Online ordering is the way of the future. An orderTalk survey found that 79% of millennial consumers have ordered takeout online, that’s 29% more than Americans age 45+. For restaurants to successfully offer online ordering, however, they need to do it right. The same survey found that 69% of millennials have abandoned a digital order, and the most common reason was that the website or app wasn’t functioning properly.
Your restaurant clients will turn to you for online ordering solutions that help them provide the reliable ordering experiences their customers want. They’ll also rely on your expertise to help them select the solution that allows them to operate most efficiently and profitably.
Finding the optimal solution can be a challenge. How online ordering systems work, the features they offer, and how they’re sold can differ quite a bit. To give you a head start when you evaluate solutions for your clients, we invited online ordering system vendors to share details about their products. The companies that provided information for this product comparison are:
- Globalfood: GloriaFood Online Ordering System
- iMenu360: iMenu360 Online/Mobile Ordering
- LineSkip Inc.: LineSkip
- Olo: Digital Ordering, Delivery Enablement
In the coming months, we’ll be adding additional solutions from vendors that didn’t make the deadline for this first comparison post.
Note: XaaS Journal product comparisons aren’t about rating products or choosing “the best.” And they aren’t paid listings or ratings that some websites publish. Our objective, as always, is to provide VARs and MSPs with unbiased resources to help them make the best decisions for their clients and their businesses.
We also recognize that each business is unique, so different solutions may offer greater value to different clients. We’ve organized information provided by the vendors by features so it will be easier for you to compare and contrast them. For more information provided by the vendors, download our “Overview of Online Ordering Solutions” spreadsheet.
Is the Solution Sold Through the Channel or Sold Direct?
One of the first questions you need to ask is whether you can sell the solution. Online ordering systems vendors can use a range of options to take their products to market, which the companies in our product comparison illustrate:
GloriaFood:
About 50 percent of GloriaFood Online Ordering System sales are through its reseller channel. Partners can either allow GloriaFood to invoice the customer directly or partners can buy from the vendor and bill the client. The latter option allows you to bundle the online ordering system with other services you provide.
iMenu360:
Resellers can pitch iMenu360 to clients and sign them up — iMenu360 does the rest. Resellers receive a monthly residual based on the client’s invoice total.
LineSkip:
LineSkip’s online ordering program is free, but resellers can partner with them and receive residuals for selling the custom app. Resellers may be able to form a partnership to white label LineSkip apps and sell them as their own.
Olo:
Olo’s model is 100 percent direct sales.
POS Integration
Another crucial factor involved in choosing an online ordering system is whether it integrates with the restaurant’s current point of sale (POS) system, which can streamline workflows, saving time and money. POS integrations for the products in our comparison include:
GloriaFood:
GloriaFood has three POS systems that offer well-documented integration with its solution:
iMenu360:
iMenu360 integrates with 18 POS systems listed on its website, including Micros, Toast, Clover, Lavu, Lightspeed, Bepoz, Breadcrumb POS, PAR, and Future POS.
LineSkip:
LineSkip integrates with LineSkip POS but also integrates with Epson, Star and Bixilon printers to avoid the need to integrate with the POS system.
Olo:
Olo lists 16 POS systems on its list of integrations, including Aloha, Micros, NCR Silver, Focus, Positouch, Revel, Toast and Xpient.
Accepting Payment
An online ordering solution also needs to support the types of experiences your restaurant client wants to offer its customers, starting with easy payment transactions, whether online in advance or at the restaurant when they pick up their orders.
GloriaFood:
This system facilitates online payments via online cart connection with merchant account as well as counter payments
iMenu360:
This system allows the restaurant to accept cash or credit cards at the counter and credit cards online
LineSkip:
LineSkip allows consumers to pay via Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, cash, and gift cards, if applicable.
Olo:
Olo enables restaurants to accept credit cards, gift cards, and cash, with options configured by brand
Loyalty and Promotions
Online ordering can provide restaurants with an effective way to engage their customers with promotions and loyalty rewards. The online ordering systems in our comparison include features that help restaurants keep their brands front of mind and encourage sales.
GloriaFood:
GloriaFood has APIs that allow integration with loyalty platforms. Restaurants can also choose to use one of GloriaFood’s loyalty solutions partners. This solution allows you to analyze SEO performance of the top three keyword combinations the restaurant is targeting and monitor metrics including visitors and orderer source. GloriaFood also allows you to integrate ordering with Facebook and Google Business listings.
iMenu360:
iMenu360 includes a number of features that can be utilized for promotion, including a loyalty program, traditional coupons codes, and promos like First Time Online Order Discount and Free Item with Minimum Purchase. Restaurants can also integrate iMenu360 with social media.
