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Online Ordering

Hi
was wondering if anyone has had experience with online ordering for a food outlet such as a pizza shop.
Have previously used online carts for product purchases but someone told me i should look into using zuppler.com.au but it seems expensive. I have a wordpress site and would like to use a plug in
What would be the advantages of using Zuppler other than having an app option and do you agree this would be the best way to serve an online ordering pizza site?
I looked at the code for crust.com.au and couldnt work out what plug in they were using for their site.
Thanks in advance for your help and assistance
Tim
p.s. hope i have posted in correct area, couldnt find similar thread
 

nt81

Top Contributor
IMO, Build an APP or go home.

It would be very hard to compete with the apps of the major players which work extremely well. Obviously, a website is going to be good, but this is prime App territory you're discussing here.

It would be my first choice, followed by a website that could dove-tail into the database and do the same stuff, quite easily.
 
Thanks for the reply nt81
I dont have any app experience, would it be expensive to have someone build it, should i try Odesk to see if someone can build an app for me, or should it be easy enough for me to do myself?
Thanks in advance
Tim
 

nt81

Top Contributor
I'm a web dev / web admin.

I haven't looked into apps yet, even though I do have a desire to learn Objective C in the future for that exact reason.

An online ordering system could be written pretty quickly in PHP. For me, I consider that kind of stuff basic-intermediate work depending on complexity.

If I were in your shoes, with an actual budget, my options would be

1. Responsive Web Based APP (Website in an APP) which gives you best of both worlds

or

2. Fork out / outsource an App.

My webstats since 2009 have been showing a clear decline in the number of people who could prefer to visit a website, versus those with smartphones who would rather download and use an app (lazy bastards). It's all about instant gratification these days. Thanks to smartphone-weilding Gen Z ;)
 

findtim

Top Contributor
odesk, freelancer, elance are all available to you and I recently asked for quotes on an app on elance.

I got bids of $350 - $8000 ! for the same brief !

I got contacted by an guy in Australia who said he could do it for $600

then there was an ongoing of $49 a month for hosting the app.

I'm not really UP with the lingo on apps so this was my first step forward and I haven't made a decision but thought this knowledge would be good for you.

I contacted one of my trusted freelancers and he said $2000 for my florist shop was about right, not sure of ongoings as I just quickly asked for a "ballpark" $$

tim
 
Thanks for the input
It seems an app would be the go
49 a month seems a bit steep for hosting the app however it is half the price of the zuppler app
PHP could be another option, which i could probably work out with hours of research
Maybe i should consider doing a class or two at uni to learn how to make the app and improve general skills

Personally i order pizza online but too lazy to download the a pp as it works fine from my web browser on my smart phone
Thanks again for the input guys
Tim
 

m8e

Top Contributor
Get someone to develop it using a mobile friendly framework to save time.

Something that has prebuilt libraries and templates that spits out responsive HTML5 + CSS + Javascript

Wrap it in phonegap/cordova so you can add it to the App Store and Play Store

Plus it will work in a web browser as well, so you kill 3 birds with one stone (and two app wrappers)

The $49 a month version is probably just something like BizNessApps, which is essentially the above method.

Not worth it IMO, just host it yourself on your own server.

But yes, the greater costs will be up front for sure, but then the longer you keep running it the cheaper it will get over time (if you host it yourself on existing infrastructure you already have)
 
Thanks M8e thats great advice
Yeah i have plenty of hosting space so i would rather host myself than pay the 50 bucks a month
would you recommend using an online work provider such as odesk or look for a local developer to construct the app?
Thanks again you have all had some great advice
 
Client just got back to me wanting to use my services
just found wppizza plugin looks pretty good and free with some extras you can purchase...I still think an app would be the go but not sure the client would fork out for it as only one store.....after chatting with the client will delve into the wppizza and let you know what its like, but all the reviews are very positive...
 

nt81

Top Contributor
If it is a database driven app, you need to host the database and assets somewhere online :)

Otherwise it would be like hosting a database offline. Kind Redundant :p
 

johno69

Top Contributor
If it's for a small business which I can only assume this is they would again assumably have a website. Could always host such db there. But if that's their way then so be it.
 

nt81

Top Contributor
Another grab for some cash, or somewhere with the correct specs / API already installed most likely.
 
Didnt do the site in the end.
Tried to be honest that it was a difficult one
was going to just use a free ecommerce cart plug in to email
Would also need to record ip i guess to reduce bogus orders for cod.
The hosting of 49/month seems way too much for a small business for the app
im assuming with your own app you could host the db and whatever else is needed on your hosting account for your websites but with an app as mentioned would require using their hosting
 

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