Industries · Food & beverage
Online ordering and QR menus built for café flow.
Pre-order pickup via WhatsApp before the morning rush. QR code dine-in so the barista isn't taking orders. Loyalty points so the daily flat-white customer earns toward a free one. Built for the way modern cafés actually run.
Where café operations get squeezed
Five frictions cafés hit between the espresso machine and the till.
Morning rush bottleneck at the till
Queue snakes out the door; the barista takes orders AND makes drinks; service slows; impatient customers leave. There's no way to take orders ahead — phone is too slow, and you don't want to set up a separate app.
Regulars who deserve loyalty without a punch-card
The same five customers come every morning. You know their drink. They deserve a "10th coffee free" — but a paper punch-card is fiddly and a separate loyalty app is overkill.
Limited weekend bakes that sell out by 11am
You make 30 cinnamon rolls Saturday morning. By 10am they're gone. By 10:30 a customer walks in expecting one based on Instagram. They leave annoyed.
Seasonal menus that need to come and go
Christmas peppermint mocha. Hari Raya kuih boxes. Mooncake season. Every time you launch one you're manually adding/removing items, fixing your printed menu, training staff again.
Dine-in service vs. takeaway with the same staff
You have 2 baristas. One making, one calling out orders. Adding a third "take orders from tables" person isn't economical. Self-service via QR menu would help — but your current POS doesn't do QR.
How WhatsMenu fits a café
Each friction maps to a feature you turn on when needed.
Scheduled availability handles seasonal and time-of-day items
Christmas peppermint mocha shows from Dec 1 to Dec 26 only. Pumpkin spice latte returns automatically each October. Breakfast pastries hidden after 11am. No manual updates each season — set once, it runs.
Learn more →Daily limit caps the limited-batch bakes
Cap total items at, say, 200 on Saturdays so you never oversell what the kitchen and counter can produce — Daily Limit lets you set per-weekday and date-specific caps. Once Saturday hits its ceiling, the storefront and dine-in QR both stop accepting new orders for that day. For caps on one specific bake (say, 30 cinnamon rolls), use Stock Management on that item with the qty reset each morning.
Learn more →Loyalty points without a card
Customers earn 1 point per RM spent; 100 points = a free flat white. Their balance shows when they next order. No plastic, no separate app — just the same storefront.
Learn more →QR code menu lets dine-in customers self-order
Print a QR per table. Customers scan, order from their phone, your barista just makes drinks. Faster service, freed-up staff, no extra hire.
Learn more →Bar tickets in a format you design
Design a bar ticket layout in Order Print — 58mm or 80mm paper, items, modifiers, table number, channel. Print to the thermal printer behind the bar through any browser, or add Print Node for auto-print on every new order. Self-served QR, online pre-orders, and WhatsApp orders all render with the same template, so the barista works one consistent queue.
Learn more →How a café uses WhatsMenu in a typical week
Friday 7am, the breakfast pastries menu auto-shows. By 9:15 the limited-batch chocolate croissants hit their cap and the storefront flips to "fully booked." A regular has been WhatsApp pre-ordering her usual oat-flat-white for pickup at 8:30 every weekday — she earns enough points by week 4 for a free Saturday morning treat. At 11am pastries auto-hide; lunch sandwiches show. Saturday morning the shop fills up — table 3 scans the QR, orders 2 lattes and a brownie via their own phone; the barista sees the print, makes them, calls the order. At 12 noon a tour group of 8 walks in; every table self-orders via QR; 8 minutes later all 8 drinks are out without a queue at the till.
- 7am: breakfast pastries menu auto-shows. Scheduled Availability flips today's pastries category on without anyone touching the menu.
- 9:15am: limited-batch items hit their cap. Stock Management has 30 chocolate croissants for the day. Once the qty hits zero the item shows "sold out" — no overpromising on Instagram or at the till.
- Daily WhatsApp pre-orders from regulars. A regular sends a share-cart link for her usual oat-flat-white, picks up at 8:30. Same dashboard, no double entry. By week 4 she's earned enough loyalty points for a free weekend treat.
- 11am: pastries hide, lunch sandwiches reveal. Scheduled Availability swaps the breakfast menu for lunch automatically. Customers don't order breakfast at noon and walk away disappointed.
