Where most multi-branch brands sell online today

For most restaurant, sweets and retail chains, online orders arrive through two doors: the delivery apps and the call centre. Both work, up to a point. Both also carry costs that grow with every order.

What delivery apps cost you, beyond the commission

• A commission on every order. The more you sell through them, the more you pay.
• The customer belongs to the app. You rarely get the contact details or the order history, so you cannot reach that customer again directly.
• Your brand sits next to your competitors. The customer is one tap away from ordering somewhere else.
• Offers run on their terms. Visibility, discounts and campaigns are decided inside someone else’s platform.

And what the call centre costs

Every phone order needs staff, lines, space and training, and customers wait on hold at the busiest times. Orders are typed in by hand, so mistakes travel to the branch and to the customer.

What your own channel changes

An app and website in your brand’s name turn online ordering into something you own:

• Direct orders, with no commission on each one.
• Customer data that is yours: who buys, what they buy and when, so you can plan instead of guess.
• Loyalty that works everywhere: points on every purchase, in the app and in the branch, in one account per customer.
• Offers you control: coupons for occasions, for new customers and for customers who stopped ordering, plus targeted notifications.

It only works if it is connected

Many apps stall because one part is missing: a system that is not connected to the branches, branches that do not follow the orders, or an app with no offers to bring customers back. That is why we work on three things together.

• Technology. An app and website connected to online payment, delivery, ERP and POS, so orders arrive without errors and prices and stock are right in every branch.
• Operations. A dashboard for management and a screen for every branch to follow orders, drivers and customers.
• Marketing. Points, coupons and notifications, with reports that show who buys and what they buy.

What it looks like in practice

Etoile Egypt used to take a large share of its orders through the call centre. Today its own app has more than 520,000 users, in March 2025 it reached #2 in the Food & Drink chart on the App Store and Google Play in Egypt, and the app and website take 1,500 to 4,500 orders a day, connected to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and LS Central. Read the Etoile Egypt story.

Do you have to leave the delivery apps?

No. Delivery apps are useful for reach, especially in new areas. The point is balance: keep them as one channel, and build your own channel next to them, so every customer who finds you through a delivery app has a reason to order from you directly next time.

How to start

1. Map how orders flow today: the channels, the branches, the call centre and the systems behind them.
2. Decide what the first version must do: delivery zones, payment methods, loyalty, and the link to ERP and POS.
3. See it before it is built: a live prototype of the app before the final proposal.
4. Build and connect in stages, with a defined timeline and your approval at each stage.
5. Launch with your branch teams: testing, publishing on the App Store and Google Play, and staff training.

Planning your own app or online store? See how we build them on our mobile app and e‑commerce pages.

E-commerce in one sentence

E-commerce means selling your products online: the customer finds what they want, orders it and pays on a website or an app, and you deliver it or prepare it for pickup.

It is more than a website

Many owners picture e-commerce as a nice-looking website. In practice, every online sale has five parts, and each one has to work:

• The catalogue: your products, prices, photos and offers, kept up to date.
• Ordering: a cart and checkout that are quick and easy on a phone.
• Payment: cards, wallets or cash on delivery.
• Fulfilment: the order reaches the right branch, gets prepared, then delivered or picked up.
• After the sale: order tracking, customer service, and a reason to order again.

If one part is weak, customers feel it: a wrong price, a late order, a payment that fails. That is why e-commerce is as much about operations as it is about design.

The channels you can sell through

• Your own website: an online store in your brand’s name that anyone can open from Google or a link.
• Your own app: on your customers’ phones, with notifications, saved addresses and loyalty points.
• Delivery apps and marketplaces: they bring their own customers, on their own terms.
• Social media and WhatsApp: conversations that often end in a phone order.

Most brands use a mix. The real question is which channels you own and which you rent. We compare the two in Your own app or delivery apps?