LineSkip:
LineSkip includes a free and customizable loyalty program that integrates with LineSkip POS and LineSkip’s CRM. The solution’s analytics tool allows restaurants to run their own ad-hoc reports and review sales and customer analytics. Custom app customers can also take advantage of a free CRM program that allows merchants to run promos and campaigns such as BOGO deals, new app download discounts, and birthday offers. LineSkip also offers a Facebook widget that allows customers to place orders directly from that social media platform.
Olo:
Olo allows restaurants to issue coupons and pull order reporting. Olo also features loyalty and CRM integration.
System Pricing
Initial costs and ongoing charges for your restaurant customer to use an online ordering solution can also vary:
GloriaFood:
The basic system is free. Paid features include online payments ($29/month), a promotions engine ($19/month), sales-optimized website ($9/month), and branded native app ($59/month). Payment processing fees are additional.
iMenu360:
Set up is $99, system is $39.99 per month plus 3 percent of net orders capped at $150 per month. POS integration prices vary depending on the system.
LineSkip:
Web and social media ordering are free. Custom mobile apps are $69/month for a single location with discounts per restaurant for multiple locations — $59/month per restaurant for two to 10 locations and $54/month per restaurant for more than 10 locations. Payment processing fees are additional.
Olo:
Customers pay for the solution delivered through the Software as a Service (SaaS) model and order package to fit their needs and processing requirements.
What Makes Each Online Ordering System Stand Out Among The Competition
In addition to asking vendors for information about specific features of their solutions, we also gave them the opportunity to tell you what makes their products unique:
GloriaFood:
Our advanced promo module is arguably the most powerful module of its kind in this industry. It allows you to set up almost any promo logic you can think of. Two other important features are the table reservation module and the order-ahead mode. And it is good to mention that we also offer advanced auto-printing capabilities with compliant thermal printers coming from Epson or Star.
Currently, there are over 5,000 restaurants actively using our system worldwide. This year we have planned a set of logical mechanism that would allow interested restaurants to leverage even more effective promo deals through proactive outreach to a segmented base of food clients in very targeted ways.
iMenu360:
We offer a “branded” solution that matches the client’s restaurant brand, not ours or a reseller’s. We are NOT a portal — each platform is built specifically for that client and will look like an extension of that client’s website/brand.
We are constantly updating/improving our system. There is no charge for these improvements. We service clients in 45 US states and 9 countries with our extremely robust system with triple redundancy back-up. Our no-contract, quick-to-set-up system is intuitive to use for both customers and clients.
LineSkip:
Our software allows you to set up multiple delivery zones with minimum orders and delivery fees, if the merchant offers delivery. The software also has built-in geofencing for restaurants that only want to receive orders from customers who are near the restaurant.
The Order Queue or POS will also announce when the customer has arrived at the restaurant if the customer is using the LineSkip app or custom app. The arrival notification will announce the customer’s name as well as a button to open the customer’s order.
Our menu management is the most robust online ordering menu setup tool, allowing for unlimited modifications. Merchants can combine items together for specials while the customer will still be able to modify each item as if they were independent items. The menu manager system also allows for time-based menus which merchants can set menus that will only be available during specific hours or days.
The LineSkip system also allows the merchant to charge their own convenience fee (optional), as well as accept future orders, accept tips (when order is placed) and/or tip-adjust when the online order is picked up or delivered.
We are constantly adding new features and improvements which all customers receive free access to.
Olo:
Olo offers the most advanced delivery network on the market with connections to popular delivery providers to allow delivery direct from branded apps and sites (Dispatch) as well as synchronization with third-party channels (Rails). Olo also features permissions-based software that corporate teams can use to configure features to their need.
Final Thoughts
Comparing online ordering systems has revealed that this category of technology contains some of the most diverse approaches to solving a problem for merchants. Although that can make evaluating systems in an apples-to-oranges fashion a little more time-consuming, it can also make it possible to find a solution that meets a restaurant’s unique needs for price range, billing, delivery, and configuration.
If you’d like more information on online ordering solutions or you’d like XaaS Journal to provide additional insights on how providing online ordering solutions can make a positive impact on your business, please reach out. We welcome your feedback. 
