Getting started

From signing up to taking your first order. Most shops are ready to go live in under an hour, and nothing is visible to customers until you choose to publish.

1. Sign up

Press Start for free on the Pekkish home page. You'll be asked for:

Your shop's name, as customers know it
A promotional code, if you have one. It's printed on the postcard if that's how you heard about us
Your email and a password

Your shop gets its own web address straight away, made from its name: something like yourshop.pekkish.co.uk. You can change it later under Settings → General, but only once every 30 days, so it's worth getting right before you print it on anything. Links to the old address keep working for a while after a change.

We'll email you a link to confirm your address. You don't have to confirm before you carry on, but please do. It's how we know the emails about your orders will reach you.

2. Tell us about your shop

The first screen asks three things.

What kind of shop is this?

Single orders: sandwiches, lunches, a daily round. Customers collect or you deliver, and each order goes straight to the kitchen.
Catering: platters, buffets and events, mostly for businesses. Delivery with notice, every order confirmed by you, and invoicing for account customers.

This can't be changed afterwards, because the two work quite differently. If you do both, choose the one you do most. You can set up a second shop for the other later, with the same sign-in, and link the two. Catering: platters, buffets and business customers explains the difference in more detail.

Your address

Start typing your postcode and choose your address from the list. If you got one of our postcards, we'll fill in the address we sent it to. Change it if you trade somewhere else, like a van's usual pitch rather than a home or depot. Delivery distances are measured from here.

How do customers get their food?

Tick They collect, We deliver, or both. Catering shops don't see this question, because catering is always delivered. You can change it whenever you like.

Press Create my site.

3. Work through the Setup page

You'll land on Set up your shop, which you can always find as Setup at the top of the sidebar. It has four tiles, which you can do in any order. Each has a coloured status:

Red: something customers would notice is missing
Amber: working, on our sensible defaults, but not checked by you yet
Green: done. Press Looks good ✓ on a tile once you've checked it

Only an empty menu stops you going live. Everything else can be finished afterwards.

Your shop starts with a sample menu, so your test site has something in it. Replace it with yours. The quickest way is to press Import a menu and upload a photo or PDF of the menu you already have. Importing your menu covers that in full, and Building and editing your menu covers typing it in and tidying it up.

The tile won't offer Looks good while it's still our sample menu. That shows up as soon as you've imported yours or changed anything.

Design

Your logo, colours, font and menu layout. A logo and one colour are enough to make it look like yours. See Making your storefront yours.

Location & timing

Opening hours, the latest time customers can order for today, delivery area and minimum order. These start on sensible defaults. Check them against how you actually trade. See Configuring your location.

Payments

You have two choices:

Connect with Stripe to take card payments online. It takes about ten minutes and you'll need your bank details. See Connecting Stripe.
In-person is fine, if customers pay you by cash or card machine when they collect.

If you deliver, you need Stripe. Delivery orders are paid online, so you're not carrying cash on the round. Until Stripe is connected, your site takes collection orders only, and the Payments tile stays red to remind you.

Catering shops can also be paid on account, by invoice, by the businesses you set up under Organisations.

4. Try your test site

Press View my test site on the Setup page. It looks and works exactly like the real thing, but only you can see it. Place an order yourself and go through the whole checkout. Check that:

the menu, prices and allergens are right
the date picker offers the days you're open
the order email reaches you

If you'd like orders printed as they arrive, rather than only emailed, set that up now. See Printing your orders.

5. Go live

When you're happy, press Publish — go live. If any tiles aren't green yet, we'll list them before you confirm, but you can still go ahead. From then on customers can order at your address, and changes you make show on your site straight away.

6. Tell your customers

Put your link where customers already look for you: your Instagram and Facebook bio, your website, and a sign by the counter. Share & promote in the sidebar gives you a QR code and a printable poster. See Sharing your storefront link, and Knowing what brings customers in for measuring flyers and ads.

Bringing in your team

Under Settings → Team, press Invite someone and enter their email. They choose their own password. There are two roles:

Admin: full access, the same as you
Staff: for handling orders, including cancelling them. Staff can't change your menu, settings or billing

Anyone on your team can cancel an order. Cancelling orders, cash and your invoice explains why it matters to do that promptly.

Using your phone

Everything in your shop admin works in a phone's browser. There's also a Pekkish app for iPhone and Android, which can notify you when an order comes in.

Stuck on something? Contact support.