Pizzeria to Trim Virtual Services (Web Review)

Eureka Pizza Inc.
Fayetteville
www.eurekapizza.com

There is probably money to be made locally by any e-commerce/Web design firm that can come up with an efficient and effective way for restaurants to conduct Internet sales.

Eureka Pizza Inc. of Fayetteville tried selling pizzas over the Internet but found the www.food.com online marketplace it was using to be flawed. When customers placed orders through the online storefront, often they did not receive the right amount of pizzas or were not charged properly.

In addition, Eureka Pizza was receiving only a handful of Internet orders each month. So the company, which has 11 stores in Northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri, is phasing out the interactive portion of www.eurekapizza.com. The information portions will stay.

Company founder and president Rolf Wilkin said another aggravating drawback was that www.food.com simply placed a mechanized call to one of Eureka’s stores to carry out the order. The hassle, he said, wasn’t worth the small segment of Internet business he was getting or the commission being paid to www.food.com.

A team of reviewers, however, found the remaining portions of Eureka Pizza’s site to be informative and well-designed. Wilkin said it’s a great place for customers to look over a menu, which the company even offers in Spanish. He said he sees it as “a glossy brochure that doesn’t have to be reprinted.”

The site was designed three years ago by Interface Computer Center LLC of Fayetteville and upgraded in November by independent designer Simon Hill of London, England. Wilkin said the main goal of the recent makeover was to make sure the site offers comprehensive information for customers.

Our reviewers especially liked the site’s maps, created by mapquest.com, to Eureka Pizza’s stores, although a couple of the cities are hard to find.

One of our technicians said the clean design does a good job of getting the company’s information “out there.”

He did say that nothing showed up under the “Buy 1, Get 2 Free” menu button. And there was nothing in the “Current ad” section of the site. But the shrewdness of including a Spanish menu is by itself worth an extra mouse for the site’s rating.

Wilkin had no information regarding the number of page views he is receiving, but he did say it was “amazing” how many customer comments he receives from the “contact us” section.

The mouse-overs and art work well. We loved the prominent use of the company’s logo and colors. The site is an excellent tool for brand building!