You’ve been pumping out some of the best eats in the city for a while now. Your sales are good, but you feel like they could be even better. Â In today’s world of convenience, you have to go where the customer is… and the customer is on the Internet. You decide to implement an online ordering solution… But you are now faced with getting the web ordering system to play nicely with your POS system. Â Here are three ways that you can get your web ordering to work with your POS system.
- Printer Integration – One of the easiest ways to integrate web ordering is to simply send the order from the web to a printer in your restaurant.  Most all of the web ordering companies offer this service and it puts the online order in the queue with all the other orders in the restaurant.  It is fast, easy, and cost effective.
- Order Interface Only – Another means to integrate web ordering is to have the order entered into the POS queue, but the payment is processed outside of the POS, either in person, or through a third party app. This option helps your restaurant track orders and inventory better than just running orders through your kitchen printers.
- Order, Payment and Integration – This is the holy grail of online ordering. This is what Carl Consumer would hope to see in an online-order system. He can order and pay all from your website.  The payment information is tracked through the POS system at the restaurant.  This takes a bit of coordination with some payment companies, but is definitely worth the additional time to offer your customer the best experience while keeping everything on track in your POS.
The integration to web isn’t as scary as some may think. It really boils down to a matter of determining what your business needs are and then choosing the option that will provide the greatest benefit at a cost that is manageable for your business.
Do you have an integration with your POS system? What option did you choose? Or did you opt for something different? We’d love to know about it. Leave us a comment below!
