As a restaurant manager, your ultimate goal is to get as many orders as possible.

To make that happen, you need a reliable platform connecting you with millions of potential customers.

That’s where Bolt Food comes in.

But as you consider joining Bolt Food, you may have some questions about the process. How does it all work? And more importantly, how can it benefit your restaurant?

This blog post will give you a step-by-step overview of how Bolt Food works for restaurants — from signing up to managing your menu.

And by the end of this article, you’ll clearly understand how Bolt Food can help your restaurant reach new customers and increase revenue.

Jump straight to the section most relevant to you:

What is Bolt Food?

At its core, Bolt Food is a delivery platform connecting hungry customers with delicious restaurant food.

Think of Bolt Food as a digital marketplace that helps restaurants take their online presence to the next level.

You’re not just signing up for a delivery service by joining our platform. You’re putting your restaurant in front of millions of hungry customers who otherwise might not discover you.

And as Bolt Food is a part of Bolt, a super-app that includes ride-hailing and micromobility services, you get access to a broader range of customers.

Onboarding

Bolt Food’s onboarding process is simple and streamlined, designed to get your restaurant up and running on our platform as quickly as possible. It takes just 3 simple steps.

Sign-up;
Profile and menu creation;
Device setup.

Signing up with Bolt Food

Signing up with Bolt Food is the first step in taking your restaurant to new heights.

It’s also one of the most exciting steps as you’re about to enter a new world of online food delivery and reach a whole new audience of customers.

So, what’s the process for restaurants to sign up for Bolt Food? It’s simple! Just head over to our website and fill out a quick form.

Once you submit the form, our team will analyse it and then get in touch with you to finalise the signup process and onboard you to our platform.

We understand your time is precious, so we’ve streamlined the sign-up process to be as quick and smooth as possible.

And don’t forget that we welcome all types of businesses, regardless of their size or the type of cuisine they serve.

Once we agree on everything, we move on to the next step — menu creation.

You first need to send us the profile name of your restaurant. If you have multiple chains, adding street names to the restaurant name can help customers find you more easily.

Once we’ve sorted that out, it’s time to send us your menu and photos of your delicious food.

We can then create a complete profile that showcases your restaurant’s offerings to customers.

The process is easy, but there’s one crucial thing to remember.

As the saying goes, first impressions count — and your menu is the first and foremost thing your customer sees when clicking through to your restaurant.

This is an important step because you’re showcasing your food to millions of potential customers on our platform.

We recommend the restaurant sends high-quality photos and well-structured menus with easily understandable and catchy descriptions.

Based on what we’ve seen from other restaurants, appetising images and well-written descriptions increase sales and help customers make purchasing decisions more quickly.

We offer guidelines to ensure you get the best of your menu and pictures and appeal to as many customers as possible.

Our guidelines cover everything from descriptions to tips on photographing your dishes.

Device

To receive orders through Bolt Food, you’ll need a device with the Bolt Food app installed. To ensure everything runs smoothly, we suggest using a device other than your phone for the best performance.

If you don’t have a suitable device, don’t worry — Bolt Food can provide one (at an additional cost), ensuring you’ll have everything you’ll need to get started.

Just let our sales team know you need a device, and we’ll ensure it’s with you in no time.

Alternatively, if you already have a POS system, you can integrate it with Bolt Food. We’re constantly adding new POS integrations to expand our compatibility.

Order handling

Receiving orders

handling orders with Bolt Food

The process all starts when customers place their orders through the app. They provide personal information, payment information, and delivery instructions.

They can also leave a comment for the restaurant regarding the food, cutlery, napkins, or other details (e.g. “No mushrooms, please!) that you can see once you receive the order.

Following the customer’s order, you’ll receive a notification on your device, allowing you to accept the order within 5 minutes.

After accepting the request, you prepare the order and await pickup.

Delivering orders

Delivering orders

Your delicious food is ready, filling the room with its enticing aroma, waiting to be picked up. But who’ll do it?

Well, that’s up to both you and the customer. Let us explain.

Restaurants can choose whether to offer their customers pickup, delivery or both.

And customers, from their side, have the flexibility to choose whichever available option they find more comfortable.

If a customer decides they want their order delivered, Bolt Food automatically assigns a courier to the restaurant as soon as the order is prepared.

Once a courier accepts the request, they collect the order from your restaurant and deliver it to the customer.

As a restaurant, you can access the administrator panel, where you can see the estimated arrival time for each order.

On the customer side, they can track the courier’s real-time location and estimated delivery time through the Bolt Food app.

This way, the restaurant and the customer stay updated on the order’s progress.

Bolt Food ‘Partner Portal’

Let’s explore the magic behind the Bolt Food Partner Portal — a powerful platform designed to help restaurants grow their online presence, attract new customers, and increase their sales.

What is Bolt Food’s Partner Portal?

