Local software company’s online ordering tool could help local businesses

With the shutdown happening so fast, local businesses were forced to rethink how they do business.

Now with the recent announcement that retail stores in Ontario will be allowed to reopen for curbside pick-up, things have changed again. Increasingly, local businesses will be forced to adapt policies for curb-side pick-up, in-store pick-up and local home delivery.

In response to this change, the owners of Colour and Code, a website and software development firm located in downtown Lindsay, have developed an online ordering tool to help small and medium-sized local businesses manage and navigate the flood of email and phone orders they have been receiving from customers hoping to support local businesses.

The new tool – ‘fastorder’ — aims to give the best ordering experience to both the businesses and customers, according to Tod Ward (pictured), lead designer at Colour and Code.

“It simplifies the ordering process, connecting businesses and their customers in the fastest and most effective way possible,” says Ward. “It is a better alternative for businesses still fulfilling orders and hoping to ramp up their sales, while still abiding by the social distancing rules set in place for both essential and non-essential businesses.”

Anyone from restaurants and butcher shops, to landscaping and plumbing companies can use  fastorder, he says.

The team at Colour and Code hopes that fastorder will make the ordering process smooth and seamless for both the customer and the businesses using it, which would ultimately help support the local economy at an uncertain time, Ward says.

More information on fastorder can be found at www.fastorder.ca or by emailing