J D Wetherspoon · Order & Pay app
An order and pay app built for one of the UK’s largest pub chains
The J D Wetherspoon Order & Pay app is a web and mobile application handling multiple orders per second across more than 800 pubs in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Customers can browse menus and venue details, save favourites, view their order history, and order and pay from their phone at the table, with no need to queue at the bar.
8+
Years, ongoing partnership
800+
Venues supported by the application
2 million+
Orders weekly through the app
40+
Orders per second during peak times
Overview
J D Wetherspoon is one of the UK’s largest pub chains, with a major digital presence spanning its pub, hotel, investor, franchising and recruitment sites. Filter has worked with J D Wetherspoon for more than 8 years and has been its embedded engineering partner for the past 2, working on key platform and custom development projects.
One of these projects was building and running the Order & Pay app, which customers use in pubs across the UK to order and pay for food and drink. As well as designing and building a fully cross-platform experience, spanning a web app and native mobile apps, Filter built and optimised integrations with several third-party systems. At the core is the EPOS system, which is the source of truth for menus, pricing, and product and table availability. The app also integrates with multiple payment providers, supported by a custom Payments API that streamlines orders and refunds. A provider-agnostic integration is now in progress, making it easier to add further EPOS and payment providers in the future.
The platform can scale to meet intense demand during peak hours and seasonal events while allowing flexibility for real-time updates by pub managers and the central marketing team.
Inside the solution
Cross-platform solution
A seamless ordering experience on iOS and Android, or directly in the customer’s web browser as a progressive web app (PWA).
Inside the solution
Order and pay without leaving your seat
Scan a QR code at the table, browse the menu, order and pay, all backed by real-time EPOS, till and payment integration.
Inside the solution
App Manager
A bespoke CMS called App Manager enables J D Wetherspoon teams to update promotions, add venue-specific content and send targeted notifications.
Built on a modern, reliable stack
The application runs on trusted platforms and technologies for reliability, scaling and stability even during the busiest periods.
Laravel powers the app across iOS and Android on a single codebase.
Next.js delivers the app as a PWA, ideal for customers who want quick, one-off access without downloading anything.
AWS hosts the infrastructure with monitoring and disaster recovery built in.
EPOS and finance integrations link the app with till, tracking and payment systems.
Results
The app has been downloaded more than 5 million times, handles a substantial share of all orders and holds a 4.7 rating on the app stores. At peak times it processes more than 40 orders per second with no drop in performance. Tight integration with JDW’s EPOS and downstream systems lets customers scan a QR code at their table and complete an order in seconds. App Manager, a bespoke admin application, lets JDW quickly manage table and product availability and marketing promotions at both national and local level, with country segmentation to speed up delivery and support local operations. Filter continues to develop the app alongside JDW, making sure it keeps pace with business growth, technology changes and customer expectations.