How to Set Up Online Ordering for a Restaurant: a 30-Day Plan

Launching online ordering for the first time feels daunting. The good news is the timeline is well-known and the work breaks neatly into four weeks. This is the exact plan Aexir uses to take a restaurant from a signed onboarding form to a live, branded app on the App Store, Google Play, and a public ordering website. Follow it whether you use Aexir or any other white-label builder.

Before week one: pick your platform

The single most important decision is which platform you build on. The wrong choice can cost months of disruption to undo, so check the contract term, the card rate and who owns your customer data before you sign.

For UK independents and small groups, the right answer is almost always a white-label restaurant app builder. Aexir is one option (the one we build), there are others. The decision criteria are covered in the restaurant app builder guide, and the alternatives hub puts the main UK providers against Aexir on their published pricing.

Week 1: kickoff and menu

1. Day 1: Sign up. With Aexir this is filling in a 2-minute onboarding form. Next, you book a kickoff call.
2. Day 2 to 3: Kickoff call (30 minutes). Agree menu structure (categories, sections, item modifiers), brand colours, logo files, and pricing.
3. Day 4 to 5: Gather menu photos. You need at least one decent photo per menu item. Phone cameras are fine if you use natural light. We have a separate guide on menu photography that helps.
4. Day 6 to 7: Send everything to your builder. Menu PDF or spreadsheet, photos, logo files, brand colour codes (hex), trading hours.

While the menu is written out in front of you, do the allergen pass in the same sitting: the free allergen matrix maker turns that dish list into a printed 14-allergen chart, and online ordering makes it matter more, because distance selling rules require allergen information to be available before checkout and again at delivery.

Week 2: build and preview

1. Day 8 to 11: Your builder turns the menu and brand assets into a working app. With Aexir this takes 3 to 4 days for a 100-item menu.
2. Day 12 to 13: Preview build lands on your phone (via a TestFlight invite or an APK link). Test every menu item, every modifier, every payment flow. Note anything wrong.
3. Day 14: Feedback call with builder. Revisions agreed and scheduled.

Week 3: payment, loyalty, polish

1. Day 15 to 16: Stripe setup. Your builder either uses your own Stripe account or manages one on your behalf. With Aexir we usually do the heavier setup; you sign the Stripe agreement.
2. Day 17 to 18: Loyalty configured. Pick your stamp-tier rewards (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) and your points rate. The default 1 point per £1, 100 points = £1 is recommended.
3. Day 19 to 20: Final design polish. Hero images, push-notification copy, sample order confirmation messages.
4. Day 21: App Store and Google Play submission. Apple typically takes 24 to 72 hours for first review. Google is usually under 24.

Week 4: soft launch and public launch

1. Day 22 to 23: Apps approved on both stores. Test the live apps with real card payments and real food. Walk through three or four orders end-to-end.
2. Day 24: Train staff. The training is 15 to 20 minutes. Topics: how orders arrive in the kitchen, how to refund, how to add notes to an order, how to handle a missed item.
3. Day 25 to 26: Soft launch. Tell friends, family, and your most loyal regulars about the app. Run 20 to 30 real orders. Look for issues.
4. Day 27 to 30: Public launch. Push the app via every channel you own: in-store table cards, receipt inserts, Instagram, Facebook, Google Business listing, your existing email list if you have one.

Day-one marketing tactics that actually move adoption

Most restaurants get to launch day with a working app and no plan for getting customers onto it. The app is not the product. The customer install is the product. Use these tactics in week four:

• Table cards with QR code and a one-line value prop ("Scan to order, earn rewards"). Print them properly, laminate them, place them on every table.
• Receipt inserts. Every paper receipt from your till for the next 6 weeks should have a small "Download our app" line with a QR code and an offer ("£3 off your first order via our app").
• Instagram + Facebook posts. Same image, three captions, post weekly for the first 6 weeks. Make sure your bio link goes to the app, not your generic website.
• Google Business profile. Add the app download link to the "From the business" section.
• In-person script. Every customer who orders in person hears one sentence from staff: "If you order more than once a week, our app saves you 5%". Count how many in-person customers download the app in the first fortnight to see whether the line is working.

What week five onwards looks like

By the end of month one you should be seeing 5 to 20 orders per day through your own app, depending on your location and existing customer volume. Month two: 20 to 60. Month three: 60 to 120 for an average UK independent.

If the trajectory is flatter, the issue is almost always one of three things: customers cannot find the app (marketing problem, not tech), the app experience has friction (test it on five real customers and watch where they get stuck), or the loyalty rewards are too far away (move Bronze threshold lower).

What you do NOT have to do

• Hire a developer. A white-label builder handles all code.
• Open your own Apple and Google developer accounts. On the app plans the developer account is £30 a year through Aexir, or about £130 a year if you prefer your own Apple and Google accounts.
• Set up payment processing alone. The builder handles Stripe onboarding.
• Build a separate ordering website. Aexir includes the branded ordering website on the Plus and Pro plans, or as a £10 per month add-on on Starter.
• Train staff for hours. 15 minutes covers it.
• Run servers or worry about uptime. The builder hosts everything.