Quick Hacks to Speed Up Your Café’s Checkout Line

Long checkout lines? They're a café owner's nightmare. Not only do they frustrate your customers, but they also eat into your profits. Think about it: waiting just two minutes to order annoys over 20% of restaurant-goers – and if that wait hits five minutes? A whopping 70% are ready to walk.

In Australia, where most people prefer tapping their phones or using apps to pay, a slick checkout is essential. Competition is fierce, and no one wants to lose business to a faster café down the street. Over 20 percent of restaurant customers become annoyed after waiting two minutes to order and 83% of consumers use online checkout and 79% prefer in-app payments.

Major Causes of Slow Checkout

So, where do these checkout lineups from? Usually, the culprits are pretty common. Slow payment processing is a big one, especially if your staff manually key in card details or juggle multiple payment systems. A complicated menu can also make things worse. If your team struggles to find items or add-ons, every transaction takes longer.

Inefficient order taking is another pain point. Staff running back and forth between the counter, kitchen, and payment terminal wastes valuable seconds, especially during rush hour. Without proper system training, even simple transactions can become a slow, confusing mess. A recent study actually showed that checkout counters are the biggest bottleneck in coffee shops, with customers spending almost 4 minutes just paying! That's longer than it takes to make their coffee! Another interesting stat is that customers generally take between 5 and 10 minutes ordering for deliveries and 71% are ordering as soon as they want to eat. They don't want to spend that time fighting a clumsy checkout system! 

Tips to Speed Up Your Cafe's Checkout 

1. Separate Express Pickup Lane

Rush hours in cafe is a regular mass crowded by dine-ins and takeaway customers. To solve this, create a separate area for pre-paid orders, deliveries, and grab-and-go items. This prevents quick transactions from getting bogged down by longer, more complex orders.

Encourage pre-ordering through a mobile app, food delivery platform or your own online web store so that  customers can pay in advance and choose their pickup time, which helps manage the in-store rush. Invest a POS system that integrates orders from different channels into one control centre and make your life easier during morning rush!

2. Bring Checkout to Your Customer

What if you could bypass the checkout counter entirely?  Consider implementing self-service kiosk, or digital tableside ordering system that sends orders straight to the kitchen, minimizing errors and freeing up your staff to focus on upselling and customer service.

Just equip your staffs with several iPads, set up one stand-along kiosk, or set up your menu for mobile, and now your customer can send orders and make payments all by themselves. This reduces checkout friction and keeps those tables turning. Orders are sent directly to the kitchen, reducing handoffs and transcription errors and less  checkout friction and enabling faster table turns.

Read more: Explore the Top 6 Self-Ordering Systems for Small Businesses in Australia (eats365pos.com)

3. Make Your Menu Easy-to-Order

Organize your menu logically (drinks, food, extras), and consider time-based layouts that automatically feature breakfast in the morning and switch to lunch later. Modifiers can sometimes be a time-suck too if they aren’t set up right. Use single-choice and multiple-select options with clear limits.

For example, coffee size could be a mandatory single-choice, while milk alternatives and syrups are multiple add-ons. Make those frequently used modifiers big and easy to find, and link them to your inventory system to prevent overselling. With a POS system like Eats365, you can even create pre-set combos and one-tap modifiers. Customers can customize their order quickly, and your staff can process it with just a few taps.

4. Setup All-in-One Payment

Imagine handling all your payments – mobile wallets, contactless cards, even QR codes – through a single system. No more switching between terminals or manually reconciling transactions. Providers like Adyen, let your staff accept Apple Pay, Google Pay, and traditional cards all in one place. This not only cuts down transaction time and errors but also saves your managers hours of paperwork. 

Read more: What is QR Code Payment? All You Need to Know about QR Code Payment for Restaurants (eats365pos.com)

FAQs on Improving Checkout Process in Cafes

How does an iPad POS system speed up café checkout?

An iPad POS system accelerates checkout by enabling all-in-one payment processing, including mobile wallets and contactless cards, reducing manual entry errors and queuing time. It also supports tableside ordering, sending orders directly to the kitchen and improving staff efficiency, which together minimize customer wait times and increase turnover.

How can Eats365’s iPad POS system improve my cafe's operations?

Eats365 offers an intuitive iPad POS solution integrating payment methods and kitchen display systems. It provides menu navigation with preset combos and quick modifiers, offline mode for uninterrupted service, and streamlined staff training, enabling faster transactions and smoother workflows during peak hours.

Why is a modern iPad POS system critical for Australian cafés?

Since over 80% of Australian consumers prefer digital or app-based payments, a modern iPad POS system meets this demand by accepting mobile wallets and contactless payments seamlessly. This capability prevents losing customers to competitors with faster, tech-friendly checkout experiences.

What operational strategies complement using an iPad POS system?

Assigning specific staff roles during rush hours, implementing self-service kiosks, encouraging pre-ordering via mobile apps, and creating express pickup lanes all complement an iPad POS system by reducing bottlenecks and improving customer flow.