Free ordering system for your coffee shop

When to use to-go software for a coffee shop?

Nobody likes to wait in a long line for their cup of joe. Especially during rushed mornings, you want to help everyone as quickly as possible. With unlimited ways for people to customize their coffee order (think syrups, milk alternatives, you name it) there’s a great time saver at your fingertips.

Allowing people to place their orders ahead of time, or on the spot through a QR code allows you to focus on fulfilling the orders with ease.

We surveyed various coffee shop owners and asked them about the biggest benefits of working with an ordering system. This is what stood out to us:

• Boost in revenue - No lost orders, people ordered more additional products such as pastries and bottles of water, or even upsized their coffee order.
• Improved customer satisfaction - Guests can go about their day and just pop in and out of your coffee shop real quick. Making their day a breeze will make sure they come back more often.
• Insight into your most loyal customers - Popular coffee shops at busy corners can process hundreds of orders an hour. Keeping track of who’s a true regular is a great way to reward their loyalty at some point.
• Improved stock keeping - Spot trends in which products are becoming more popular, and ensure that you never run out of oat milk again.

Will an online ordering system for coffee shops boost my revenue?

Yes, one hundred percent! It might take a minute before your customers start adopting it, but big chains are doubling down on it because there’s great customer demand.

As an independent coffee shop owner, you, for sure, don’t have the budget to build a fancy app, nor do you really need to. There are great free products on the market, such as Vev, to easily take orders online.

Depending on how you go about it, you can just use the ordering system for to-go coffee orders from regulars, or use the order form for each and every order by sticking the QR code on the table. Coffee shop owners confirm that they see double-digit growth as soon as they start working with an ordering system. The reason is actually quite simple: people have a better overview of what you all have in store and tend to order more. In addition to that, they also don’t have to wait before they can place their order. It’s a little bit of psychology that kicks in here: being able to skip the ordering line and go straight to pick-up fills the brain with dopamine!

How to take online orders for a coffee shop business?

Easy! Your logo doesn't have to feature a mermaid to up your digital game. Vev created a free ordering system for coffee shops that is easy to work with. It’s up and running in about a minute, and you don’t need a credit card to activate your account.

After creating your account, all you need to do is insert the menu. Make sure to add all the different sizing options you offer. Tell the system if you charge extra for milk alternatives such as oat milk. Insert all syrups you carry, sugar options, and ways people might wanna tweak their order even further.

Vev also allows you to create various sections for other product groups that you offer. Especially useful when you also sell pastries, cakes, fruits, bottled water, and whatnot.

It’s up to you how you’ll use the system to your advantage. You can straight up use it to let everyone order through the system. You can use it just for to-go orders, offer the ordering system only for drive-thru orders, or only use it during select hours, such as the morning rush.

To summarize all steps:

1. Create an account
2. Edit your menu
3. Upload a logo and select your color scheme
4. Print out your QR-code or communicate the URL to the customers
5. Let the orders come in!

How to offer drive-thru orders for a coffee shop?

Many coffee shop owners have told us that they use the software from Vev just for their drive-thru offerings. Especially when your building only has one window available for these to-go orders.

The best way to take drive-thru orders is to put up a big poster or screen with the QR code leading to your page on it. That’s where people will place their order, the order comes in on either a phone or tablet on your side. Customers drive up to the (next) window, and collect their order.

Every order can be easily marked as ‘done’ in Vev to keep track of what you are doing.

Steps to start offering drive-thru:

1. Create an account, insert your menu
2. Design the route that customers have to follow
3. Design a poster/screen that features the QR-code
4. Customers order through that QR and drive up to the window after
5. Customers pay via the software or at the window and collect their order

It’s the easiest way, with limited to no costs, to add drive-thru sales to the mix.

How to lower your costs when running a coffee shop?

The world is getting more expensive by the day. Besides energy prices skyrocketing, the price of coffee itself going up, and dairy prices that are out of control - your staffing costs probably have also increased. Lowering the costs of running your coffee shop could be a necessary step in order to help keep the business afloat.

Working with an ordering system could be something to consider to lower your costs effectively. This way, customers can place an order themselves, allowing your baristas to focus on fulfilling the orders and keeping the shop neatly organized.