A restaurant that takes orders through a delivery app hands over 25–30% of every order, and along with it the customer's name, their address and their order history. On a busy month that is somebody's wage.
An ordering system on your own site changes the arithmetic. The customer orders from you, pays you, and is your customer afterwards. The platforms are still worth being on for reach, but they should not be the only way to buy from you.
The half a customer sees is a menu and a checkout, and any agency can build that. The half that is worth paying for is the one the owner uses during service: orders landing mid-shift, the menu, the hours, the delivery map, the bookings, and what actually sold last month. There is a working demonstration of exactly that below, and you can sign in and try all of it yourself.
What the owner runs
Orders during service
A new order alarms on the counter tablet, keeps the screen awake, and cannot be dismissed without a decision, because an order nobody noticed is a customer charged for food that was never cooked.
The menu, yours to change
Add a dish, change a price, mark something sold out at seven on a Friday. Priced options too: prawn adds $3, a fried egg adds $2. The total is always added up on your side, never on the customer's phone, so nobody can change a price before they pay.
Hours and one-off closures
Opening hours per day, plus the specific dates you are closing. Closing next Sunday is a form you fill in, not a phone call to a developer.
Delivery areas and fees
Which suburbs you deliver to, what each one costs, and the minimum order for each, matched against the address the customer actually picked, so a quote is never a guess.
Table bookings in one place
Bookings taken online and bookings taken over the phone on the same sheet, so what is in front of the host is the whole room rather than the half that came through the website.
What sold, and when
Revenue and order counts over any dates you ask for, your top dishes, and a spreadsheet you can download for the accountant.
What it costs
Most studios want $5,000 to $15,000 before they start. I don't.
A custom-built website, hosted, looked after and kept working, for one monthly fee, with nothing to pay upfront.
Starter
from$249a month NZD + GST
under $60 a week
A site that explains your business and brings you enquiries.
A custom-built site, written for your business, usually five to eight pages
Hosting, your web address and the padlock in the address bar, all set up
Built for a phone first, because that is where your visitors are
An enquiry form that comes straight to you
Google Business Profile set up, so you turn up in the map results
Hours, prices, photos and anything else that changes, edited by you, from a phone
Up to ten content changes a month, done by me
Professional
from$449a month NZD + GST
under $110 a week
A site that runs part of your business.
Everything in Starter
An ordering or booking system on your own site, with no commission on anything
Unlimited content changes done by me: text, images, new sections, layout
Ongoing search work: the site tuned for what people near you type into Google
Your Google Business Profile looked after, not just set up
A short note each month on who visited and what they did
First in the queue when you need something
Nearly everyone pays exactly the figure above. "From" is there for the rare site that is genuinely bigger than the plan: a second language, a dozen extra pages, a second system. You'd know that in our first conversation, before anything is built.
No contract. Cancel any month. You stay because the site is working, not because you're locked in.
You pay nothing while the site is being built. The first payment is on the day it goes live, and each payment covers the month ahead, the same way Netflix or Spotify bills you.
After twelve months on a plan, the site itself is yours to take anywhere. Your words, photographs and customers' details are yours from day one.
Which one is yours depends on whether the site needs to do something, like take an order or hold a booking, or simply explain something. Most businesses know which they are. If you don't, that's the first thing we'd talk about.
You see a first version within two working days. The free mockup is exactly that. Most sites are live in around three to five weeks. Ordering, booking, anything that does more than show information takes longer, and I'll tell you which one yours is after our first conversation.
You need it live next week. Good work takes the time it takes, and I would rather say no than hand you something rushed with your name on it.
You want to pay once and never think about it again. This works because the site keeps being looked after. If you'd rather own a finished thing outright from day one, an agency is the better fit.
You would rather hand over a brief and not think about it again. This works because we talk, and if that sounds like overhead we will both find it frustrating.
See it working
Not a mockup and not a list of logos. The systems described above, running, and open for you to try.
The person who answers the phone is the person who builds the site.
Nothing is relayed, nothing is handed down to somebody you have not met, and there is no second person to re-explain your business to a fortnight later.
I've been building websites since my second-to-last year of high school, through three years of university and two in a corporate web team. Nuri Studio is the first time the name on the door is mine.
I work from Christchurch, in English and Korean, and almost entirely online. A video call to start, then email and messages while it's built, so where you are has never changed how it goes.
A small studio, one pair of hands, working directly with the person whose name is on the door.
Questions
Do I have to leave Uber Eats or DoorDash?
No, and you probably should not. They bring reach you would not otherwise get. The point is to stop them being the only way to order from you, so the customers who already know you can buy direct at full margin.
Can I try it before enquiring?
Yes. The demonstration above signs you in as the manager in one click. Change the menu, reject an order, close next Sunday. It is a made-up restaurant with made-up orders, and it resets itself every night.
What about payments?
Card payments are taken on your site and the money goes into your bank account. The total is always added up on your side, not on the customer's phone, so nobody can change a price before they pay.
We take most orders by phone. Is this still worth it?
The bookings screen exists for exactly that reason: phone bookings and online bookings live on the same sheet. A system that only knows about half your business is worse than no system.
