Yes they matter. I worked on a website for a national restaurant chain for a while, and they get over 100 million dollars in online orders through their website a year. Same with pizza places. Making it easier to order food on the web brings in a lot of money. If this process is painful, it will have a definite impact on revenue.
You can also directly email customers who spend the most money (based on info in the online ordering database) and send them weekly specials and coupons on the website. This is very effective.
"Pizza Hut is getting 30 percent of its sales online. Moreover, online boosts the amount of sales – online orders are ten percent higher than in-person orders because it is so easy to check off additional or more expensive items." Source: http://localonliner.com/2010/01/29/newspapers-partner-with-a...
I think he was referring to actual restaurants, not "restaurants" like pizza hut. When I think of restaurant I imagine a sit-down place that is not fast food.
These site-down restaurants without take-out/delivery should have all of their information easily available online for potential customers to find before they make a reservation. So, yes, I think that it is still very important to have an easy to use website for a restaurant.
You can also directly email customers who spend the most money (based on info in the online ordering database) and send them weekly specials and coupons on the website. This is very effective.
"Pizza Hut is getting 30 percent of its sales online. Moreover, online boosts the amount of sales – online orders are ten percent higher than in-person orders because it is so easy to check off additional or more expensive items." Source: http://localonliner.com/2010/01/29/newspapers-partner-with-a...