Introducing — a little "thank you" that keeps your customers coming back!

With our new loyalty points feature, customers will start earning points on every order they place through your storefront. These points can be redeemed for discounts on future orders, making it easier (and tastier) for them to come back for more.

You’re in control — set the points accrual rate anywhere from 3 to 10 points per dollar spent to match your business needs and customer rewards strategy.

You can enable loyalty points and set your accrual rate in the new Loyalty Points tab of your settings. Once turned on, customers will see how many points they’re earning at the bottom of their order summary:

On future orders, customers with available points will see the option to redeem them at checkout. If they do, they’ll receive a discount of and see it reflected in their receipt:

And the best part? Even after redeeming points, customers will continue earning points on the remaining balance — keeping the rewards cycle going strong.

We're launching loyalty points with a few additional - and optional - features to help incentivize the growth of your business:

You can find the settings for all of these features in the Settings panel, along with more information on each - and the program generally - in the Help Center.

We’re so excited to see how this feature helps you build loyal, returning customers — and we can’t wait to hear your feedback and keep making it better!

🎉 Nico

We have added a new breakdown to your Insights tab: Items sold!

This graph shows you how many items you have sold overall + a breakdown so you can see which item is the most popular among your customers.

We love getting your feedback on what you want to see from insights, so please keep the requests coming so we can build you even more useful tools!

🚨 Hotly requested, you can now add Cash, Venmo, and Zelle as payment options in the new checkout flow.

In addition to our existing payment options, you can have customers pay you outside of Hotplate with Cash, Venmo and Zelle. In the section of your settings, you'll be able to toggle each of these and provide custom instructions on how you want to be paid.

After you've flipped these on, customers will be able to checkout with any of the options you've enabled.

And once they've confirmed, they'll see your payment instructions on their order confirmation page.

Adam <3

Now you can offer gift cards directly as menu items in your events! This update allows you to seamlessly integrate gift card purchases alongside your event offerings, making it easier than ever for customers to grab a thoughtful gift while checking out other items.

When setting up an event, you can now add gift cards as part of your event menu so customers can purchase them just like any other item.

Gift cards have always been available on your storefront, but adding them to your menu creates a powerful opportunity to increase sales. Whether it’s a pop-up dinner, a cooking class, or a holiday event, gift cards are now front and center for customers who may not have considered buying one before.

Here’s the new option on the event configuration page:

And here's how it looks on an event page:

In the spirit of the holiday season, we're pleased to offer this 🎁 for Hotplate chefs!

🤑

Simple, inflexible discounts are becoming a thing of the past as we introduce a far more feature-rich process for creating and managing codes. WIth this update, you can now:

We've also moved discounts out of settings, and into their own tab on the new Store page:

On this page, you can add, view, and manage all of your active and inactive discount codes:

Clicking on a discount code will show you details about that code, including discount specifics and how much it's been used:

And finally, you can create event-specific discount codes directly in an event:

...and customer-specific discount codes directly from the customer page:

With these changes, you can finally create the perfect discount codes for your customers!

Chefs can now create a standout storefront that reflects their unique culinary identity. The new "Storefront" tab allows you to customize your online presence with ease.

* Upload logo and banner images that capture your culinary style

* Choose a color palette that matches your brand

* Customize your storefront's look and feel with simple, intuitive controls

Add credibility and personality to your storefront by including:

* An "about me" section

* Social media links and other storefront links

Create a dedicated FAQ section to:

* Anticipate customer questions

* Provide clear information about your service

* Reduce customer support inquiries

The new Storefront tab is accessible from the "Store" page, making it simple to build a professional, engaging online presence that attracts and informs potential customers.

We can't wait to see how you'll showcase your unique culinary brand!

We're so excited to see the reviews feature take-off and to see all love rolling in! We've also heard your feedback about the number of texts being sent to customers requesting reviews, and have added two new settings to give you more control:

We've also made a couple more small tweaks to improve reviews:

We're eager to keep improving this feature, so keep the feedback coming!

–

📣

Do you have hotplate stores that you buy from and love? Have you built friendships with other local hotplate store owners in your area or around the country? Or maybe you've recently referred a new hotplate user and want to help their store grow?

Well good news! You can now recommend other Hotplate stores to folks who visit your own storefront page - a great way to help build community with your fellow hotplate cooks and bakers.

The new "Recommendations" tab inside your "Store" section has everything you need to view, add, and manage your recommendations, as well as gain valuable insights about how your recommendations have helped other store owners (and how their recommendations have helped you):

Stores you recommended will appear on your storefront, for visitors to browse, subscribe to, and visit:

With new recommendations insights, you'll also be able to see the direct impact of your recommendations (and the stores that have recommended you) on revenue, orders, and new customers:

Checkout our help center article to learn more.

Just another great way to share the love on Hotplate!

You can now create and manage menu items independently of events! See and manage all your items in one place. When you navigate to the new "Store" tab, you'll find a dedicated section for managing your menu items. Here you can:

These menu items can then be selected and added to events as needed, streamlining your event planning process. Menu items can still also be added and managed while creating events.

To tie these improvements together, we've introduced a new "Store" page that serves as the homepage when you log into your Hotplate host portal. The Store page includes events and a tab for managing menu items.

Stay tuned for the Store page to get even more features soon to make managing your storefront a lot simpler.

We're excited about these updates and hope they help streamline your menu planning and event management processes. As always, let us know if you have any feedback or questions!

–

James

💸

We know taxes aren’t the most thrilling topic, but getting them right can make all the difference. Now, when creating or editing menu items and locations, you can add custom tax rates specific to that item or location, taking the guesswork out of the whole process.

Here's how it works:

At the bottom of the menus for creating and editing items and locations, you'll see a new option for setting custom rates:

Clicking "Set" will provide options for setting a custom rate (Note: "Tax Exempt" is only available for menu items):

And "Save" will now clearly display the custom rate:

Custom rates and tax-exempt statuses are also clearly shown in the list of locations and items when creating an event:

How it all adds up:

Ready to take your tax game to the next level? With custom rates, your setup can flex to fit your needs, giving you one less thing to worry about when the orders start rolling in!