Online Menu ordering for takeout and delivery questions for Restuarant owners/managers.
 

Hi all,

I'm in the middle of developing a website for my local city. The
website will provide local menus for all (hopefully) local restaurants
from which visitors of my website can place their orders online without
having to call the restaurant itself. I will be actively marketing my
website on local newspapers, radio, flyers and other popular local
websites.

This is the order cycle I have currently targeted:

1. Visitor browses my website for his/her interests.
2. They choose Restaurant "A" and choose to order lunch baskets 1 and 2
from the online menu of that restaurant that I provide.

***Question 1*** Checkout
I have two scenarios that I am undecided about.
~Scenario 1~
After the order is placed, a "fax order" gets sent to the individual
Restaurant. From there, the restaurant has to call back the customer
to verify that it is indeed a "real" order. If so, the restaurant
fills the order and they get paid directly from the customer.
---Pros--- The restaurant gets paid immediately.
---Cons-- The restaurant has to make sure someone is checking the fax
machine. The fax machine might not be located in a place where regular
employees have access to. The restaurant has to also make an "extra"
call to verify that the order is not bogus.

~Scenario 2~
After the order is placed, the customer has to pay on the my website.
Once payment is made, a fax will be sent to the Restaurant notifying
them of the order. No verification is needed since the Credit Card
transaction assumes a "real" order.
---Pros--- The restaurant does not have to deal with making an "extra"
call to verify orders since they might be very busy.
---Cons-- The restaurant will still have to deal with locating the fax
orders. The restaurant will not get paid "right away" since my website
is the point of sale. Payment to the restuarant will be made monthly.
Also, I now have to create a merchant account (eats up profit) for the
web transaction.

Which scenario do you think works best? 1, 2, or combination?
What commission of each sale I direct to the restaurant is reasonable?
Please consider merchant account fees, fax fees, and other costs
related to operating the website. I am considering 7% commission fees
on all transactions made through my website. Is that too low? Too
high? Please discuss.

Also, as a restuarant owner, would you consider signing up with me?
What are some questions that you might have? Expectations?
Guarantees?

For the first 3 months, to get restaurant owners on board, I will have
a sign-up special where the Commission rate is reduced to 3% which will
rise back to the normal 7% after the introductory 3 months is up.

Last question. What is the best way to contact potential restaurants?
Face to face? If so, do I as for the Store Manager or the Owner? Mass
personalized mailings? If so, do I direct the letter to the Store
Manager or the Owner? Who usually makes these sort of decisions?

Hopefully you restaurant guru's can help me out. I feel this website
can really benefit everyone. Thanks in advance for your input.