- Saturday: QR table ordering keeps the bar moving. Table 3 scans the QR, orders 2 lattes and a brownie from their phone. The barista sees the kitchen print and makes them — no order-taking at the bar, no queue at the till.
- Noon: 8-person tour group, zero queue. Every table at the group self-orders via QR. 8 minutes later all 8 drinks are out — one barista, no till queue, no shouting orders across the counter.
WhatsMenu vs GrabFood / Foodpanda / ShopeeFood for cafés
Many cafés list on the marketplaces for delivery exposure, then watch margins disappear on the regulars who would have walked in anyway. Side-by-side on the things that affect a café's P&L.
| What you get | Marketplaces (GrabFood, Foodpanda, ShopeeFood) | WhatsMenu |
|---|---|---|
| Per-order commission | 25–30% on every delivery | None. Flat monthly subscription, your gateway's fee only (~2.9%). |
| Customer relationship | Marketplace owns it. The regular who orders a flat-white every morning stays the marketplace's customer. | Yours. Phone, name, and order history of your regulars live in your dashboard. |
| In-store / dine-in / pre-order pickup | Delivery only — pickup and dine-in are off-platform. | QR ordering for tables, WhatsApp pre-order for pickup, takeaway, and delivery — all from one menu. |
| Loyalty for regulars | Marketplace-wide promos (everyone gets the same). | Per-storefront points. The daily oat-flat-white drinker actually earns toward a free one. |
| Daily limits on small-batch bakes | No native cap; you have to remove items manually when they sell out. | Stock Management auto-hides "sold out" items; Daily Limit caps total orders per day. |
| Branding on the customer's screen | Marketplace branding; your café is one card in a long list. | Your subdomain, your logo, your colours, your story. |
| Best when | You need delivery reach for new customers in your zone. | You want regulars, in-store QR orders, and pre-order pickup to stop leaking through marketplaces. |
Most cafés run both. Use marketplaces to reach new customers; use WhatsMenu to keep the regulars from being taxed 25–30% every morning.
Recommended setup
Modes to enable
Features to enable
Frequently asked questions
Can customers pre-order coffee via WhatsApp before they arrive?
Yes. Share your storefront link in WhatsApp Business; customers tap, build a cart, and the order arrives in your WhatsApp inbox as a structured message. They walk in, you hand them their pre-made flat white. Solves the morning bottleneck without an app.
How does loyalty points work — do I need to buy hardware?
No hardware. Loyalty runs on the storefront — customers earn points on each paid order automatically. Set per-category earn rates under Loyalty > Points (e.g. 100% on drinks, 50% on food); build the rewards customers can spend points on under Loyalty > Rewards (e.g. "RM 5 off — 100 points"). Each redemption hands the customer a single-use coupon they apply at checkout. They see their balance whenever they sign in.
Can I limit how many of a popular item we make per day?
Yes — Daily Limit caps total orders and total items per day at the company level (with per-weekday and per-date overrides). For caps on one specific bake (e.g. 30 cinnamon rolls), use Stock Management on the cinnamon-roll item with the qty reset each morning; the item shows "sold out" once the count hits zero.
Does WhatsMenu support seasonal menus that come and go?
Yes. Scheduled Availability lets you set start/end dates per item or category. Christmas drinks show Dec 1–Dec 26; mooncake boxes show late August through October. Set once, runs automatically — no manual on/off each season.
Can my QR-ordering customers pay at the counter instead of online?
Yes. Configure pay-at-counter as the default checkout option for QR orders. The order prints to the bar; customers settle the bill on exit. Many cafés prefer this — keeps the order flow fast without a payment step.
How does pricing work for a café using WhatsMenu?
Flat monthly subscription, no per-order fee. Payment gateway fee only (e.g. Stripe ~2.9%) when customers pay online. Cheaper than running a separate POS + loyalty app + ordering app.
Other industries that fit
Restaurants
WhatsMenu runs the order-taking side of your restaurant — dine-in via QR code, takeaway and delivery online, W...
Learn more →Bakeries
Customers pre-order tomorrow's sourdough on Friday night. A birthday cake order with the message "Happy 30th,...
Learn more →Bars
Customers scan the QR at their booth and order another round from their phone. Happy hour prices auto-flip on...
Learn more →Take orders ahead of the rush.
QR menu, WhatsApp pre-orders, loyalty, daily limits — all in one platform.
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