.webp)
A food ordering website from Castiron is more than a visual representation of your business. It's an online order processing system that enables customers to order food through your website. If you want to sell food, you can build your website with this free online ordering system for small business.
Setting up a food-based online ordering and delivery system is simple if you use online ordering companies specializing in food service. You can typically set up an online ordering system free of charge. However, with other companies, there may be a monthly subscription fee after the initial setup—and a commission on sales.
A free online ordering system for business is an excellent way to start, build, and grow your online food business, but how does it integrate into your website? What about payment processing, delivery, and tracking customer sales and abandoned shopping carts?
Possibly the most critical part of your customer's experience is when they decide to buy the product and make a purchase. Their transaction must be seamless. To that end, a streamlined payment process system is essential if you want your customers to pay you online—regardless of whether it's a free online food ordering system.
Fortunately, there are plenty of choices when it comes to payment processing. PayPal, Square, and Stripe are among the top ten payment processing companies worldwide.
PayPal is a low-volume payment processor, and the company has been around since 1998. They offer budget-friendly prices and operate in over 200 countries in 26 currencies. You can integrate PayPal into your website to process payments and extend credit to customers.
Additionally, customers can log in to their PayPal account via a browser or use the App to make payments.
Stripe is an excellent customizable payment solution that allows you to accept credit card, debit card, and bitcoin payments from over 130 currencies. What's more, there's a flexible billing system with a low-cost card charge. The company offers one of the most complete payment processing systems for online retailers and subscription businesses of all sizes—so it can grow with your company.
When choosing a payment processing system, keep in mind that it involves you and the customer. But the transactions also include the processing company, a payment gateway, the customer's bank or credit card company, and your bank.
To make it all run smoothly, you need a free online ordering system for small business that integrates with your website to keep track of everything. At Castiron, we tailor our platform for kitchen-based creators with an all-in-one shop to sell, manage orders, and communicate with their customers.
Castiron allows you to create free food ordering website integration with Stripe. And we only make money when you make money.
Have you ever wondered how the process works when you use online food ordering near me? An online food ordering app such as GrubHub, Uber Eats, or DoorDash makes ordering food for delivery a breeze. There are also options for setting up a free ordering app for business.
For example, GloriaFood ordering system is similar to GrubHub, allowing you to take free unlimited orders. You can accept online food orders from your Android or iOS smartphone, tablet, or iPad through the company's app for free. They also offer more complex, premium features, including online payments, sales optimized websites, promotions, and branded mobile apps.
Like GrubHub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash, GloriaFood caters to brick-and-mortar restaurants that want to expand their sales online.
In fact, if you're searching for online food ordering websites, you'll see that most market to restaurant delivery services. However, if you're a small home-based business, those kinds of food ordering websites might be overkill. Not only that, the rules are different for cottage food businesses (when you're using your home kitchen).
In general, online food ordering websites don't take those differences into account.
Castiron's platform offers software integration for home-based food entrepreneurs. Our online food ordering system project provides a free food ordering website template that's easy to set up and get started.
Katie Maschoff started her business with Castiron in 2020 when the global pandemic shut down her industry. She had always wanted to create food that makes people smile— and Mill City Cooking Company was born.
She sells cookies, cupcakes, and custom cakes for holidays and special occasions. And she keeps delivery simple with a flat rate for customers that live within 15 miles of her home. Her customers can also pick up their orders.
By comparison, Bento Box offers food ordering websites for restaurants with online ordering and pickup. Like Castiron, customers can showcase their business and share their stories online.
Bento Box and other food ordering websites differ because Castiron's platform is a purpose-built suite of tools, not just a website, that focuses on independent culinary artisans.
Castiron offers so much more than food website templates and themes. The platform provides a free, streamlined, and customizable website builder. It has built-in food-specific product information such as ingredients and allergy disclosures. And there are integrated order and inventory management tools, pickup, delivery, and shipping options, a customer database, and a place to connect with the community.
Kimberly Goethe, from BarCode by Hollywood, says she began growing her email list and communicating with customers even before her store's grand opening. The support team at Castiron was there for her along the way, with plenty of resources to create and build her free food website.
