The GloriaFood migration playbook — week by week

Most operators wait too long. GloriaFood shuts on 30 April 2027, and the whole migration is about a weekend of real work — spread over three calm weeks, on a date you choose. The restaurants that move early get parallel running, proper guest comms, and a concierge who stays on the line through the first 100 orders. The ones that wait get April. Here's the week-by-week plan.

Week zero — before you touch anything

Three jobs that cost an hour and de-risk everything after:

• Export your GloriaFood data — guests first, then menu, order history, zones, and promotions. Your own copies, somewhere you control, before any platform touches anything
• Audit where your ordering links live — website buttons, Google Business Profile, Instagram bio, printed QR codes. This list becomes your cutover checklist
• Confirm who controls your domain — if your site or ordering page runs on a domain someone else registered, fix that now, while every party still answers email

Then pick your go-live window: a quiet fortnight, clear of holidays and local events. The date is yours — that's the whole advantage of moving early.

Week one — export, import, review

Connect the GloriaFood importer or send a CSV. We pull menu, modifiers, zones, and promotions. You review the diff — every item, price, and delivery fee, side by side — and nothing goes live until you sign off. What to check hardest in review:

• Modifiers and option groups — the fiddliest data, and the most annoying to discover wrong mid-service
• Zone boundaries and delivery fees — confirm the new platform charges what you meant, not what the old one approximated
• Photos and item descriptions — present, sharp, on the right items

Week two — parallel running

Take test orders on Storekit while GloriaFood still handles live traffic. Train front-of-house on the new admin login. Printers and KDS routes get confirmed before cutover — real test tickets, printed where real tickets will print. Run the full loop at least once on a quiet shift: order placed, ticket out, order closed, payment reconciled. Anything that surprises you this week is a fix; the same surprise after cutover is an incident.

The goal isn't a big-bang switch on a Sunday. It's a quiet Tuesday lunch where your regulars don't notice anything except a better checkout.

Week three — cutover

Flip the link on your site, Google, and aggregators. Your Sundown Offer premium trial starts at go-live — not at signup — so none of it burns during setup. The sweep, from your week-zero audit:

• Website ordering buttons and embeds — every page, header and footer included
• Google Business Profile ordering link
• Social bios and pinned posts
• QR codes on tables, windows, and flyers — reprint anything pointing at a GloriaFood URL
• Email your guest list — the export from week zero — with the new ordering link and a reason to use it
• Keep GloriaFood readable until Oracle pulls the plug — useful for reference, taking no orders

The first 100 orders

Migration ends when the new normal is boring, not when the link flips. Your concierge stays on the line through the first 100 orders: watch ticket flow at peak, confirm payouts reconcile, and send a second guest email a week in — regulars who missed the first one are still ordering from memory. From there it's trade as usual, minus the support vacuum you left behind.

What this costs

The migration itself: nothing. The importer and the concierge are free, and the Sundown Offer sets your rates — £0/month PAYG for life, 2.9% + 20p on takeaway for your first 12 months, 1.9% + 15p on dine-in QR for the lifetime of your account, and 90 days of premium from go-live. Run your numbers, or pick your week.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it actually take?

A weekend of real work across about three calm weeks. Estates run in waves and take longer — see the portfolio maths.

Do I stop taking orders during the move?

No. Parallel running means GloriaFood serves guests until the moment you flip the links.

When should I start?

Months before April 2027, on your own calendar. The smart operators are moving now.