If orders are low, the problem is not the pizza. It’s the systems behind the scene.
Independent pizzerias are up against a lot:
- Changing customer expectations
- Third-party app fees
- Missed calls
- Outdated technology.
When you upgrade your pizzeria management platform, you’re able to fix these issues quicker. But, we still need to understand why orders are down in the first place.
Here are 10 of the most common factors dragging down order volume, and what to do about them.
- Your marketing is not working
You didn’t get into pizza to be a marketer.
Independent pizzerias are too busy running the shop to worry about weekly emails, social media, and loyalty programs. So customers can forget you exist between orders.
The Solve:
A pizzeria management platform should take care of marketing for you, without you lifting a finger.
Slice’s automated marketing reaches up to 3,000 customers per week via email and text, and drives repeat orders while you focus on pizza.
- Your online ordering system isn’t efficient
Customers expect to order online, anywhere, anytime. If your website is clunky, outdated, or sends them somewhere confusing, they’re gone.
Possibly, forever.
The Solve:
Slice’s online pizza ordering system is built specifically for pizzerias, with half-and-half pizza customization, built-in upsells, and seamless payment options.
Pizzerias using Slice report an average of $14,000 more in online orders per year.
- 3rd-party apps are destroying your profit
DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats take 20–30% commission on every order.
20-30% is not just a cut of your revenue, it’s how to make sure you don’t profit on delivery.
These apps also own the customer relationship, so you can’t market to those customers directly.
“3rd-party platforms offer pizza eaters the chance to not eat pizza.” – Overheard at Slice HQ.
The Solve:
Get on the Slice App, and get visible for less. Also, take control of your customer data. With Slice, you can actually build loyalty over time. The big apps have no incentive to do this for your shop.
- Your menu is too complicated
A menu with too many items can result in abandoned carts and frustrated phone calls. If customers can’t quickly find what they want, they’ll give up.
We’ve seen shops with 6 menu items become local legends because they stuck to a few basics and just owned them.
The Solve:
Manage your menu purposefully.
With Slice, your menu stays updated across your website, the Slice app, Google, Yelp, and 20+ other directories automatically.
No more outdated specials or missing items driving customers away. Explore how the Slice Owner’s App lets you manage your menu from anywhere.
- Missed calls because of a rush
Friday night at 6 PM. The phone won’t stop ringing. Your staff is hustling. Orders get missed, customers hang up, and a sale is gone.
The Solve:
Don’t ditch the phone. Instead, look for a phone ordering service that answers your calls for you in both English and Spanish, takes accurate orders, and even recommends add-ons that can increase your average ticket size by up to 20%.
- You’re invisible on Google
Try this: Search, “Pizza near me” on Google. Do you show up? If so, where? If not, that’s a problem.
If your Google Business Profile isn’t optimized, or has the wrong information, you’re losing orders before a customer ever finds your number.
The Solve:
“Getting on Google” isn’t as hard as you may think. Slice fully manages your Google Business Profile — keeping your hours, menu, photos, and contact info accurate so you rank higher in local search and customers can order directly.
- You don’t have a loyalty program
Repeat customers are the lifeblood of an independent pizzeria.
But without a loyalty program, you’re relying on people to remember to come back on their own.
Truth is, many won’t.
The Solve:
The Slice Family Membership gives your customers access to a built-in loyalty rewards system, earning pizza points on every order so they have a reason to come back again and again.
The big chains spend millions building these, but you get it delivered to you as part of your platform.
- You can’t cover delivery during busy periods
Running out of drivers on a busy night means delayed or cancelled delivery orders.
These aren’t just lost sales. These are also lost customers who might not come back.
The Solve:
Slice offers backup delivery driver support so you can tap into a partner driver network when your own team is stretched thin.
You keep the orders; you keep the customers.
- You’re managing too many disconnected tools
Using one system for your POS, a different one for online orders, a third for marketing, and a spreadsheet to track everything?
This type of disconnect can cause errors, wastes time, and makes it impossible to understand your business fully.
The Solve:
What you need is a unified pizzeria management platform to connect it all. With Slice, your Point of Sale, online ordering, phone orders, marketing, and delivery all work together in one ecosystem, and can be managed from a single dashboard.
- You don’t have time to focus on what matters
This may be the biggest reason for low order volume: you’re just too busy.
Between managing logistics, troubleshooting systems, and answering the phone, you have no time left to focus on your pizza, your customers, or your team.
The Solve:
Slice shops report saving 2,000+ hours per year by letting go of the operational heavy lifting. That’s time you can reinvest back into your customers, team, and pizza.
That investment then shows up in your order volume.
The right pizzeria management platform changes everything
Order volume is impacted by tons of small decisions:
- How you take orders
- How you market your pizza
- How you handle rushes
- How connected your systems are
… and so on.
The good news is, every factor can be solved.
With Slice, you’re not getting technology, you’re getting your extra team member with the knowledge of thousands of independent pizzerias, and the buying power of a big chain.
Learn more about why pizzeria owners choose Slice, or explore the full Slice Family Membership to see how much extra your shop could be making.
Let’s see what’s possible. Talk to a Slice expert today.
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