Castiron works to improve how independent kitchen-based creators sell to their customers. Our platform is for culinary artisans like bakers, caterers, juicers, meal-preppers, and private chefs to sell their products online, grow their businesses, and focus on making what they love.
Remember that you also need to market your business to drive customers to the platform where you sell your food products. Your shop should be part of your online presence, not all of it. These days there are many free tools to use that can integrate with an online ordering system.
For example, you can connect your products and services to Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to expand your reach. Turning your personal social media pages into business pages provides free tools to build audience engagement and opportunities for paid advertisements. The best online food delivery website design uses social media integration to drive traffic.
Linking to a blog is also a great way to drive customer engagement by adding content that helps your customers with how-to articles, videos, and more.
When it comes to an online ordering system for business in the cottage cooking market, the platform you choose should help you manage ingredients, food costs, marketing, and more, in addition to tracking sales.
For example, a recipe organizer such as Recipe Keeper, Big Oven, or Paprika helps you stay organized and keep track of ingredients for labeling.
Bookkeeping software and accounting programs are essential to tracking costs and calculating profits for taxes, among other things. Castiron's cottage cooking software integrates bookkeeping and accounting functionality. There's built-in real-time inventory tracking and secure payment processing.
Our goal at Castiron is to provide a platform where you can manage your business in one place. We make it easy to set up your online ordering system with a website interface. You can seamlessly create and manage the details of custom orders, estimates, invoices, and deposits.
Our website and online ordering system integrates:
Castiron also provides automated email, social media, and SEO tools all in one place. Even better? We know that home-based food businesses are unique. Cottage food laws govern what artisans can make and sell from their home kitchens.
The thing is, it can feel overwhelming and a bit lonely to create and manage a business on your own. But our platform is specifically for you— the home-based artisan. We offer resources, a blog, and a community of kitchen-based creators that you can connect and chat with, like a go-to hotline for everything to start and grow a home-based food business.
You can connect with your community to ask questions and find out what you need to know about topics like insurance, regulations, logistics, fulfillment, and shared kitchens. Maybe you're wondering about ingredients or how to price your products and services.
The Kitchen community is there to ask questions and get answers from other home-based cooks. And you can join the community even before you launch your website, so you'll be ready to go when the time is right.
Get started today with your food ordering website from Castiron.
The Cake Whisperer
My business would not be the same without my Castiron website! It is an easy setup with lots of customization and tons of support! I am so glad I set up my shop last year before the holidays — it really helped increase my sales!
The Whimsical Cookie
.webp)
Castiron provides me a professional site to my customers increasing my credibility and value while giving me the tools to effectively market and manage my business in an easy, user-friendly manner.
Wesley's Treats Hallie's Sweets
Castiron has made my cottage bakery shine, and my business easy to manage. As a platform they care about my business as much as I do.
Explore our tools for free during a 14-day free trial. Start building your website, create your custom order forms, even start taking orders and payments... then decide if it’s for you.
Easy to start, created specifically for local, handmade food: Castiron’s website builder was created to help you grow. Create a website in minutes with our templates, sell where and how your customers want to buy, and look professional without being technical. Keep customers coming back with email marketing tools, customer records, and more.
Food entrepreneurs, this is your moment. Your community is more and more conscious about what they buy and where it is from. They want food made with love. With ingredients they can pronounce. And they want to support their community while doing it.
Castiron is the best fit for your food business because we're not a one-size-fits-all tool. Selling local food is different from pre-packaged warehouse products. Whether you sell cooking classes, need local pick up, utilize pre-sales to plan inventory, or need a fully custom order form — we got you.
No code required. Add pages, sell your products, build order forms, and show off your beautiful work. We'll handle the tech so you can focus on growing your food business.
Never track down a payment or oversell products again. Real-time inventory tracking and secure payment processing make life easier for you and your customers, and our order form builder makes managing custom requests a breeze.
With our marketing tools, your email marketing can go on autopilot. We make it easy to promote your latest products, announce custom order availability, and stay connected with customers.
