How To Develop An On Table Restaurant Ordering App?

We are a generation with almost zero patience; we don't like waiting, especially when it comes to food. App development company has understood this well and the idea to let users beat the queues and the immense revenue opportunity available in the category of the app for restaurant ordering that they have developed some useful and innovative in restaurant ordering apps, which are bliss for both the restaurant owners and the restaurant-goers. 

Following are the type of app for restaurant ordering:

• On Table Restaurant Ordering App
• Table Management App
• Online Food Delivery App

• Restaurant POS App

We'll be discussing an "On Table Restaurant Ordering App" in this article and help you discover every detail related to it:

• Why should you develop an On Table Restaurant Ordering App, restaurant menu order app?
• How does it work, the various modules while developing an in-restaurant ordering app?

• How to develop those modules?

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Why is developing an On-Table Ordering App the best idea?

It's not always that a food app gives you so much reach, unlike a restaurant order at table app or a tableside ordering app does. You gain from both the ends, i.e., restaurant owners and the customers.

For Restaurant Owners

1. Cost Reduction - The most crucial factor of any restaurant business is low capital investment. Your customers love ordering food by restaurant online ordering app because they don't have to wait for someone to attend them to take the order, so the restaurant owner invests less in the workforce.
2. Customer Database - You have customers who are ordering food and making payment via the restaurant order at the table app itself. All details get received by the owner, creating a database of their new and repetitive customers. It also helps in sending customized discounts, festive offers, and fresh food menus to the customers. Everyone loves personalized services. Even customized alerts and reminders can be enabled. Restaurant owners can strategize new marketing techniques utilizing details from the app such as, what customers love to order when they order, payment options, and much more.
3. Reports - Reports can be created utilizing data in mobile apps for restaurant ordering projecting customers engaged, sales did per day, menu items most sold, offers loved and availed, and the average amount spent per consumer. Real-time analysis on the growth of sales, per food item gets enabled.
4. More revenue streams -  Increase revenue by increased repeat visits as well as word-of-mouth recommendations, enabling the restaurant to serve more guests. Also, additional revenue streams get generated via in-app advertising in the restaurant order app.
5. Enhanced customer experience - The On Table Restaurant Ordering App improves the accuracy of orders, and provides speed and efficiency of service, contributing to better customer experience.
6. The app is important - App for restaurant order is vital to maintaining an edge on the competition.

For Restaurant-Goers

1. Accuracy in placing the order, leaving no room for misjudgment.
2. Easy to make any modifications or specifications in order, like ingredients to be used.
3.  Reward points by in-app payment gateways, special discounts.
4.  Increase hygiene, no-touch payments as users make payments without touching a card reader, and the comfort of the customer's mobile device. 
5.  Full control to manage your menu, offers, and orders.

How does an On Table Restaurant Ordering App work?

So, how to create an online food ordering system? On Table Restaurant Ordering Apps allow users to order the food and drinks using their mobile instead of waiting for staff to take orders. Moreover, users can make payments directly from their phone, thus giving them a premium experience. Following is the way it works:

1. Users scan the QR code placed on the table.
2. Users browse through menu items.
3. Users place the order through the mobile.
4. The user can make a payment from the mobile and add tips while leaving.

The following are the modules that we will be working on while developing on table restaurant apps.

Menu

While developing any restaurant apps, what is common is the Restaurant Menu. We need to show the Restaurant Menu within the restaurant ordering app for iphone and make sure the restaurant menu's architecture should be flexible enough to allow us to add any restaurant menu along with modifiers. E.g., Pizza in three sizes, 12in, 14in, and 16in. The app should show three options, and it should be mandatory to add at least one modifier while sending the order.

Following are the terminologies app will need to have while building menu:

• Menu Type - A menu can be of multiple types like Lunch, Brunch, Dinner, and so on. 
• Menu Categories - A restaurant can serve multiple categories like Starter, Burgers, Sandwiches, Beverages, Cocktails, Non-Alcoholic Beverages, etc. And menu items can belong to various categories.
• Menu Items to look into your restaurant ordering app free - Each Menu Item will have 

• Name - Name of the items.
• Description - Description of the menu item.
• Photos - Photos of the menu item
• Price - Cost of the menu item
• Tax - Each item should have tax
• Type (Food/Drink/Merchandise) - If you are selling at entertainment venues, they can sell merchandise items like t-shirts along with food and drink menu items.
• is Alcohol - It indicates if the menu item is an alcoholic item or not. It is a good idea to have this field. For the kiosk terminal, if the user is adding an alcohol menu item, we can ask the user to read some identity card like a license to verify if the user is really above the minimum age limit for alcohol.
• Modifiers - We can add modifiers to the menu items. E.gFor Sandvich, users can select sides French Fries, Sweet Potatoes, Side Salad, etc. Or Pizza can be 12in, 14in and 16in. Moreover, modifiers can also have is Alcohol field to identify if modifiers have alcohol or not.
• Modifier Groups - We can group the modifier a Modifier Groups. We can have a name for each modifier group.

