Buffet Express

Buffet Express is one of the leading catering companies in the West Midlands, delivering freshly made buffets to businesses and private events from its base in Wednesbury. Around 95% of the menu is prepared in house by their own chefs, and they are a catering partner to over 400 companies. When they came to us for catering website design, the food was never the problem. The website was.

The old site had grown with the business, and it showed. The product range had expanded to the point where visitors could not easily tell one buffet from another, there was very little photography to help people choose, and the ordering process asked far too much of someone who simply wanted lunch sorted for a meeting. For a caterer whose income depends on the same offices ordering again and again, that friction was quietly costing money.

So we rebuilt the site around the way people actually order. The menu was simplified into clear buffet types, every option was given proper imagery, and the checkout was stripped back so a regular customer can reorder in a couple of minutes. Business customers can create an account, download their invoices, and place an order for next day delivery right up to the cut off. You can see the finished site at buffet-express.com.

Why catering website design lives or dies on repeat orders

Most websites are judged on how many new customers they win. A caterer with 400 corporate accounts is a different problem. The person ordering is usually an office manager with ten other jobs on, and they will happily pick up the phone, or pick a different supplier, if the website makes them think. Every extra click, every unclear menu name, every dietary question that is buried three pages deep is a reason not to bother. Good ecommerce website design in this sector is not about persuasion, it is about removing every small reason to give up.