Online ordering for a new café: own site vs. marketplace vs. POS

Some of your regulars will want to order before they leave the house and walk straight to the pickup shelf. Online ordering makes that possible, but it also adds a second line to your café, one you can't see until the tickets start printing.

This is the second post in our series on setting up the tech for a new café, after choosing a POS. It covers the three ways to take orders online, what to ask before you turn one on, and how to run pickup so the counter doesn't suffer.

Vendor details below come from the vendors' own pages as of November 2026. Fees and features change, so check the current page before you sign up.

The three ways to take orders online

	Your POS's built-in ordering	A marketplace app	A separate ordering service on your own site
Who finds you	People who already know you	People browsing the app	People who already know you
Who owns the customer	You	Often the app	Usually you
What you pay	Usually processing, sometimes a plan fee	A commission on each order	A subscription or per-order fee, plus processing
Where orders arrive	In your POS, with your other orders	Often a separate tablet, unless it's connected to your POS	Depends on the service's POS connection
Menu and sold-out items	Same menu as the register	A second menu to keep in sync	A second menu, unless it syncs from the POS

1. Ordering built into your POS

Most cloud POS systems sell or include an online ordering page that shares the register's menu. Square, for example, says its online ordering profile lets customers "order ahead for free in-person pickup or with on-demand delivery — all without marketplace commissions," and that "All orders, whether placed online or in person, come through your Square Point of Sale and go right to the kitchen." It also notes that for delivery, a delivery provider's fee applies and "You will also still be charged the Square online processing fee per transaction" (Square: online ordering).

Good for: cafés that want pickup orders from their own customers without a second tablet or a second menu.

Watch for: what the processing rate is for online payments (it usually differs from in-person), and which features need a paid plan.

2. Marketplace apps

DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub list your café in front of people who don't know you yet, and handle delivery. The price is a commission on every order. Our post on what delivery apps really cost has each platform's rates from its own pricing page, the math on a $30 order, and city commission caps.

Some marketplaces also offer ordering for your own website. DoorDash's pricing page says: "Online Ordering orders are commission-free but do carry a payment processing fee" (DoorDash merchant pricing).

Good for: reach, and delivery you don't want to run yourself.

Watch for: the commission on pickup orders too, not just delivery, and whether orders arrive on a separate tablet that someone has to watch.

3. A separate ordering service on your website

There are also ordering services that aren't your POS or a marketplace: you add their ordering page to your website, and they send orders to your POS or a tablet.

Good for: cafés that want more control over the ordering page than their POS offers, or whose POS doesn't include ordering.

Watch for: a real, tested connection to your POS. Without one, someone retypes every order.

Questions to ask before you turn it on

Whichever route you choose, ask:

What does each order cost me for pickup, and for delivery? Ask for the commission, the processing fee and any monthly fee, in writing.
Where do orders show up? On the register, the kitchen printer, a kitchen display, or a separate tablet?
Does the menu sync from my POS? When you 86 the oat milk at the register, does the online menu know?
Can I set prep times and pause orders? A café with one person on the bar at 8 a.m. needs a longer pickup time, or a pause button, during the rush.
Can I limit orders per time slot? Ten online orders landing in the same five minutes will back up the walk-in line.
Who sees the customer's email and phone number? If it's you, you can invite them to your list. If it's the app, you can't.
What happens when my internet is down? Square's support center says that "Depending on the type of disruption, new online orders received through your Square website or ordering platforms, such as UberEats, won't appear in your POS," and that once the disruption is resolved, any order that came in "will appear on your Square device" (Square: Process offline payments). Toast's platform guide says that after an outage "the restaurant receives all online orders sent during the outage" (Toast: Offline mode overview). Know how to pause online ordering before the next outage, so a pile of orders doesn't land at once when the connection comes back.

Running pickup without slowing the counter

Online orders are a second line that moves through the same bar. Plan the pickup flow the way you'd plan the counter:

A pickup shelf away from the register line, so people collecting don't queue behind people ordering. Our post on the morning rush shows how to map the line from the door to the pickup shelf.
Labels with the name and order number on every cup and bag, and a hand-off by order number, not by first name.
One person who owns online orders during the rush, even if it's only for the first hour.
A check against the ticket before an order goes on the shelf. The order-accuracy checklist in the delivery post works for pickup too, and the post on remakes shows how to count the misses.
A rule for orders nobody picks up: how long they wait on the shelf, and what happens to them.

Start small. Turn online ordering on for drinks and a short food list, with a generous pickup time, and widen it once the team has handled a few busy mornings.

Getting the ordering link out

An ordering page only works if people find it.

Google Business Profile: ordering links have their own place on your profile, separate from the menu link. Our Google Business Profile post covers where they go and Google's rule that the menu link can't point straight to a third-party ordering or delivery service.
Apple Maps, Yelp and Bing: see getting listed beyond Google.
Instagram: put the link in your profile, and show the pickup shelf in your posts. See Instagram for a new café.
Your email and text list: a "skip the line" message to people who signed up, sent the way the rules require. See building an email and SMS list legally.
At the counter: a small sign with a QR code by the register reaches the regulars who already wait in line.

Where Mays fits

Mays doesn't take online orders. It runs the shift around them:

A pickup station checklist. Build a checklist template with the setup steps (labels stocked, shelf clear, ordering page open, prep time set for the rush), and give it a Visibility Window so it only shows during the hours it applies. Staff complete it on their phones. See Scheduling and assigning checklists.
Staffing the online rush. With Square or Union POS connected, Insights → Labor Cost compares staffing with sales hour by hour, so you can see whether online orders are piling onto a thin shift. Mays shows what your POS records. It doesn't split sales by ordering channel, so compare channels in your POS or the ordering service's own reports. See Labor cost insights.
Callers who want to order. With the AI phone receptionist add-on, an FAQ like "Can I order ahead?" can speak the answer and text the caller a link, such as your ordering page. The receptionist doesn't take orders itself. See Receptionist FAQs and missed questions.

Your online ordering checklist

Route chosen: POS-built-in, marketplace or separate service, with every fee in writing
Orders arrive where the team already looks, not on an extra tablet nobody watches
Menu and sold-out items sync from the POS
Prep time, pause button and order limits set for the rush
Pickup shelf, labels and hand-off by order number
Someone owns online orders on every shift
Know how to pause ordering during an outage
Link on Google, Instagram, your list and at the counter

Run the shift around your orders

Online orders only work if the team behind the bar is set up for them.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Want help setting up a pickup station checklist? Book a walkthrough.