Online food ordering site OrderUp is looking to tap into the growing online food ordering market with a new mobile application that lets consumers place orders in a few steps.

OrderUp claims that the app mirrors the company’s Web site and is available for iPhone and Android devices. OrderUp already sees 25 percent of consumers placing orders via a mobile site and with the launch of the app, expects for mobile to make up 50 percent of orders by the end of the year.

“The initial focus of OrderUp was to build a great mobile site that is fast, simple and easy to use,” said Chris Jeffery, CEO of OrderUp, Baltimore.

“The new mobile app is a first version ‘wrap’ of the mobile site,” he said. “We will be taking user feedback and developing a second, native version of the app over the next six months that will make discovering and ordering food from the best hometown restaurants even easier.”

A mobile order
When consumers first open the app, they can choose to create either a delivery or takeout order and enter their street address to find nearby restaurants.

OrderUp is available in 25 cities, including some of the smaller markets that competitors such as Grubhub Seamless are not focusing on. Restaurants in cities in AL, MO, MD, CO and CA are all using OrderUp.

Consumers can view a list of restaurants that can be sorted by featured or type of cuisine. Consumers can also view additional information about restaurants, such as a menu, Yelp reviews and featured food items.

Additionally, the app features a click-to-call feature, address and map to show consumers where the restaurant is.

The app lets consumers customize their meal and requires an OrderUp account to place an order.

Although the app is simple, it is effective in getting consumers through the order process quickly.

Another screenshot of OrderUp’s Android app

Increasing competition
OrderUp is likely rolling out a mobile app to latch on to some of the success that companies such as Grubhub Seamless and Delivery.com have seen with mobile.

Grubhub and Seamless for example recently merged to create a bigger footprint in the online ordering space, citing $875 in gross food sales in 2012 from online and mobile platforms (see story).

In December of 2012, Seamless was seeing more than 40 percent of orders coming from mobile devices (see story).

For OrderUp, mobile is a natural way to help the company scale its business. The company has plans to expand in the next few months to new markets beyond its current 25 locations.

Additionally, the company believes that the unique content within the mobile app will differentiate it from competitors.

“It’s the content within the app, the restaurant options, deals and availability of the options, that make us unique,” Mr. Jeffery said.

“Unlike our competitors, we use a digital franchise model where we sell franchise ownership of the company to entrepreneurs around the country,” he said. “You can’t franchise a piece of GrubHub or Seamless, which has expanded using a traditional business model of raising venture capital money to support their entry into highly-concentrated markets.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York