What e-commerce is not

• Not a replacement for your branches. For multi-branch brands, online orders are usually prepared in the branches you already have.
• Not “build it and forget it”. An online store needs updated products, offers and follow-up, just like a shop.
• Not only for big companies. What matters is clear products, a way to deliver, and someone responsible for online orders.

Where to start

Write down how customers order from you today, and where they get stuck: busy phone lines, missed calls, wrong orders, no way to pay online. That simple map usually shows which part of e-commerce will make the biggest difference first.

Next: 7 ways e-commerce helps a business grow, and 8 signs your business is ready to sell online.

The challenge

Etoile is a patisserie chain with dozens of branches in Egypt. A large share of its orders came through the call centre: every order needed an agent, a phone line and manual entry, and customers waited at the busiest times. The brand wanted a direct digital channel of its own, connected to the branches and to its systems.

What we built

• An app and website in Etoile’s name, for delivery and branch pickup.
• The nearest branch, automatically. Customers pin their address on the map; the app checks coverage and sends the order to the branch that serves the area.
• Online payment with cards and wallets, plus cash on delivery.
• Etoile Stars, one loyalty account in the app and in the branch: stars on every purchase, a rewards menu, and a clear balance and expiry date.
• Coupons, home-screen offers and targeted notifications.
• A central dashboard for orders, menu, prices and offers.
• Integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and LS Central, so prices, stock and orders stay in sync with the branches.

Listening to customers at scale

The app includes short in-app surveys: star ratings, multiple choice and written feedback, five questions with a progress indicator. 63,000 Etoile customers answered a single survey, and the results appear live in the dashboard: the average score for each question, the share of each answer, and every written comment in one place.

The results

• 520,000+ app users since January 2025.
• #2 in the Food & Drink chart on the App Store and Google Play in Egypt, in March 2025.
• 350,000+ website visitors a month.
• 1,500 to 4,500 orders a day through the app and the website.

Above all, Etoile now has a direct sales channel it owns: it reaches customers with offers and takes thousands of orders a day, with no middleman.

From Egypt to Saudi Arabia

The same approach went to Saudi Arabia, with an app designed for the Saudi market and its own management for branches, orders and offers. Since March 2024, Etoile KSA has reached 51,675 active users, 13,200 website visitors a month and 200 to 1,100 orders a day.

What other brands can take from it

• Connect before you launch. An app that is not linked to the branches and the ERP creates more calls, not fewer.
• Make loyalty work everywhere. One account in the app and the branch gives customers a reason to order directly.
• Ask your customers. A five-question survey can tell you more than months of guessing.
• Treat the app as a channel, not a project. Offers, notifications and reports keep it growing after launch.

Thinking about your own app? See how we build mobile apps for multi-branch brands.

E-commerce is often sold as “more sales”. The real benefits are more specific, and they add up over time. Here are seven we see again and again with multi-branch brands.

1. Customers can order when it suits them

Your phone line has opening hours; an online store does not. Customers can browse late at night, schedule an order for tomorrow, or order for pickup on the way home.

2. You reach customers across all your branches

With delivery zones for each branch, a customer anywhere in your coverage can order, and the order goes to the branch that serves their address.

3. Fewer phone calls, fewer mistakes

When the customer types the order, nobody has to copy it by hand. When the store is connected to your POS or ERP, the order reaches the branch exactly as placed, with the right prices and items.

4. You get to know your customers

Every online order tells you who bought what, when and where. Over time that shows your best products, your busiest hours and the customers who have stopped ordering.

5. Customers come back

Points on every purchase, coupons for occasions and notifications about new products give customers a reason to order from you again, instead of from whoever is first on a delivery app.

6. Your brand stays in your hands

On your own website or app, there are no competitors on the page. You decide how products look, which offers run and what the customer sees first.

7. Decisions based on numbers

A dashboard with sales by branch and by channel replaces guesswork. You can see which offer worked, which branch needs help, and where orders get stuck.

