Pizza shops
Online ordering systems for pizza shops
Pizza is the hardest menu to get right online. Every pizza is configurable, half the orders are meal deals, somebody always wants half and half, and the whole week's takings arrive in a four-hour window on a Friday.
Friday 19:15
Capacity 8 orders / 15 min · 3 slots left
An illustration of the kind of screen this builds towards - yours is built around how your pizza shop actually runs.
The reality
Where the time and money goes in a pizza shop
Generic systems cannot price a pizza
Toppings that cost more on a sixteen inch than a nine, a stuffed crust upgrade, half and half priced on the dearer half - most off-the-shelf ordering software forces you to simplify your menu, which costs you money on every order.
Meal deals get broken
A deal with a pizza, sides and a drink where the customer wants to swap the drink or upgrade the pizza. If the system cannot cope, staff end up fixing it by hand on the phone.
Friday between seven and nine
A huge share of the week arrives in two hours. Phone orders, app orders and walk-ins all at once, and something has to give - usually accuracy.
Commission on the busiest nights
The nights that should make your week are the nights you hand the most away, because volume and commission move together.
Customers who cannot see how long it will be
People ring to ask where the order is, which takes somebody off the make line during the exact window when nobody can spare a minute.
The approach
How we'd fix it
It starts with a pizza builder that matches your actual price list. Base size, crust options, sauce, cheese, topping tiers with different prices per size, half and half priced correctly, and extras that cost what they cost. If a system cannot do that, you end up either losing margin on every custom order or refusing custom orders, and both are worse than the software problem you were trying to solve.
Then it is about the Friday window. Pre-orders let people order at five for eight o'clock, which flattens the peak and gives the kitchen a running order to work through. Order status keeps customers from ringing to chase. Scheduled capacity limits stop the shop taking more orders in a fifteen-minute slot than the ovens can physically produce, which is what turns a busy night into a bad night.
What we build
Built for pizza shops
A pizza builder that prices correctly
Sizes, crusts, topping tiers priced per size, half and half, and extras - matching your price list exactly.
Meal deals with swaps and upgrades
Deals that let customers change the drink or upgrade the pizza, with the price adjusting automatically.
Capacity per time slot
A limit on how many orders can be promised in each fifteen minutes, so quoted times stay honest on a Friday.
Scheduled and pre-orders
Customers order in the afternoon for the evening, which flattens the peak and gives the kitchen a queue to work down.
Live order status
Received, in the oven, out for delivery - so people stop ringing the shop to ask, at the worst possible moment.
Delivery zones and driver list
Postcode zones with their own fees, and a simple screen showing what is out with which driver.
What changes
The difference it makes
- Custom pizzas get charged properly instead of losing margin
- The Friday peak spreads out because people can order ahead
- Fewer calls chasing orders during the two hours that matter most
- Direct orders keep the commission on your highest-volume nights
In practice
A worked example: the two-hour window
A pizza shop was taking a very large share of its week between seven and nine on a Friday and Saturday. The ovens could handle the volume; the ordering could not. Phone orders competed with app orders, quoted times slipped, and by half past eight somebody was permanently on the phone explaining delays instead of making pizzas.
Two changes did most of the work. Capacity limits per fifteen-minute slot meant the shop stopped promising times it could not hit, so quoted times became honest and the chasing calls dried up. Pre-ordering meant a portion of the evening was already in the queue before the rush started. Same ovens, same staff, a considerably calmer Friday.
The systems behind it
What this is built from
Everything on this page is put together from the same handful of systems, shaped around how pizza shops actually work.
Questions
Pizza Shops - the questions I get asked
Can it handle half and half pizzas?
Yes, and it should price them the way you price them - normally on the dearer half. The customer builds each half separately, sees the price update as they go, and the ticket prints clearly enough that the make line does not have to interpret it. This is one of the main things that separates a proper pizza system from a generic ordering plugin.
How do meal deals work if customers want to swap something?
Deals are built with rules rather than as fixed bundles. Swap the drink at no cost, upgrade the pizza for two pounds, add a side at the deal price - whatever your actual offer is. The price recalculates as they change it, so nobody has to fix it by hand afterwards.
How do we stop over-promising on a busy Friday?
Capacity limits per time slot. You decide how many orders the kitchen can genuinely produce in fifteen minutes, and once a slot is full the next one is offered. Quoted times stay honest, customers stop ringing to chase, and the whole evening runs calmer even though the volume is the same.
Can customers see where their order is?
Yes - received, being made, in the oven, out for delivery, with an honest estimated time. It is not a gimmick; it removes a real cost, because every chasing phone call takes somebody off the make line during the busiest two hours of the week.
Is it worth it if most of our orders come through the apps?
That is usually the strongest argument for it, because the commission is proportional to volume. A shop doing high volume on Friday and Saturday is handing over the most on exactly the nights it earns the most. You do not need to leave the apps - you need somewhere for your regulars to go instead.
Similar businesses I work with
All industries →Takeaways
Your own ordering system with no commission, your delivery zones, and the customer list that the apps currently keep from you.
Restaurants
Tables booked against real capacity, deposits on the parties that hurt when they no-show, and collection orders that pay no commission.
Cafes
Pre-orders that beat the morning queue, loyalty without the cardboard card, and catering enquiries that stop being a phone call.
Run a pizza shop? Let's have a look at it
Tell me how things work at the moment and I'll come back with a clear, fixed quote - and an honest view on whether it's worth the money. No pressure and no jargon.