How café businesses use cthe.link
For a café, every order through a delivery app costs a large share of its value, and every regular who orders that way is a customer you do not really have. Most cafés would rather take those orders themselves; what stops them is having somewhere to send people.
cthe.link gives a café a menu customers can order from directly — from the Instagram bio, a WhatsApp message or a QR code on the table. The order arrives as a real order with the items and the total, and the customer pays you, not a platform.
A menu people can actually order from
Your menu sits on your page in sections — coffee, breakfast, desserts — with prices, photos and vegetarian or non-vegetarian marks. Customers add items to a cart, enter their phone number and name, and place the order without leaving the page.
Each order is saved as a proper order with its items, so you are not copying a WhatsApp message into a notebook. You are told about every new order straight away — on WhatsApp if your business number is connected, otherwise by email.
Getting paid, your way
Turn on any combination: pay at the counter or on delivery, pay by UPI straight to your own UPI ID, or pay online through your own Razorpay account. With UPI, the customer pays in their own app and shares the payment reference or a screenshot with the order, so you can check it against your bank.
If you are GST-registered, tax is added at checkout at the rate you set; if you are not, none is charged. Customers see the same total the order is recorded with.
One QR code for the table, the counter and the window
Print your page as a QR code for tables, the counter and your takeaway bags. A customer who scans it at the table can browse and order; one who takes a bag home can reorder next week without finding you on a delivery app.
Your hours and location sit on the same page, with an "Open now" label and directions, and a WhatsApp button for anything the menu does not answer.
Turning one order into a regular
Every customer who orders leaves a phone number, and each one is saved as a contact in your Inbox. That is the list a café never gets from a delivery app: the people who already like your food and have shown they will order directly.
Keep the menu short and current. Hide anything that is not available today, put the item you most want to sell first in its section, and add a photo to every dish that has one — a menu with photos is the difference between a browse and an order.
Use the same link everywhere a customer might look for you: the Instagram bio, the WhatsApp Business profile, the Google listing, the takeaway bag. Customers should never have to ask how to order from you.
Set it up in 5 steps
- Create your free page. Sign up and pick your type of business. Menu sections for a café are set up for you.
- Add your menu. Add items with prices, photos and vegetarian marks, grouped into sections.
- Choose how customers pay. Turn on pay at counter, UPI to your own UPI ID, or your own Razorpay account.
- Add hours and location. Enter your opening hours and address so the page shows "Open now" and directions.
- Put the QR code everywhere. Print the QR code for tables and the counter, and put the link in your Instagram bio.