The Partner Portal is an exclusive online space designed for Bolt Food’s partner restaurants. It provides increased control over stores and full visibility of their operations.

Through the portal, you can easily track orders, manage menus, and monitor real-time performance, giving you the power to make informed decisions to optimise your business.

Managing your restaurant

Managing restaurant with Bolt Food

The Partner Portal puts the power in your hands, allowing you to manage your restaurant’s visibility and operations all in one convenient place. You can set and adjust so much within it, too, including:

Restaurant availability — Set your operating hours, so your customers know exactly when they can expect you to be open.
Product availability — Manage product availability by setting the status to “available”, “sold out”, or even hiding items from the menu.
Menu creation and editing — Create, edit, and translate your menu into different languages, and even restore previous versions if needed.

Optimising your offer

The Partner Portal also provides access to powerful analytics that allow restaurants to monitor and optimise sales.

Through these analytics, restaurants can track important metrics such as:

Unique users: The number of new customers who have made their first order at your restaurant in the past week.
Average order value: How much customers spend on average before any discounts.
Revenue: The total value of all orders, including VAT and excluding the delivery fee.
Conversion: The percentage of customers who placed an order after viewing your restaurant profile on the app.

With access to this information, restaurants can optimise their menus, pricing, and promotions to increase sales and improve customer satisfaction.

Marketing your restaurant

The Partner Portal also offers an effective marketing tool that helps enhance your online presence to attract new and returning customers.

With our commitment to continuously develop tools, we’re currently testing revamped portal promotions with selected partners to improve the user experience further.

This update makes it easier than ever for our partners to navigate and choose the most suitable promotion.

In the Promotions tab, you’ll soon find pre-created recommendations tailored to your specific needs based on your past performance, and compared to how other Bolt Food partners have performed with similar promotions.

These recommendations also enable you to aim towards different objectives:

Growing your sales.
Attracting new customers.
Retaining your loyal customer base.
Winning back churned users.

Three main promotion types are available in the Partner Portal:

Menu-wide discount: A percentage discount on all menu items to increase sales and reach both repeat and new customers.
Selected items discount: A promotion that allows you to discount specific items from your menu, rather than applying a discount to the entire menu.
New customer discount: This promotion type offers a percentage discount on all menu items for users who have not ordered from the restaurant in the past 360 days or ever before. The promotion is designed to attract new, unique customers.
Free delivery discount: Discount on the delivery fee for all (or new) customers, making it more enticing for them to order.

Depending on the business needs, these promotion types are easy to set up and update.

Based on average data globally, restaurant partners participating in our marketing campaigns experience a 30%–100% surge in sales.

The exact increase depends on factors such as the type of offer (e.g. free delivery or a menu discount), the amount of the discount, and if the promotion is aimed at new or all customers.

We’ve found that offering free delivery to new customers can be a cost-effective way to generate, on average, a 30% increase in sales, while offering discounts on the menu to all customers can potentially lead to a 100% increase but can be more expensive.

In addition, the Partner Portal now also offers valuable insights into your promotional campaigns. Before launching a campaign, you’ll have an understanding of the projected expenses and estimated outcomes for each campaign.

Benefits of partnering with Bolt Food

Apart from the features mentioned above, partnering with Bolt Food has many extra benefits:

Business growth assistance

Our account management team provides personalised support to our top-performing restaurants. We identify new opportunities to grow orders and revenue by analysing in-app performance and market-specific behaviours. Our thorough business reviews and regular expertise sharing keep our partners up-to-date with the latest insights and recommendations.

Expanded customer base

As we always cross-promote our products, joining the Bolt Food app means you’ll reach more than Bolt Food’s delivery customers; you’ll potentially attract new ones too from our other products, such as ride-hailing and micromobility.

We provide ready-to-use design templates to help you promote your restaurant on multiple online channels. We may also feature top-performing restaurants in our social media campaigns, increasing their visibility and reach.

Increased visibility

Restaurants can be featured in different categories on our app’s homepage, earning them thousands of daily views. We also regularly send our customers emails and push notifications about special events and discounts, ensuring your restaurant is always on their radar.

In-app customer support

Our Partner Portal includes a convenient in-app customer support feature, where real humans are available to help with any questions about orders, menu changes, or other enquiries.

Awards and special mentions

We hold annual awards for the best restaurants in each city, showcasing our top-performing partners in various categories. In addition, we may occasionally organise themed weeks, such as ‘Sushi Week’, or feature specific restaurants and give them special recognition.

Join Bolt Food today and grow your restaurant business

Now that you’re familiar with the Bolt Food partner program and its benefits, it’s time to take the next step and become a part of our network.

Signing up takes fewer than 2 minutes, and we’ll guide you through every step. Join the Bolt Food partner network now and unleash your restaurant’s untapped potential!

Bolt Food for restaurants: a step-by-step guide

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