From Order to Pickup: Digital Tools That Save Your Festival Sales Flow

Why do some restaurant owners leave summer festivals with profits, while others leave with burned-out teams and financial losses? Why do guests show up expecting a fun day, only to find themselves stuck in a line with 20 other people, wondering when their order will be ready and why it’s taking so long?

The truth is: summer is one of the best times to boost your revenue. People are more likely to spend — they’re out walking, going to events, grabbing food to-go, hosting backyard parties and spontaneous picnics. Your job is to catch the right moment and make ordering from you easier than finding an open bench in the park.

I want to share some real-world tools and strategies that we’ve tested at summer events and that really work. With the right setup, our clients don't just "get through" the season – they establish a consistent, profitable business.

You’ll learn how to build a smooth ordering process and simplify everything from taking orders to managing pickups with the right technology. And also learn how to ensure your guests enjoy the food and come back for more.

According to IBISWorld, the U.S. food truck market is growing steadily at 6.67% per year and is expected to surpass $1.41 billion by 2029.

What does that mean for your business? More and more brands are treating pop-up locations not just as a way to market their products, but as real stores where they can make a profit.

Even a single booth can be very useful, whether you're running a restaurant or a retail business. If you do it right, you can expect the following benefits:

If you want to host events during the summer, here's what you need to do: plan your guest experience before you start taking orders. This means from the moment they see your booth to the moment they try your food.

Here's the catch: according to PwC, one in three customers will stop buying from a brand after just one bad experience.

In the next section, we'll show you the technology that helps make service faster, smoother, and easier for both your guests and your team.

Let’s walk through the key steps to get your restaurant ready and the technology that will help you avoid getting tired two hours into the event.

The first thing to think about is how fast the service is. When it's hot and loud, and there are food stands everywhere, nobody wants to wait. According to Talker Research, Americans get frustrated if they have to wait more than 29 minutes for their food. To keep things moving, focus on 2–3 popular items that are easy to prepare, serve, and look great in a paper box. Think of things that people will like and that you can make quickly.

Not sure what to offer? Just ask. If you have an app or website, send your existing customers a quick poll. And if you don't, no problem. Use a Telegram Mini App, which is a simple mobile interface that lives right inside the messaging app.

With it, you can reach a large audience (Telegram has around 1M users now) and create fun tools that are easy to use, like:

These simple activities help you start building a connection before the event even begins – and create excitement around your booth before anyone smells the grill.

You can also use Telegram Mini Apps to sell food and products. The menu appears right inside the messenger, and payment is processed through tools like Stripe, YooMoney, or other gateways. When the order is ready, the customer automatically gets a message in the chat: "Your order is ready. Please go to Window #3".

If you're an event organizer, Telegram Mini Apps offer an all-in-one solution for promotion and coordination: ticket sales, schedule updates, newsletter signups, giveaways and contests. Since everything is done in one channel, you can keep the audience interested after the event and invite them back next time.

If you see a long line of people waiting to get into your food truck, that's a good sign. But try standing in that line yourself. After 10 minutes, you start to look at the neighboring booth. After 15, you've ordered from them instead.

The guests and the staff both have a hard time. Even a well-experienced team can begin to falter under pick loads. Orders get mixed up, payments go sideways, and wait times stretch far beyond what people are willing to tolerate.

Here's the thing: it's much easier to predict demand than to manage a traffic jam in real time.

According to Foodservice Equipment Reports, 57% of event guests want the option to pre-order food and drinks so they can avoid waiting in line and pick up their meal at a time that works for them.

There are several ways to set up remote ordering so your food truck or pop-up can serve more guests, in less time, with less stress for everyone involved.

One of the simplest ways to streamline service is to add a pre-order feature directly to your restaurant’s website or mobile app. That’s exactly what we built for our client, Sizl — a dark kitchen network based in Chicago. Their custom feature, called “Event Kitchen,” allows the brand to partner with any event and handle food delivery on-site. Some of the meals can be prepaid by the event organizer and handed out as a welcome treat. The rest are listed as part of a special event menu, available for any guest to order and pay for on their own.

Once the order is placed, Sizl's delivery people take the food to a specific pickup area. Guests just walk up and give the order number they got in the app.

Check out the full Sizl case study here.

Another quick way to set up seamless ordering at festivals is to create a QR-code-based digital menu. A guest scans the code and instantly sees your full list of items on their phone. They add items to the online cart, choose a pickup time (say, 2:00–2:15 PM), pay online, and get a digital ticket with their order number. When the time comes, they just walk up to the pickup counter.

A digital menu becomes a powerful tool that helps restaurants:

With the right setup and a little promotion – like on social media or a Telegram bot – digital menus can reach up to 80% of event guests. And when there's a clear incentive (like 10% off or a free drink), as many as 40% of them place a pre-order.

Want to know how it works in the real world? Check out our Foodclick case study, where we built a website that lets you find and order from restaurants using QR codes.

Self-service kiosks can help you manage crowds in places like festivals, parks, and busy food courts. These are touchscreen tablets or terminals placed next to your food truck or counter. The guests just walk up and take care of the order themselves:

The average order takes just 45-60 seconds, which means more guests can be served, faster. Built-in prompts like "Add a drink?" or "Make it a combo?" can also increase the average check size without needing a cashier to make extra sales.

If your kiosk is connected to your restaurant's app or website, it can do even more:

Festivals, food markets, and pop-ups are a great way to meet new customers. They're also a perfect opportunity to get them to come back by connecting them to your loyalty program.

Quick loyalty wins that work:

Set a time limit on the bonus, and make it urgent. That will motivate people to come back soon, not "someday."

We helped a retail chain with over 200 stores turn a loyalty app into a platform with personalized offers and campaigns to keep customers coming back, as well as one-click reorders.

In today's market, your digital infrastructure is just as important as your food, your team, and your logistics. If you're just starting your digital transformation or looking to expand your current project, it's important to invest wisely.

Take a look at our list of essential tools – it'll help you figure out which technologies are best for your setup. No matter what kind of food business you have, we have the perfect solution for you.