Many of the best cakes, biryanis and frozen kababs in Pakistan never come from a restaurant. They come from a home kitchen in Gulberg, North Nazimabad or Hayatabad, run by someone who started by cooking for family and friends and slowly found that strangers wanted to pay for it too.
If that is you, you probably take orders on WhatsApp today. It works, until it does not. Messages pile up during Ramzan or wedding season, someone forgets to mention the flavour, two customers are promised the same Saturday slot, and you spend more time typing than baking.
Taking orders online does not mean becoming a big business overnight. It means giving your customers a clear menu, a simple way to order, and giving yourself some control over how much work you accept. Here is how to do it well.
Decide what you actually sell
Home kitchens often try to offer everything. A short, clear menu is easier for customers and much easier for you.
Start by listing what people already order from you most. For a home baker, that might be:
- Chocolate fudge cake
- Lotus cheesecake
- Brownies by the box
- Customised birthday cakes
For a home chef, it might be:
- Chicken biryani by the kilo
- Frozen shami kababs, pack of 12
- Haleem on Fridays
- Weekly lunch boxes
Pick your strongest items and start there. You can always add more once the first ones run smoothly.
Use options instead of endless messages
Most home food has choices. Cake size, flavour, a written message, eggless or not, spice level, extra raita. These are the questions you answer again and again on WhatsApp.
In a Krobr restaurant store, each menu item can have options and add-ons. A size group lets the customer pick 1 pound or 2 pounds, each with its own price. An add-on group lets them tick extras such as a name on the cake or a box of candles. When the order arrives, all of it is written down, in the customer's own choice, with no confusion. The guide on options and add-ons shows how to set them up.
Say your lead time clearly
Custom cakes and large food orders need time. Write your lead time in the item description, for example "Please order at least 2 days ahead" or "Haleem is cooked fresh on Friday mornings". Customers respect clear rules. What frustrates them is finding out after they ordered.
Control how much work you accept
The biggest risk for a home kitchen is not too few orders. It is too many orders on the wrong day. One oven and two hands have limits, and a late or rushed order costs you more than a missed one.
Krobr Partner, the store-management app, gives you several controls that suit a home kitchen well:
- Opening hours. Set the days and times you take orders. If you only bake from Thursday to Sunday, say so, and the store will not accept orders outside those hours.
- Pause orders. Fully booked this weekend? Pause new orders and choose when to start again. Orders you already accepted stay in your queue.
- Busy mode. If you are still taking orders but things are slower, busy mode helps you set expectations instead of closing completely.
- Temporary closures. Going to a family wedding in Faisalabad for three days? Add a closure for those dates.
- Snooze sold-out items. Ran out of lotus spread? Snooze the cheesecake until it is back, while everything else stays on sale.
The store status and hours guide explains each of these in detail.
A useful habit is to decide your weekly capacity in advance. For example, "I can do 8 cakes and 3 large biryani orders a week". When you get close to that, pause orders. It is much better to say "fully booked" than to say sorry later.
Delivery, pickup and payment
Choose where you deliver
Home kitchens rarely deliver across a whole city. You might deliver within a few nearby areas yourself, or send a rider for farther orders. In Krobr you can set your delivery areas so customers outside your range see that you do not deliver to them, and you can also offer pickup so customers collect from your door.
Be realistic. Traffic in Lahore or Karachi at 7 pm can turn a short distance into a long trip, and a melting cake does not forgive delays. Start with a small area and grow it when you trust your routine.
Payment that suits your customers
Most home food customers in Pakistan pay in one of two ways, and both are supported:
- Cash on delivery. Simple and trusted, especially for first time customers.
- Pay by bank transfer. The customer pays into your bank account and you verify the payment in the app before you confirm. This suits large or custom orders where you want payment before you buy ingredients.
A sensible rule many home bakers use is cash on delivery for regular items and bank transfer for custom cakes, so you are never left with a three tier cake and no customer.
Make customers feel looked after
When a customer orders from a home kitchen, they are trusting you with a birthday, a dawat or a family dinner. Small touches go a long way.
Every Krobr order comes with a private order status link, so the customer can check whether their order is confirmed, being prepared or on its way without messaging you. That alone removes a lot of "bhai, kitna time lagega?" calls.
You can also install the focused Orders app on your phone. It sends a push notification when a new order comes in, so you are not checking a laptop with flour on your hands.
After the order, ask happy customers to leave a review on your store. Reviews from real buyers carry far more weight than anything you write about yourself.
Moving your WhatsApp customers over
You do not need to stop using WhatsApp. It is still the best place to talk to your regulars. The goal is to move the ordering to your store.
- Put your store link in your WhatsApp Business profile and your status.
- When someone asks for the menu, reply with the link instead of typing prices.
- For a week or two, if a regular still orders by message, place it for them and gently share the link for next time.
- Add the link to your Instagram bio and on a small card inside every box you send.
Our post on moving from a WhatsApp menu to online ordering has more ideas for this switch.
Starting small is fine
Every new Krobr account starts on the Free package, which allows one store and up to 20 orders a month. For many home kitchens testing the idea, that is a sensible place to begin. If orders grow beyond that, the paid packages raise the limit, and you can compare them on the pricing page. Krobr charges a package fee rather than a commission on each order, so a big catering order does not cost you more than a small one.
A short summary
Keep your menu short, use options so orders arrive complete, and write clear lead times. Set hours and pause orders whenever you reach your limit, deliver only where you can reach on time, and use bank transfer for custom work. Your cooking is what brings customers back. A simple, organised way to order just makes sure they can reach you.