Building a local restaurant guide that would enable Redlanders to log-in and order takeout from local restaurants seemed like a far-fetched idea at first. But when local Redlands’ businessmen Jared Shimoff and Jon Burgess came together, it became a reality.

Jared, Sr. Director of NetWaiter (a company based in Redlands) has been providing restaurants nationwide with online ordering and marketing tools for years. NetWaiter is a service that gives restaurant owners, who have little or no website knowledge, the ability to easily receive takeout orders online.  It is so simple that any restaurant can implement the process in about an hour.

Jon Burgess, Vice President of RedFusion Media, has operated RedlandWeb.com, the highest-ranked Redlands directory site, for over a decade. According to Jon, “Years ago, when there was no Google, we built RedlandsWeb.com so that our local clients could be found,” Today, RedlandsWeb still dominates the Internet’s usage of Redlands keywords.

Jared saw an opportunity to give restaurants more exposure and sales when NetWaiter partnered efforts with RedFusion Media’s expertise in 2009. RedlandsTakeout.com began when Jared and Jon built the first interactive directory for local restaurants.  Today, with one simple log-in, not only can customers order food and purchase from multiple restaurants; when they do, RedlandsTakeout.com can post to that person’s Facebook account (with permission), increasing the restaurants’ visibility.

With this technology, small restaurants can now gain a great marketing tool without any up-front costs. Restaurants can join RedlandsTakeout for free, without any monthly minimums or account fees, and only pay a small percentage for each sale. “This really is no different than a restaurant taking a coupon as a promotional tool, except with RedlandsTakeout.com, the bonus factor is that they are equipped with a fully automated online ordering and marketing system,” said Jared.

There are other places where consumers and restaurant owners can be found online, such as Google, Yahoo, Yelp, and even other Redlands-based websites. However, Jon Burgess says that “Other competitors have a big downside; you have to pay up-front for an advertisement, and restaurants don’t get the right type of traffic to justify those costs. Our platform eliminates the need to waste money on small Redlands’ websites, while providing a powerful engine designed to increase sales.”

Looking forward, as restaurants increase their business, and as Redlands Takeout grows its base of customers, the service will expand into the Inland Empire, giving Redlands’ restaurants more regional exposure, while adding more restaurants from which consumers can choose.

Press Contact – Margaret Rippetue – 909-798-7902