Why activate Instagram's Order Food button for your restaurant?

By Ibrahim Zaghw
Order Food Button

Of the different online platforms that link to your Instagram Order Food button, only two will not take any commissions from you in the MENA region: Zyda and Chatfood.

So, for all the Zyda customers out there, every time you serve one of your loyal fans and followers on Instagram, you get to keep all of that hard-earned profit to yourself.

And, why shouldn’t you?

You have put everything you have into your restaurant and have spent God-only-knows how many hours building your followership. You deserve all the rewards that come with that.

But, are you making the most of your Order Food button? Or, can we together find new ways for you to deliver your delicious food to more doorsteps?

What exactly is the Order Food button?

Back in 2020, Instagram wanted to promote restaurants, especially since the world wasn’t dining out as much thanks to the raging pandemic at the time. So, the tech company launched the Order Food button, a direct way for restaurants to direct their followers to their websites or ordering platforms. 

It was also a powerful way for restaurants to boost their sales and fatten their bottom line. 

Better yet, setting up that little button was made easy, which applies doubly to all Zyda customers. 

What makes the Order Food button so powerful?

Today, restaurants enjoy having the Order Food Button right underneath their bio. And, the benefits can really be a game-changer:

With the number of clicks minimized, customers could just whiz from a restaurant’s Instagram profile to their website. 

  1. Restaurants can leverage food order stickers in their stories.

Let’s explore each one of these impactful benefits.

  1. 1. Easing the ordering process

When it comes to digital, you always want to minimize the number of clicks your customer takes to complete a purchase. And, while this is excellent advice for any online business, this is critical for restaurants.

To understand why let’s take a second and see things from the perspective of one of your loyal fans and Instagram followers whom we will call Nahla for the sake of this example.

As Nahla scrolls through her Instagram feed, she is going to come across your posts, filled with beautiful pictures of your mouth-watering dishes. Now, since Nahla is a little hungry (she had a quick breakfast and wants to devour something this very instant), she can’t help but be sold by your photogenic food.

After all, before we pay with our wallets, we must lust with our eyes. 

So, Nahla decides to order from you. 

She clicks on your account, at which point she will be faced with one of two scenarios:

  1. a. She will find a clear button with a clear call to action, bringing her one step closer to satisfying her ravishing hunger.
  2. b. She will find a vague link in your bio that she might not be 100% certain about where it leads. And, this vague link might lead her to another page instead of your website, increasing her number of clicks and widening the chasm between her and your food.  

Which scenario do you think is better?

And, if you think that we are exaggerating, then you might be pleasantly surprised to learn the following:

  • One of our clients was able to 5x their sales thanks to the Order Food button while another almost tripled their sales.
  • When restaurants activated the Order Food button, their number of repeat orders increased, with one restaurant enjoying a 36% boost. 
  1. 2. Using “Order Now” stickers in stories

One of your most effective Instagram tools is your stories. And, your stories can be even more effective if you have your Order Food button set up.

You can now add an “Order Now” sticker to all of your stories.

What does that mean? And, how does that help you?

Let’s go back to our friend Nahla from above and let her help us understand this.

Now, rather than scrolling through her feed, Nahla is watching her stories. She just finished the dish she ordered earlier (the one she ordered from the above example), and she feels like she is in the mood for something sweet to top things off.

As she is flipping through her stories, she stops when she sees a scrumptious-looking chocolate mousse. And, right above the picture of the whipped-cream-topped dessert, she sees a simple sticker saying, “Order it Now.” 

The instant she hits that sticker, she lands on the specific page for that chocolate mousse on the restaurant’s website. 

Now, all Nahla has to do is click “Add to Cart,” and she is good to go.

Talk about minimizing the number of clicks.

So, how can you use order food stickers to help your business?

Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

  • Promote special dishes. These can either be products with phenomenal margins or new releases that you want to push.
  • Encourage your followers to share your stories with others because when they do, your order food sticker will still be active. This means that the order food sticker can bring in sales even from people who aren’t following you!

Putting it all together…

Technology makes our lives easier, just ask Nahla.

And, the restaurants that have leveraged the Order Food button have enjoyed massive gains. A case in point is how Nola was able to dominate Ramadan in 2022 and more than double their sales compared to the previous year’s Ramadan.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get your Instagram Order Food button now.