App Spotlight: FoodieToGo

Built on the Ordr.in platform, FoodieToGo is an easy to use food ordering app built by the mobile experts at SourceFuse. The app integrates Yelp to provide restaurant ratings and reviews to help you find your perfect meal. Launching last week for Android, the team plans to make FoodieToGo available for iOS and Windows Mobile as well. We asked FoodieToGo co-creator Kabir Chandhoke to share a bit more about the app.

What problem does this app solve for it's users?

FoodieToGo makes it dead simple for users to order food online using their mobile phones. Simply enter your delivery address, choose a restaurant, order and pay using your credit card.

What inspired you to create this app?

We loved the idea of an open API and wanted to showcase our skills as a cross platform mobile development team - this was the perfect opportunity.

What technologies did you use?

For building the front end we used Sencha Touch 2. There is some server code written in CAKE PHP and we use MongoDB caching to make menus load faster for our users.

This is how we commute

At Ordr.in we don't believe in half measures

A sweet way to resign a job.

Food makes everything possible

From our friend Renee Bergeron's Facebook post:

Audition advice from my cab driver after finding out I am a singer & I just came from an audition:

Him: Are you on American Idol?

Me: No. I'm too old.

Him: Are they going to hire you?

Me: I have no idea.

Him: You should go & buy them a Shake Shack burger, bring it to them & say "now go home & think of me."

PRICELESS.

Joining the App Developers Alliance

Today we are excited to join the App Developers Alliance, the only trade association dedicated to the needs of technology entrepreneurs, makers and innovators.  Immigration, patents, privacy...you name it.  We believe there is much more we can do together than any of us can do apart. If the developer community is at the policy making table, we can shape these issues and ensure sensible decisions are made. 

Restaurants have the National Restaurant Association. Large corporations have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Banks, unions, retailers...they all have advocates working hard for them. And now so do we. Please joining Ordr.in in joining our own App Developers Alliance. 

An honest barkeep

What should you look for in a POS?

Over the last few months I have met many new POS companies.  Some new ideas, new pricing models, even legitimate innovation. But plenty of false innovation.  Some POS companies put a legacy model on a tablet and hope the restaurant will be distracted by the app. Don’t be fooled!

What you should look for in a new POS are three big things:

1. Value. Does the POS have a pricing model that frees up your working capital to build your restaurant? Legacy players load you up on fixed, up front costs. In many cases tens of thousands of dollars. The more you spend on a POS, the less you have to train staff and acquire and serve customers.
2. Ease. Is the POS easy enough to use that your staff and new staff down the line can learn the basics quickly? Will you need a POS service rep to help you with nightly and weekly reporting? And does support cost extra? The POS can be the most important tool you have, but not if it is hard to use
3. Flexibility. Can the POS adapt to rapidly changing technologies and other services, like loyalty, online ordering, and HR management? The best new POS’ have technical flexibility built in so operators can continuously adjust and grow how they use the POS. If not, you’ve just locked your POS into a fixed moment and as technology and your business change, your POS gets further and further behind.

I have one simple test. Does the POS company have a pricing page on their website? Amazing, the legacy players almost never have a pricing page. You have to contact a sales representative. The new innovative players like Breadcrumb, Shopkeep and Leaf.me all have easy to understand pricing pages. You pay $X and get A, B, and C services. Try doing that with Aloha!

2013 is a critical year in the history of restaurant tech. The old guard is starting to really feel the heat from new entrants. Rather than shift models they are dressing up the old. The smart operator will see beyond this and go after something that really makes sense- value, ease and flexibility.

Why should my restaurant take online orders?

Restaurants are  bombarded with info and options for online food ordering. Papa Johns and Domino’s already do more than $1 Billion in online sales each year, and more and more independent restaurants are offering it. Just like there are pros and cons to most business decisions, there are pros and cons for online ordering. But as long as you think about these issues you should absolutely do it. The pros are too strong.

The pros of taking orders on your own website are:

1.     Customer contact. When customers order from your website they form a stronger relationship with you. You gave them a way to buy from you they like, and you get their email to market to them later.

2.     Make money. Online orders tend to be much higher than orders in your own restaurants. Some industry reports say 15-20% higher. That really adds up!

3.     Fewer mistakes. A noisy restaurant, distracted host, and occasional language barriers lead to mistakes with phone orders. An electronic order- arriving on a fax, email or direct to your POS is always perfectly clear.

4.     Customers want it. Last year 40% of diners ordered at least one meal online or from their phone. This is a 300% increase from 5 years ago. Customers want it and will increasingly order from places that offer an online option.

The Cons of taking orders from your own website are:

1.     You have to pay attention. Keep your menu up to date, respond quickly to orders when they come in and train your staff to handle pickup and delivery orders.

2.     Marketing. Having a “order now” button on your website is a good start but you should commit to promoting it. A table tent, email blast and a big (big) mention on your menus is a good start.

3.     Accounting. Most online ordering systems are not connected to your POS. You need to manage a second system for accounting and customer information management.

We’ll have another blog post soon about picking an online ordering company. And if you have other pros and cons, or if you have experience with online ordering please share in the comments. Thanks!

Yippie Chai Yay, Indeed!

An eye catching street sign courtesy of the sassy folk of Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. @vlaic

Ordr.in <3 Codecademy

We built Ordr.in because we wanted to empower developers to create the next generation of food ordering apps. Our APIs allow you to get restaurant and menu information, manage users and, of course, order food. Dinner from your command line? Lunch out of a Hipchat window? Not just cool; with Ordr.in you can build a real business.

Today we launched an Ordr.in course on Codecademy, teaching developers how to use APIs for commerce with Ordr.in as the curriculum. Ricky Robinett, Ordr.in’s chief hacker and head of API products, will walk you through building a simple food ordering app with Ruby. Not only will you build something cool, but when you build apps with Ordr.in we will pay you a commission for each order. How awesome is that?  Mega awesome.

We love our friends at Codecademy for training and encouraging a new generation of developers, and we so appreciate being included in their tutorial program. Please check out the tutorial, email us at Hackfood@ordr.in, play with the APIs. We are here to help and celebrate what you build. Thanks.