What it can look like

Abo Mehram, a new sweets brand, reached 30,000 active users in its first two months online, with up to 1,800 orders a day. Etoile Egypt’s app reached #2 in the Food & Drink chart on the App Store and Google Play in Egypt in March 2025. Read how Etoile did it.

A fair warning

None of this happens by itself. The benefits come when the store is connected to your branches and someone keeps the products, prices and offers alive. That is the difference between an online store that grows and one that is quietly forgotten.

Wondering if the timing is right? Read 8 signs your business is ready to sell online.

The challenge

Zahran Market runs 24 supermarket branches with more than 23,000 products. Groceries are harder than a menu: big baskets, items that run out, substitutions, and orders that must be picked accurately in the branch and tracked on the way to the customer. Zahran needed a customer app, and an organised way for branch teams and drivers to handle every order.

Three apps, one flow

The shopping app, for customers

• The nearest branch, automatically: customers set their location and the app picks the right branch.
• Shopping by department, from vegetables, dairy and bakery to offers, with search and barcode scanning.
• Flexible checkout: delivery or branch pickup, with discount coupons.

The picking app, for branch teams

• New orders appear instantly for the branch team, with every product and customer detail.
• Picking by barcode: each item is scanned, with an option to mark a substitute or an out-of-stock item.
• A summary before handover: the team reviews everything picked, then confirms the order is ready in one tap.

The delivery app, for drivers

A delivery app for drivers completes the flow, so every order is tracked on its way to the customer. All three apps are published on the App Store and Google Play.

Built in 45 working days

The shopping app and the picking app were built in 45 working days.

The results

• Sales started in June 2026.
• 1,700 customers in the first week, from just three branches.
• 10,291 active users in the first four months.
• 200 to 1,300 orders a day.

What made it work

• Designing for the branch, not only the customer. A grocery app is only as good as the picking behind it.
• Planning for what is not on the shelf. Substitutes and out-of-stock items are part of the flow, not an exception.
• A check before every handover, so mistakes are caught in the branch, not at the customer’s door.
• Launching in stages. The first week ran from three branches.

Running a supermarket or retail chain? See how we build apps for branches with large catalogues.

There is no perfect moment to start selling online, but there are clear signs. If several of these sound familiar, your customers are already asking for it.

The signs

1. Customers already order by phone or WhatsApp. The demand is there; it is just arriving through the slowest channel.
2. Your phone lines are busy at peak times. Every missed call is a missed order.
3. Delivery apps take a growing share of your sales. More of your orders, and your customers, live on someone else’s platform.
4. You have loyal customers you cannot reach. They come back often, but you have no way to tell them about a new product or offer.
5. You run more than one branch, or plan to. Online ordering helps send each order to the right branch automatically.
6. Customers ask to pay by card or wallet. Cash only is starting to cost you orders.
7. You run offers but cannot measure them. You do not know which promotion actually brought orders.
8. Competitors near you already have an app or store. Your customers are getting used to ordering that way.

What to have in place first

• A clear product list with prices and good photos.
• A delivery plan: your own drivers, a partner, branch pickup, or a mix.
• Someone who owns online orders in each branch, so no order is left waiting.
• A system for prices and stock, such as your POS or ERP, so what customers see online is true.

Not ready yet?

That is fine. Start by fixing the basics above: organise your product list, decide how delivery will work, and agree who handles online orders. When those are clear, building the store goes much faster.

Ready?

The next decision is where to start: a website, an app, or both. We cover that in Website, app or both?

Want a second opinion on your situation? Book a free meeting and we will look at how your branches work today.

Why ERP projects stall

ERP projects rarely stall for one reason. In our experience the scope was never fully written down, the contract does not say clearly who delivers what, master data arrives late, and the people who will use the system join too late. Each gap adds weeks, and after a while nobody is sure what “done” means.

Our role: an independent representative

When we joined Al Mohamady Group, a restaurant and food manufacturing group, its ERP project on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and LS Central had been stalled for a long time. We represent the client in front of the implementation company, and we follow every stage until go-live across two factories and nine branches.

