Has your restaurant moved to online ordering? These 5 plugins can take your WordPress restaurant to the next level. Here are some tools you can add to your restaurant WordPress site to improve the online experience in 2024
Following 2021, many restaurants switched to online ordering due to the coronavirus pandemic, which closed physical businesses around the world. Sit down dining was impossible for a few months, and the only option for restaurants was to offer online ordering and curbside pickup or delivery.
Businesses that already had an online presence or food delivery services were able to adapt to the changes quicker, just expanding services that they already had in place. However, some restaurants were caught unprepared or were geared towards a fine dining experience.
When a restaurant implements a food delivery service or uses a food delivery application to reach more customers, there are usually large fees associated with using the service, which cuts into business profits and can be a turn off for the customer.
The following WordPress plugins can help in creating online ordering through WordPress much more user-friendly, secure, and keep customers up to date on sales or menu changes.
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1) Locations Manager + Business Hours Add-On
The Locations Manager Business Hours Add-On for WordPress by CreativeMinds is a great add-on that allows owners to post their daily business hours easily for customers to see. The add-on is $29 for one website and $59 for up to five websites. The prerequisite plugin is the Locations Manager plugin.
One unique feature of this add-on is that admin can display an “Open Now” status when the business appears in search results, and the business hours will be matched to the customer’s time zone.
Times can be displayed in the standard form like “09:00 AM” or in a custom form like “22h” or “4PM”. Also, the display can be fully customized in size, theme, and color. In addition, days of the week can be translated into several other languages.
2) OnBoarding
The OnBoarding and Site Tour Widget plugin for WordPress by CreativeMinds is a helpful tutorial plugin that offers a guided tour of a website to improve the overall user experience and support training.
This plugin is $29 for one website and $59 for up to five websites, with a full year of support and updates. The plugin will guide new users through your website, through each section, and explain how to use each section, get support to find helpful information.
Admin can add sections with text, images, videos, links, and full customization options. Just choose the webpages to include in the tutorial, and there is a help icon if users need to interact with support staff. It’s easy to create different guides for different menus or delivery options.
3) WordPress Force SSL
The WordPress Force HTTP to HTTPS SSL plugin by CreativeMinds is a plugin that automatically redirects from HTTP to HTTPS and enables a SSL communication for added security.
This plugin is $29 for two websites and $59 for up to five websites. Also, the plugin adds a redirect notice when it creates the HTTPS redirection, so there are no broken links and your webpage can be found when HTTP or HTTPS is typed in.
This secure plugin comes with a free SSL certificate and there is a dashboard showing the SSL status of your website, so you can check if there is a secure encryption connection. Other features include a built-in scanner to search and fix all unsecured content, automatic detection of your SSL status, URL filters, and more.
4) Booking Calendar
A slightly different purpose: reservation. The Booking Calendar plugin allows you to set different calendars with multiple spots. It’s perfect for making table or rooms reservations.
As an example, you can add the calendar “Reserved tables” and set 1-hour slots with five openings each from Monday to Friday during business hours. Customers can then request bookings and ask questions in the booking page.
The restaurant owner can then approve each booking and manage all reservations from a single dashboard.
It comes with a full year of support and updates.
5) Pop-Up Banners Plugin
The Pop-Up Banners plugin for WordPress by CreativeMinds allows users to add responsive popup banners to your website that include custom messages that have images, videos, text, and more. The plugin is $29 for two websites and $59 for up to five websites.
Some features of this plugin include creating multiple campaigns and then allowing those campaigns to be restricted by date, logged-in users or a website leave intent. Easily choose where restaurant updates will be placed, across the top of the page or on individual posts and pages.
It’s easy to create sale banners, Coronavirus/COVID-19 announcements, EU cookie notices, slide-in, and much more. The pop-up builder includes various pop-up components and features for creating versatile and highly converting pop-ups. Use the plugin to promote sales, email lists, events, and more.
Conclusion
In conclusion, restaurants have had to adapt quickly to major changes in a short period of time. Moving food ordering online can be a daunting process, but the plugins in this list all have the ability to make that process go smoother.
The Locations Manager Business Hours add-on is a great and simple way to easily let customers know the operating hours of the business. In addition, the search results for the business will display hours based on customer time zone.
The OnBoarding plugin is a helpful tutorial of a website, so customers can easily find all the relevant content and menu items that they are looking for without searching around for it. This also cuts down on the time spent ordering online as well.
The Force SSL plugin is a great tool to keep your website secure. With online ordering, it’s important that customers be able to pay for orders online and not worry about their information being stolen or compromised. This plugin improves secure connections between websites.
In addition, the pop-up plugin is a great way to display news, alerts, menu changes, price changes, and more on a website for customers to see. All of these plugins provide helpful features to online ordering and they are user-friendly and affordable.
