A Brief History of Online Ordering

 

The Beginnings of Online Ordering in the 1990s

Online ordering started in the mid-1990s, during the early days of the internet. One of the most significant milestones was on August 11, 1994, when NetMarket sold Ten Summoner's Tales, a CD by Sting, to Phil Brandenberger of Philadelphia using a credit card over the Internet. The New York Times described this event as "apparently the first retail transaction on the Internet using a readily available version of powerful data encryption software designed to guarantee privacy."

Around the same time, Pizza Hut made history by allowing customers to order pizza online, pioneering the concept of online food delivery. Other major players like Amazon and eBay were also launched in 1995, laying the foundation for the modern e-commerce ecosystem.

Expansion in the 2000s

The early 2000s saw rapid growth in online ordering as broadband internet became more common. This made it easier for consumers to place orders online. In 2001, Seamless (now known as Grubhub) began offering online food ordering from local restaurants, setting the stage for the rise of third-party delivery services.

By 2004, Domino’s launched its own online ordering platform, which became a game-changer in the food industry.

Online Ordering for School Canteens

Around 2006, online ordering made its way into school canteens. This revolutionised how parents and students placed lunch orders, making it more convenient for families and reducing manual work for school staff. Platforms such as School24, Flexischools, Munch Monitor emerged, allowing schools to adopt online ordering systems that streamlined the entire lunch-ordering process.

Online ordering for school canteens emerged as a crucial solution to tackle two major challenges: reducing food wastage and addressing the shortage of volunteers. By introducing features like cashless transactions, advance ordering, and customised menus, online systems allowed schools to more accurately predict demand, minimizing excess food preparation. This shift not only made lunch management more efficient but also enabled canteens to focus on offering healthier, more diverse meal options without relying heavily on volunteer support

The Mobile Revolution in the 2010s

The launch of smartphones, particularly the iPhone, ushered in the mobile revolution. Consumers began using mobile apps to order food online. Popular delivery platforms like UberEats (launched in 2014) and DoorDash (launched in 2013) became integral to online food ordering.

Retailers and grocery stores also started integrating e-commerce, offering options for online ordering with pick-up or delivery.

Online Ordering in the 2020s

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 significantly accelerated the growth of online ordering. As consumers sought safer, contactless shopping and dining options, industries such as grocery stores, restaurants, and retail rapidly adapted their online ordering capabilities.

Today, online ordering continues to evolve, incorporating AI, voice-activated ordering, and personalised customer experiences across platforms, from mobile apps to kiosks and websites.

The Humble Beginning of Online Ordering for School Canteens in Australia: The School24 Journey

The digital transformation of school canteens in Australia is a story of innovation born from necessity. Traditionally, school canteens operated on a manual system, which for most was known as the "brown paper bag" method. This involved students bringing their lunch orders written on brown paper bags, often with cash enclosed. While this approach was familiar, it was also fraught with challenges—long queues, misplaced orders, and limited menu options due to time constraints. As schools began to seek more efficient ways to manage these operations, a new era of online ordering was on the horizon.

At the heart of this transformation was School24, originally known as SCAMPS, which began as a community project. The initiative was driven by a desire to resolve two pressing issues that many schools faced: food wastage and the dwindling number of canteen volunteers. Back in 2006, Abder Bloul, while volunteering at the school his children attended, observed firsthand how these challenges impacted the daily operations of the canteen.

Volunteering in the canteen was supposed to be a relaxing morning, where parents could meet for a social gathering while serving kids their lunches. But the reality was far from that. Working on a Friday in the canteen was incredibly stressful. It involved going through each student's brown bag, trying first to decipher kids' handwriting, then meticulously writing down the items and quantities on a piece of paper. This was followed by manual tallying, which more than 50% of the time led to errors. Just this counting exercise alone was stressful and consumed a significant amount of time. Then came the preparation of the food. At the time, healthy eating wasn't really in vogue. Most canteens or tuckshops served pies, fries, and lasagnas—foods that typically came straight out of the freezer. By the end of the shift, everyone was exhausted, but it was still a memorable time. Serving the kids, with their innocent smiles and cheeky attitudes, sometimes brought joy and made volunteering worth doing again.

Motivated by a commitment to the community and a vision for a more sustainable and efficient system, Abder Bloul set out to develop a solution that could address these issues. Working closely with Janet Miller in a humble canteen at a school in the North Shore of Sydney, they began to craft what would become a transformative solution for school canteens nationwide.

This vision led to the creation of SCAMPS, which was later rebranded as School24. The platform was designed to streamline the ordering process, allowing parents to pre-order and pay for their children's meals online, reducing the reliance on paper bags and minimizing food waste through more accurate demand forecasting.

Today, School24 continues its journey to deliver what it was designed to do—reduce wastage and help school shops do more with less. By helping school shops across the country embrace technology, School24 enhances their services and creates more efficient ordering and booking solutions.

To all the firies, THANK YOU 🙏

School24 is so grateful for all of the hard work and sacrifices that have been made by all of the Firefighters and volunteers over this holiday period on battling the Australian bush fires... Nearly 46 million acres of land have burnt, 5,900 buildings have been destroyed, an estimated one billion animals have been killed and some endangered species that may be driven to extinction. 
To thank the the brave firefighters for risking their lives to save others, we have updated our website homepage: https://www.school24.net.au/

 School24 will be printing a giant poster with all participants' names and messages and send it to selected fire stations and RFS to show a small gesture of our gratitude. We'd love it if you all joined in! 😌