• Modifiers - Following are types of modifiers we can have within the system:   

1. Allow only one modifier to be selected, but that cannot be mandatory - Here use case can be Sandvich, where the user can choose sides like French Fries, Sweet Potatoes, or Side Salad. But if he doesn't want to, he can skip it. It should not be mandatory to select Side.
2. Have to choose only one modifier - Here the use case is Pizza, which comes in 12in, 14in and 16in. Users have to select at least one modifier to send the order. Or even if we think from a Merchandise point of view, the modifiers can be S, M, L, XL, XXL. Users have to select at least one size to send the order.
3. Allow choosing multiple modifiers, but none are mandatory - Use case is Chicken Tacos where users can add French Fries and Salads but not mandatory to add. Users can send orders only for Chicken Tacos as well without any modifiers.
4. Allow choosing multiple modifiers, but selecting at least one modifier is mandatory for submitting an order.

• Modifier Groups - We might need to show some set of modifiers to many items. So, we can group the modifiers and call it ModifierGroup. We can then assign modifier groups to multiple menu items in the restaurant menu order app.
  To have all types of modifiers fit in, we can have the following fields:

• minSelectionAllowed - This field will tell the system how many modifiers need to be selected from the group to send the order.
• maxSelectionAllowed - This field will tell the system how many maximum modifiers users can add in the order.
• is Mandatory - Whether modifier selection is mandatory to send the order.

Example

Pizza having 12in, 14in and 16in sizes

It will have three modifiers with the names 12in, 14in and 16in. We can group them in the "Size" modifier group. Users can select only one modifier from the above modifier group. So, it will have the following values of the fields:

• minSelectionAllowed: 1
• maxSelectionAllowed: 1
• is Mandatory: yes

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Ordering - restaurant mobile ordering app

On Table Restaurant app first creates the check where it adds the initial order sent by the user. Later all the orders created by the user are added to the check until the user closes the check by making payment.

Following are the terminologies while submitting the order:

• Revenue Center - Revenue Center is the division that collects the revenue. A restaurant can have multiple revenue centers if it has various sections in the restaurant like Bar, Level-1, etc.
• Kitchen - Kitchen receives the order for starting preparation after the user sends it. An order may or may not require approval at the revenue center. Based on this, we can have the flag "sendToKitchen" while submitting the order. If the sendToKitchen flag is true, then it is sent to the kitchen for preparation as soon as the user sends the order. Otherwise, you can add an approval system to ship the order to the kitchen.
• Promo Codes & Discounts - 

Promo Codes can be of two types:

• Item Level - Item Level promo codes will be applied only to items and not to the entire order. So, while creating item-level promo codes, the user will need to select the item on which the promo code will be applicable.
• Order Level - Order level promo codes are applied to the entire order.

Discounts can be of two types:

• Dollar - Fixed cost discounts
• Percentage - Discounts calculated on a percentage

• Tax - Tax is calculated for each item, and the order should display it to the users. The Admin panel should have the ability to add tax information to the menu items.
• Service Charge - Restaurant System should have the ability to add a service charge to the orders. The admin panel should have an ability to create a service charge along with a name.
• Tip - Users should be able to add the tip for the staff while making the payment for the order.

Invite Friends to Check

Users can add friends to the check so they, too, can send orders. First, check creators have to invite friends so they can view the check and send the orders. Moreover, at the time of payment, we can have a feature to split the payment among friends.

Payment History

The app should be able to show the payment history to the users. Users can view the order details, what they have ordered, and when.

Through payment history, users can have the ability to submit a refund request for the whole order or some specific items in the order.

Admin Panel

Admin panel can perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations for

• Menu Types
• Menu Categories
• Menu Items
• Modifiers
• Promo Codes
• Service Charge

It should also have the ability to create and edit orders on behalf of customers. And the admin can refund the orders.

Moreover, a beautiful admin panel will show the analytics as in which menu items are being ordered in which amount. This analytics data will help you to improve your menu and thus increase your revenue.

At later stages, it is a good idea to have various access levels for the admin panel, like a manager, server, staff, and others.

Integration with POS

Table Restaurant Ordering App can be integrated with POS if it has developer APIs. Integration with POS will help you to sync orders received from the app with the POS.

Omnivore - It provides universal POS integration API.

Conclusion

Now that you know every minute details related to the development of a successful app for restaurant ordering, On Table Restaurant Ordering App, all necessary integrities like menu type, modifiers, ordering flowchart, admin panel, and much more, we can't wait to hear your idea of developing one. Our full-stack web and mobile app development company looks forward to exploring the framework and development process of a customized On Table Restaurant Ordering App, in the restaurant ordering app. Share your curiosity with us.