Cafés and bakeries.
The counter, the pre-orders and the regulars.

A café is not a small restaurant. The money is in the morning rush, the regulars and the pre-orders, and the system has to make all three faster rather than adding a screen for somebody to learn.

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Where the time and the money actually are

The morning rush

Order ahead for collection at a stated minute, paid for in advance, so the queue at eight o’clock is people picking things up rather than deciding. This is the single biggest difference a system makes to a café.

Pre-orders with a lead time per item

A sandwich platter needs a day, a celebration cake needs a week, a coffee needs four minutes. A single site-wide notice period is wrong for all three, so lead time belongs on the item.

Celebration cakes, which are a different product entirely

Size, flavour, filling, writing on the cake, a photograph to copy, a collection date and a deposit. It is a short form rather than a basket, and treating it like a basket is how bakeries end up taking cake orders on Instagram DMs forever.

The regulars

A stamp card that lives in Apple Wallet, earned at the counter and online, is worth more to a café than any discount code. It appears on the lock screen near the shop, which a paper card cannot do.

What we build into a café or bakery site

A menu that changes daily without a developer

Today’s specials, the soup, sold-out items. If changing it needs us, it will not get changed.

Live open status and a map

The two things people check before walking over. Hours that are actually true, including the bank holiday somebody will forget.

Allergen information per item

And a clear line about what is prepacked for direct sale and what is made to order, because the labelling rules differ between them.

Wholesale and trade orders, separately

If you supply offices, other cafés or farm shops, trade pricing and a pro-forma route belong behind their own login rather than mixed into the public shop.

The mistakes we have watched happen

Building a full e-commerce store for a café

Most cafés need collection and pre-orders, not a basket with national delivery. The smaller build is right more often than anyone expects.

Photographing food badly

A café sells on how the food looks. One decent shoot outperforms every feature on the site, and no amount of design rescues grey photographs taken at nine at night.

Hiding the collection time

If the customer cannot see when their order will be ready before they pay, they ring up to ask, and the system has cost you a phone call rather than saved one.

The labelling rules a café or bakery cannot avoid

This is the one trade on this list where the labelling rules land squarely on the counter rather than at the edges, so it is worth being precise about what they say.

PPDS has applied since 1 October 2021. Under the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019, SI 2019/1218 - Natasha’s Law - food packed before the customer orders it, at the place it is sold, must carry the name of the food and a full ingredients list.
The 14 allergens have to be emphasised. Within that ingredients list, the regulated allergens must stand out: bold, capitals, underlining or a contrasting colour. The emphasis is part of the requirement, not a design preference.
It is the wrapped shelf, not the whole menu. The sandwiches made up at eight and sitting in the chiller are PPDS. The toastie made when somebody orders it is not. The same kitchen is usually doing both, which is why a single blanket policy tends to be wrong in one direction or the other.
A PDF is where this goes wrong. Allergen data has to live per item, in the same place as the recipe and the price, or it drifts out of date the first time a supplier changes. Fourteen allergens across sixty items is a data problem, and it is a data problem that an inspector will ask about.

Sources, checked 26 October 2026

Food Standards Agency, Labelling guidance for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food products
legislation.gov.uk, The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019, SI 2019/1218
Food Standards Agency, Allergen guidance for food businesses: providing allergen information and handling allergens

Questions

Before you ask.

Can customers order cakes with a photo of what they want?

Yes. A cake order is a short form with size, flavour, filling, inscription, an upload and a collection date, usually with a deposit. It is deliberately not a shopping basket.

Can we take deposits rather than full payment?

Yes, for anything made to order. The terms have to be stated plainly at the point of ordering and in the confirmation, or a surprise charge becomes a card dispute you will lose.

Do you do loyalty stamp cards?

Yes, as a real Apple Wallet pass that updates after each stamp rather than a picture of a card. It can be stamped at the counter and earned online.

Can the menu change daily?

That is the point. Specials, sold-out items and prices are yours to change in seconds, from a phone, without involving us.

Ready to get started?

Tell us what you need. We will scope it, price it and build it.

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Cafés and bakeries.The counter, the pre-orders and the regulars.