What we did, step by step

1. DoneClear scope and complete contracts. We reviewed the project from the start, and completed the requirements document and the agreements with the implementation company.
2. DoneSetup stages finished. Development, testing, master data and configuration are complete and reviewed.
3. In progressTraining and go-live. Training is under way in the Mansoura and Cairo branches, ahead of full go-live.

Lessons for any ERP project

• Write the scope down before anything else. A requirements document both sides sign is the cheapest way to save months.
• Have someone on your side who speaks the vendor’s language. An independent technical representative keeps delivery tied to what was agreed.
• Treat master data as its own workstream. Items, prices, recipes and branches have to be ready before testing means anything.
• Train branch by branch, with real scenarios. People adopt a system when they have used it on their own daily work.
• Approve each stage before the next one starts. Clear checkpoints stop small delays from turning into a stalled project.

When to ask for help

If your ERP or POS project has slipped, the scope keeps changing, or you are not sure what you are paying for, an independent review is a good first step. We also set up IT and ERP from scratch for Mini Melts, and advise Etoile on IT and digital transformation.

See how our IT consulting service works, from the first review to go-live.

“Do we need an app, or is a website enough?” is one of the first questions owners ask us. The honest answer: they do different jobs.

What a website does best

• Being found. Customers reach it from Google, ads and shared links, with nothing to download.
• The first order. A new customer can order in a few taps from any browser.
• Every screen. It works on phones, tablets and computers.

What an app does best

• Repeat orders. It sits on the customer’s home screen, with saved addresses and one-tap reorder.
• Notifications. You can tell customers about new products and offers directly.
• Loyalty. Points, rewards and a customer account feel natural in an app.

Questions that help you choose

• How often do customers order? Weekly or more often points to an app. Occasional orders point to a website first.
• Where will new customers come from? If you rely on Google and ads, start with a website.
• Do you want a loyalty programme? An app makes it far more visible.
• How many products do you sell? Large catalogues need good search and filters on either channel.

Why many brands run both

The website brings new customers; the app keeps them. When both share the same catalogue, offers and dashboard, you manage one system, not two. Etoile Egypt runs both: more than 350,000 website visitors a month and more than 520,000 app users. Abo Mehram runs both too, and reached 30,000 active users in its first two months.

A simple rule of thumb

If customers order from you often and you want them to come back, plan for an app. If you need to be found and win first orders, start with a website. If you can, plan both from the beginning, so adding the second one later is simple.

See how we build both: online stores and mobile apps.

Your customers already use apps that are fast and clear. When they order from you online, they expect the same. Here are eight expectations, and what makes each one possible.

1. Find it fast

Clear categories, search, and filters by price or size. The bigger your catalogue, the more this matters.

2. Know the full price up front

Prices, delivery fees and offers should be clear before checkout, not a surprise at the end.

3. Pay their way

Cards, wallets or cash on delivery. When customers can pay the way that suits them, fewer orders are cancelled.

4. Get the right order

This depends on what happens after the click. When the store is connected to the branch’s POS or ERP, prices and stock are correct and nobody types the order twice.

5. Know where the order is

A status for every step, the expected delivery time, and a notification when something changes. Customers who can see their order call less.

6. Order again in seconds

Saved addresses and past orders ready to repeat turn a good first order into a habit.

7. Reach someone when something goes wrong

Easy customer service from inside the app or website, so a problem is solved quickly instead of turning into a bad review.

8. A reason to come back

Points on every purchase, rewards and offers made for them. Small rewards add up to loyal customers.

Behind the scenes

Most of these expectations are not about design; they are about connected systems: payment, delivery zones, the branch screen, ERP and POS, and a dashboard that shows what is happening. That is why we build the app, the website and the operation together.

See it in a real grocery operation: Zahran Market’s shopping and picking apps.