Your own ordering app and website for your burger shop

How to structure a burger menu for online ordering

At the counter, your staff suggest the bacon, the loaded fries and the shake. Online, the menu has to do that job on its own, on a phone screen, so structure matters more than it does on a printed board.

A layout that works for most burger menus:

• Burgers: one item per burger, with patty count (single, double, triple) as a choice the customer has to make, rather than three separate items. It keeps the menu short and easy to scroll.
• Paid extras: extra cheese, bacon, an extra patty, jalapeños, onion rings in the bun. One optional group per burger, with a price on each.
• Free choices and removals: sauce, no onions, no pickles. A free group with a limit on how many can be picked stops the twelve-sauce order.
• Meal upgrade: a "make it a meal" group on every burger, with fries and a drink at a fixed supplement and swaps to loaded fries or onion rings for a little more. Putting it on the burger itself puts the choice in front of every customer.
• Sides and loaded fries: loaded fries as their own items, with toppings as extras in the same way as the burgers.
• Boxes for two and four: burgers, sides and drinks at one fixed price, with the choices inside the box.
• Plant-based and gluten-free: a plant patty or a gluten-free bun as a swap inside each burger, with the allergen detail in the item description.
• Shakes and desserts: near the end of the menu, where customers land just before checkout.

Allergens and calories on an online burger menu

Buns, cheese, sauces and coatings are where most of the allergens on a burger menu come from: gluten in buns and onion ring batter, milk in cheese and in many brioche buns, egg in mayonnaise-based sauces and many brioche buns, sesame on seeded buns, and mustard in many burger sauces. Check your supplier specification sheets rather than relying on memory, because recipes and suppliers change.

For food ordered online, the Food Standards Agency's best-practice guidance says allergen information should be available before the order is completed and again when the food is delivered, for example on a sticker or a printed menu in the bag (Allergen information for non-prepacked foods: best practice, gov.uk, checked 28 October 2026). In Aexir every item has its own description where you list allergens, and you can change it from your dashboard the moment a supplier changes.

Calories: in England, businesses with 250 or more employees must show calories on their menus, including online menus and delivery apps (The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021, gov.uk implementation guidance, checked 28 October 2026). An independent burger shop below that size does not have to, although you can add calories to item descriptions if you choose.

Peak times: plan the grill, not just the menu

Your own order history is the only reliable guide to your peaks, and the analytics in Aexir show what time your orders come in. The pressure points to plan for are typically the evening rush, Friday and Saturday nights, and match days or events if you are near a ground or a venue.

Smash burgers cook in minutes, but a flat-top only takes so many patties at once, and online orders that land in a burst queue behind the walk-ins. The practical levers are simple: quote a longer collection time at peak, set delivery estimates you can actually meet, keep the delivery zone tight so food arrives hot, and send your promotions on the quiet nights rather than the nights you are already full.

Loyalty ideas that suit burger regulars

The best reward is cheap for you to give and feels generous to receive. A side or a shake costs you far less than its menu price. Ideas that fit a burger shop:

• Stamps: one stamp per burger, a free burger at ten. Easy to explain in one line at the counter.
• Points: points per pound spent, with a free side or shake at a threshold. Fairer to the family ordering four burgers than a stamp per order.
• Tiers: a top tier for your most frequent customers with a standing perk, such as a free extra patty on Tuesdays.
• First-order promo code: printed on a card at the counter and in your collection bags, for customers who currently find you through a marketplace.
• A monthly special: a limited burger each month, announced by push notification, gives regulars a reason to open your app instead of a marketplace.

The commission maths on a burger order

Marketplaces charge a percentage of every order. These are the published UK rates, checked on 28 October 2026. Uber Eats lists a 30% fee on orders Uber delivers (33% for Uber One members), 13% where you deliver yourself and 13% on pick-up, all excluding VAT (merchants.ubereats.com/gb/en/pricing). Just Eat lists 14% commission plus VAT where you use your own drivers and 30% plus VAT where Just Eat delivers (just-eat.co.uk/partner/signup). Deliveroo does not publish a rate on its UK restaurant site (merchants.deliveroo.com/en-GB), so ask for yours in writing.

Worked example, not a typical order value: a burger shop taking 100 orders a week at £25 each. All figures exclude VAT.

To run the same sums on your own numbers, use the savings calculator linked below, or type the lines from a real marketplace statement into the free delivery statement decoder at aexir.com/delivery-statement-decoder to see what the platform kept.