About PlaceMyOrder
Built by a chip shop owner, for food businesses like theirs
Five years of running a busy Lancashire chip shop meant handling the website, the menus, the delivery apps, the contracts and the books, alongside another job. PlaceMyOrder is the system we needed and couldn't find.
On the delivery apps (our average week)
£6.15 to the shop · £3.85 to the app
Ordered direct
£10.00 to the shop
Card fees apply either way when customers pay by card.
Both sides of the counter
A shop owner who builds software
Most ordering systems are built by people who have never run a takeaway, and most takeaway owners never get to build their own. PlaceMyOrder comes from someone who has done both.
Running the shop always included running its technology. When the tools didn't fit, the answer was to get into the code and make them fit.
- Ran the shop's website, online ordering and menus across five platforms
- Worked directly with the till's API and GloriaFood's order webhooks to join systems up
- Built a menu-sync app to keep prices the same on every platform
- Installed and tested open-source ordering systems on our own server before deciding to build
- PlaceMyOrder is built by Hameldon Technology, a Lancashire technology company, as proper software: tested, with its own order phone app, card payments through Stripe and Direct Debit billing
The story
Five years on the delivery apps
-
01
38.5%
of every sale went to the app, on average
Paying to work for free
Over 15 weeks in late 2025, Uber Eats took 38.5% of every sale on average, once commission and advertising were added together. Without paid ads, orders practically stopped: one week with no ads brought in a single order. We priced the app 20% higher to cover it and still kept about 31% less than when the same customer ordered direct.
Refunds went out without us being told. When we declined orders from the few people who kept claiming them, our rating dropped. And when we sent our menu to their support team to upload, it came back with the wrong prices, changed names, and allergens on dishes that don't contain them. So we left, and told our customers why.
-
02
£9.79
for fish and chips on Uber Eats. £7.70 direct
Four price lists for one fish and chips
To survive on the big apps, the same regular fish and chips cost nearly £2 more depending on where you ordered it. Every menu change meant rebuilding a spreadsheet of 120 dishes for every channel, by hand. Loyal locals were paying more without knowing why, and most of the extra went to the platform.
A regular fish and chips, by where you ordered it -
03
4
tablets ringing on the counter
Nothing talked to anything else
A till, a website and four delivery apps, each with its own tablet and its own sounds. Sold-out items were switched off app by app in the middle of a rush. We tried to join them up ourselves, with the till's API, webhooks and a menu-sync app, and found the only real options were custom code or a monthly bill for an integration service. An independent shouldn't need a developer just to see all its orders in one place.
-
04
30 Apr 2027
GloriaFood and FoodBooking close
The free tool that's being switched off
The one channel that worked for us, free direct ordering through GloriaFood and its FoodBooking app, closes on 30 April 2027. Years of "order direct" posts had been building habits on a platform with an end date. If you don't own your ordering system, you're renting your customers.
-
05
84+ hours
lost to one cancelled contract
A contract that wouldn't let go
A card machine contract turned into a two-year fight after it had been cancelled and the machine returned and signed for. It took more than 84 hours of emails and paperwork. Cancelling should be simple.
-
06
85–90%
kept on local, low-fee apps. 100% direct
What actually worked
Local, low-fee delivery apps sent steady orders without any ad spend, and we kept 85 to 90% of each sale. Direct ordering let us charge shop prices with no markup. And being honest with customers worked better than any offer: "order direct and keep the money local" beat every other message we tried.
Every lesson became a rule
What went wrong, and what PlaceMyOrder does instead
-
Commission and paid ads took up to 56% of a sale
No commission, and no ads to buy. You keep every order, less card fees.
-
Customers paid more on the apps to cover their fees
One honest price: your menu price, on your own website.
-
A support team got our prices, names and allergens wrong
You control your menu: upload it in one go, with allergens built in. Nobody else edits it.
-
Refunds went out without us being told
Every order comes to you, and refunds only happen when you choose.
-
Declining orders from repeat abusers lowered our rating
Block a customer from ordering online, with no rating to lose.
-
The till, website and apps never talked to each other
One system: orders ring, print in the kitchen, sold-out items switch off, and the takings add up by themselves.
-
A contract we couldn't get out of
No contract. Simple to join and simple to leave.
-
A free tool closed, and our customers went with it
Your menu, orders and customer list download as spreadsheets, any time.
Who we are
A small Lancashire company
PlaceMyOrder is built and run by Hameldon Technology Ltd in Rawtenstall, Rossendale. When you call or email, you speak to the people who built it, and who have stood behind a busy counter on a Friday night.
- Founded by a takeaway owner
- Tested in a real chip shop
- Company no. 17376440
See it working
How it works
From your menu to your first order, step by step.
How it worksPricing
No commission
Side by side with Just Eat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Foodhub.
See the comparisonOpening to new shops soon
Register your interest
Leave your details and we'll call you for a chat. No obligation and no hard sell: we'll show you how it works with your own menu.
- No commission on your takings
- No monthly fee and no contract
- We help you set up, start to finish
Thanks, that's with us.
We'll be in touch soon to arrange a chat at a time that suits you. It won't be in the middle of a Friday night rush, promise.