Milks, shots and syrups as add-ons, because they are additive and each has a price. Everything else (extra hot, no lid, “the usual for Priya”) in the order note. Resist the urge to turn every preference into an add-on; a ticket with twelve lines of options is slower to read than one with three lines and a note.

Price modifiers the same online as at the counter. If oat milk is ₹40 at the counter and ₹30 online, someone will notice and the conversation will not be about coffee.

Keep prices in step with the counter, and be clear about the gateway

There is no Tuckly commission on orders from your site, but your payment gateway does charge a processing fee on each online payment, at whatever rate your gateway publishes. For a café that is a few rupees per order. It is worth knowing the figure so you can decide whether to absorb it or reflect it, and so you are not surprised by the gateway’s statement.

Use QR codes for the people who sit down

The quieter win for a café is not the pre-order. It is the table of three who would like another round of coffees and a slice of cake but will not stand up to queue for it. A code on the table lets them order and pay from their seat; the order arrives on the same screen with the table number. There is nothing to install and nothing new for the staff to learn beyond reading a table number on a ticket.

Whether that changes how long people sit is debatable. What it does change is how many second rounds you sell to people who were already there.

Decide against delivery on purpose

Delivery is available if you want it, through your own rider or through Porter where it operates, with a delivery area and charge you set. Most cafés should not switch it on until pre-orders and QR are running smoothly. Coffee that has travelled fifteen minutes in a bag is a worse product than the one you serve at the counter, and a ₹180 order rarely carries a rider fee without the customer flinching. If you do add delivery, keep the area small and the menu for delivery smaller still: the things that travel.

Specialty coffee has different problems

If your menu is drink-led, you sell beans, and your regulars have strong opinions about dose and temperature, the coffee shop page covers the retail and customisation side in more detail than this one.