6 Ways Restaurants Can Use an Online Store

Must-Have Restaurant Software to Sell Food Online

10 min read

So you’re looking to up your restaurant’s game by going digital? Well then, we’ve got you covered. Having the right software can make an enormous difference in your restaurant’s efficiency, organization, and ability to keep up in an increasingly digital age. The following software recommendations, broken down by purpose, will make selling online a breeze.

Restaurant POS Software

Arguably the most important software to sell online is a point of sale system for coffee shop and restaurants. POS is the part of the buying experience when the sale is made: calculating the customer’s final price, confirming information, accepting payment, and sending a receipt. A POS system will help you process orders, update inventory, track sales, and keep all of your data organized. There are so many to choose from, but here are our top two POS software programs to try.

Square

Square has an intuitive interface, advanced inventory features, and customization options for almost every feature. It’s compatible with iOS and Android, EMV compliant, cloud-based, and has more than 20 integrations. The best part? Square is free. No monthly fees, and no setup costs.

There’s even Square for Restaurants, which is tailored for restaurant use—especially for restaurants that do in-person business as well. It’s a little pricier, but you may decide it’s worth the upcharge. Also, it’s also only available on iPad.

Clover

Clover is easy to use, includes 24/7 customer support, and has tons of cool features. It lets you ask for gratuities, create customer loyalty programs, send orders to kitchen displays, and track profitability at the item level. It’s cloud-based, compatible with iOS and Android, and EMV compliant.

Restaurant Accounting Software

This restaurant software tracks your finances and allows you to create invoices and reports. Ease of use is a key feature to keep in mind, as understanding your finances will be instrumental to your success. You’ll want your accounting software to be compatible with your POS system as well. The following two options are the best on the market.

ZipBooks

ZipBooks is free accounting software that features customized invoices and emails, advanced financial reports, notifications for customers and your restaurant, and time and invoice tracking. You can invite employees, accountants, or contractors to collaborate on your work and give different permissions for each person. Smart tagging allows you to custom-tag each expense or income to create personalized income statements based on the tag.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is another restaurant accounting software with features like custom quotes and invoices, sales and expense tracking, financial report creation, and collaboration tools. It allows you to automatically calculate, pay, and file payrolls. You can organize bills, create custom tags, keep track of inventory, partner with a bookkeeper, and track employee time/billable hours.

Restaurant Designing Software

When you have restaurant designing software, interior design becomes a breeze. For simple floor plans or 3D visualizations, CAD Pro and RoomSketcher are premium options.

CAD Pro

CAD Pro is an insanely popular floor plan design software. It has a bit of a learning curve because of the sheer amount of features, but if you’re willing to put in the work, it’ll work for you. It includes a library of ready-made restaurant symbols, photo tracing and editing capabilities, dimension tools, annotation features, and textures to bring your floor plan to life. You can even create menus and flyers in it.

RoomSketcher

RoomSketcher is easy-to-use design software that brings floor plans to life, enabling rich and immersive interior design thanks to 3D photos, 360 views, and 2D and 3D floor plans with measurements. Instead of symbols, you can implement customizable furniture, fixtures, and decor for better visualization. Yet it remains precise, with the ability to use custom measurements and make calculations–like total area. There is a free version, but you can opt for more features at different subscription levels.

Restaurant Reservation Software

When it comes to restaurant reservation software, you’ll need to consider ease of use, cost, and features. You’ll also want it to be stored in the cloud with POS integration to keep all of your software as connected as possible. The best option by far is Eat App.

Eat App

Eat App is a cloud-based restaurant reservation software with more features and a lower cost than most other options. It is compatible with desktops, mobile phones, and tablets. With online ordering and reservations, prepayment options, and a widget to show real-time table availability on your website or social media, Eat App is a great option for restaurants that operate online.

It partners with social media, Google, Trip Advisor, and similar websites to connect you with more customers. You also have access to in-person restaurant features like table management, a waitlist, floor plan set up, credit card holds for no-shows, and party size control. It even creates a guest database and collects other data for your POS system.

Restaurant Scheduling Software

A good restaurant scheduling software will create work calendars, track employees and their shifts, and offer clock-in and clock-out features. 7shifts does just that, and more. (Jolt can also be used as scheduling software, but more on that in the restaurant management software category.)

7shifts

This simple scheduling software was built with restaurants in mind. It can handle auto-scheduling, which is based on system intelligence. It also has communication tools to manage sending schedules, time-off requests, and shift swaps. Your employees can clock in and clock out right on the software. There are both free and paid plans.

Restaurant Management Software

Let your software help you become a better manager by investing in restaurant management tools. This type of software will keep you on top of employee productivity, food safety protocols, and communication. Jolt is a must-have software that refers to itself as, “your digital assistant manager,” and it certainly earns the title.

Jolt

Like 7shifts, Jolt can be used as scheduling software, but it has so many other features that we think it’s better categorized as management software. This restaurant management software handles task management like a pro. Employees can track tasks and record photo proof by completing equipment auditing, CLIA compliance, and daily cleaning checklists, for example. It makes communication with staff a breeze, and you even get reports on when and by whom messages are viewed.

Interactive Restaurant Menu Software

If you use the right ecommerce platform, building your restaurant’s online menu can be done directly on the website. We don’t like to brag, but if you’re looking for a menu builder and ecommerce website all-in-one, Ecwid is a great option.

Ecwid

Ecwid is super easy to use, with a drag and drop menu builder, a customizable website, and more. You can add links to your menus on delivery services like Uber Eats, Doordash, and Grubhub. A rating system allows customers to review menu items and get their stomachs grumbling. You can create fully customized menu items–with drop-down menus or checkbox lists for add-on ingredients and sides–all within the particular item. It works perfectly on desktops, smartphones, and tablets. Ecwid also has a favoriting feature where customers can save products for later, giving you valuable information about what customers like.

Once you’re set up with the necessary software, you’ll need an ecommerce platform to bring it all together. This will be the face of your company online—it’s the website your customers visit to learn about your company, browse your menu, and place orders. Luckily, we’ve got exactly what you’re looking for!

Ecwid is an ecommerce platform that makes selling online easier. Build your own store from scratch to instantly sync and sell across your own website, social media, marketplaces, and more. Grow your business with automated marketing tools. Finally, manage it all from your Ecwid control panel. We are compatible with most software, such as the POS systems mentioned above.

Check out Ecwid here to get started today.

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Jul 27, 2021

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.