Online shop for sandwich shops: lunch deals and platters for businesses

At lunchtime, everything happens in an hour and a half. The offices empty all at once, the queue stretches out onto the pavement, and the customer who only has a forty-minute break starts eyeing the shop across the road. It isn’t a question of bread, it’s a question of time.

With an online shop, they order at 11 am from their desk and come by to pick up their bag. Here is how 123Ventes answers the questions that come with running a sandwich shop.

Order at 11, eat at noon

The customer chooses their lunch deal on their phone or computer, pays online and comes to collect it. No queue to order, no change to give. You prepare the orders before the rush, instead of doing everything at once.

Delivery apps take a commission on every order. Your shop costs a fixed subscription, and a 6 € sandwich stays a 6 € sandwich.

A menu sorted like your display counter

Sandwiches, wraps, salads, bowls, desserts, drinks: you create your categories just like your shelves. Each product has its photo, its description and its price. Feature the sandwich of the day or the seasonal salad, and it appears at the top.

You only make a limited number of some products? Enter that number in stock: when the last one is ordered, it can no longer be chosen online.

Lunch deals

The lunch deal is the queen of the sandwich shop. It is built with lists of options: the customer chooses their sandwich, then their drink and dessert from the lists provided, and the price of the deal is worked out automatically.

Options also work for the sandwich itself: wholemeal or baguette, “no mayonnaise”, extra cheese for 0.50 €. Every choice is written on the order. See catalogue management.

Platters and orders for businesses

Lunch platters, buffets, assortments for a meeting: these are often the best orders of all. Create them as products, with their options (number of people, vegetarian or not) and a lead time on the product page, for example “order the day before”. The customer knows that twenty platters aren’t made in ten minutes.

Businesses love invoices: one is created as a PDF as soon as the order is paid. They can pay by card or by bank transfer. You can also give a discount to a group of customers, for example the local businesses that order every week.

Takeaway or delivered by you

Two options cover most needs:

• Click and collect: the customer pays online and comes to the counter.
• Your own delivery: you deliver to the offices in your area yourself. You choose the towns you serve, grouped into zones, with a price for each zone.

Delivery can be free above a set amount, with the promotion rules: handy for group orders from a whole department. The details are on the delivery options page.

Open for lunch

You enter your ordering times day by day, for example Monday to Friday from 7 am to 1:30 pm. Outside these hours, customers can look at the menu, but they can’t confirm their order: a message shows them your opening hours.

The shop doesn’t let customers choose a collection or delivery time. They can leave a note with their order: “I’ll come by at 12:15”, or “platters to deliver on Thursday at noon, meeting room on the 3rd floor”. For large orders, a confirmation call is still a good habit.

In the kitchen: alert and order slip

Each new order sets off a sound alert in your dashboard, which works on a phone or tablet. A button prints the order slip in large type, options included, on your computer’s printer. 123Ventes isn’t kitchen software, but the slip sticks very nicely on the bag. See order management.

Allergens, hygiene and regulars

The rules for food businesses apply online just as at the counter: hygiene, price display, and allergen information before purchase. List the allergens in the description of each sandwich and each salad. For the details, check with your local food safety authority (in France, the DDPP of your département), your chamber of trades or your chamber of commerce (in France, the CCI).

A sandwich shop lives on its regulars. The customer file keeps their orders, promotion rules give a free dessert after a certain number of lunch deals, and a newsletter announces the week’s menu. See customer relations.

How much it costs

The subscription costs 29 € a month or 319 € a year, with hosting and the security certificate included. 123Ventes takes no commission on your orders: only your payment provider’s fees apply, about 0.55 € on a 20 € order paid by card. If you would rather stay behind the counter, the turnkey set-up costs 400 €. The details are on the pricing page.

Your questions

Can a business pay by bank transfer?

Yes. Bank transfer is one of the payment methods: the order stays pending until the money arrives, then you mark it as “paid”. For individual lunchtime customers, paying by card is simpler.

Can my customers choose their collection time?

Not with a time slot to tick. They can give the time they would like in the note attached to the order, and you prepare the orders in that sequence.

Can I take orders only at lunchtime?

Yes. You set your time slots day by day. Outside them, the menu stays visible, but orders can’t be confirmed.

How long does it take to put my menu online?

The shop is created in a minute. Allow a few minutes per product, plus the time to create your lunch deals. A menu of twenty products can go online in a morning, before you open.