Connecting Kenyan Restaurant PoS to Glovo and Uber Eats

The Dual-Tablet Problem in Kenyan Restaurants#

Walk into a busy Nairobi restaurant during the lunch rush and you will likely see two or three tablets on the counter alongside the main PoS terminal. One tablet runs the Glovo partner app. Another runs Uber Eats. The PoS handles dine-in and walk-in takeaway orders. Each system operates independently — different order queues, different product lists, different price points. When a Glovo order comes in for a chicken biryani, the staff reads it on the Glovo tablet, then manually enters it into the PoS (or does not bother), and shouts the order to the kitchen. If the biryani uses the last portion of chicken, the PoS inventory updates but the Glovo and Uber Eats apps still show it as available. Twenty minutes later, an Uber Eats order arrives for the same biryani. The kitchen cannot fulfil it. The restaurant either cancels the order — damaging its platform rating — or scrambles to substitute, creating a poor customer experience. This is not an edge case. Kenyan restaurant owners report that inventory conflicts between delivery platforms and dine-in orders happen multiple times per week during busy periods. The problem compounds for restaurants with limited prep capacity. A kitchen that can produce 60 meals per hour needs to manage that capacity across all channels. When delivery orders arrive on a separate system with no visibility into the dine-in queue, the kitchen gets overloaded and all customers — dine-in and delivery — suffer longer wait times.

How PoS-Delivery Integration Works#

Integration means that when a customer places an order on Glovo or Uber Eats, that order flows automatically into the restaurant's PoS as if a waiter had entered it. The order appears in the same kitchen display or ticket queue as dine-in orders, tagged with the delivery platform name and any special instructions. Inventory is deducted from the same stock pool, so when the chicken runs out, all channels reflect it. Revenue from the delivery order is recorded in the PoS alongside dine-in sales, giving the owner a unified view of total business performance. The technical mechanism is API-based. Glovo and Uber Eats both offer partner APIs that allow third-party systems to receive orders, confirm acceptance, update preparation status, and mark orders as ready for pickup. The PoS connects to these APIs and acts as the central hub. When an order arrives via API, the PoS creates a new transaction, maps the delivery platform menu items to its own product catalogue, applies the correct pricing (which may differ from dine-in prices), and sends the order to the kitchen. Status updates flow back: when the kitchen marks the order as ready, the PoS notifies the delivery platform, which dispatches the rider. This bidirectional communication eliminates the need for staff to monitor delivery tablets and manually relay information.

Managing Menu and Price Differences Across Channels#

Most Kenyan restaurants charge different prices on delivery platforms than for dine-in. Delivery prices are typically 15 to 30 percent higher to offset the commission charged by Glovo (typically 15 to 25 percent) and Uber Eats (15 to 30 percent depending on the plan). The PoS must support channel-specific pricing so that the same menu item — say, a beef burger — has a dine-in price of KES 650 and a Glovo price of KES 800. When the Glovo order arrives, the PoS applies the Glovo price automatically. Revenue reports then show the owner not just total burger sales but burger revenue by channel, with the delivery platform commission factored in to reveal the true net revenue per channel. Menu availability may also differ by channel. A restaurant might offer its full menu for dine-in but restrict delivery to items that travel well — excluding soups that spill, ice cream that melts, or salads that wilt during transit. The PoS should allow the owner to flag items as available for specific channels and automatically reject delivery orders containing unavailable items before they reach the kitchen. This prevents the frustrating scenario where a customer orders a fragile item through Uber Eats, the kitchen prepares it, and it arrives in poor condition, generating a refund request and a negative review.

Commission Tracking and True Profitability by Channel#

Delivery platform commissions are the hidden cost that many Kenyan restaurant owners underestimate. A KES 800 delivery order through Glovo at a 20 percent commission nets the restaurant KES 640 before food cost. If the same meal dine-in at KES 650 has no commission, the restaurant nets the full amount. The delivery order generates more gross revenue but less net revenue — and that is before accounting for the packaging cost (KES 30 to KES 80 per order for containers, cutlery, and bags) that delivery requires but dine-in does not. Without channel-level profitability tracking, a restaurant owner might see delivery revenue growing and assume the business is becoming more profitable, when in reality the high-commission delivery orders are diluting overall margins. The PoS should calculate and display net revenue per channel after commissions and packaging costs. This allows the owner to make informed decisions: is it worth staying on a platform where the effective margin is 18 percent, versus dine-in margins of 35 percent? Should the delivery menu be restricted to high-margin items that can absorb the commission? Should delivery prices be raised further to restore target margins? AskBiz tracks delivery platform commissions per order and generates channel-profitability reports that answer these questions with data rather than guesswork.

Practical Setup Steps for Nairobi Restaurants#

Connecting your Nairobi restaurant's PoS to Glovo and Uber Eats involves four steps. First, confirm your PoS supports delivery platform APIs. Not all systems do — if yours does not, you will need to switch to one that does or use a middleware service that bridges the gap. Second, apply for API access through each delivery platform's partner portal. Glovo provides access through its Partner Connect programme, and Uber Eats through its Restaurant Dashboard under the Integration tab. Approval can take one to three weeks. Third, map your delivery menu items to your PoS product catalogue. Each item on Glovo and Uber Eats must correspond to an existing PoS product so that inventory deductions are accurate. Items with modifiers — size options, add-ons, sauce choices — need careful mapping to ensure the kitchen receives complete instructions. Fourth, test the integration during a low-traffic period. Run a few orders through each platform and verify that they appear correctly in the PoS, that inventory updates reflect delivery sales, and that status updates flow back to the platform. Common issues during testing include modifier mismatches, price discrepancies between the platform and PoS, and timezone offsets that cause orders to be timestamped incorrectly. Resolve these before going live during peak hours. AskBiz includes pre-built connectors for Glovo and Uber Eats with guided setup wizards that walk Kenyan restaurant owners through the mapping and testing process without requiring technical expertise.