Rails Filters: Marketplace Menu Visibility

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Applying Filters
  • Categories
  • Products
  • Modifiers
• Enabling Marketplace-Specific Filters
• Examples
• Filter Reports & Visibility
• Important Callouts
• Frequently Asked Questions
  
  

Intro

Menu Visibility Filters allow a brand to specify the availability of categories, products, and modifiers based on the ordering platform. Menu Visibility Filters are managed within the Company Menu for these platforms:

• Branded Ordering Channels: Olo ordering sites/apps, customer front-ends, and Switchboard
  
• Rails Ordering Providers: All marketplaces on Rails or filter by specific marketplaces

Important: Enabling Rails Filters will reset any existing menu filter configurations for Rails Ordering Providers that you have already configured.If your brand has pre-existing menu filters configured for your menu items, then we highly recommend downloading your existing menu filter settings via the new “Menu Filter Summary” report in the Reports section of Olo Dashboard. If a brand is already filtering certain categories/products/modifiers from all Rails Ordering Providers, then turns on Rails Filters in Brand Settings:

• The categories/products/modifiers will now be unfiltered (e.g. visible to) all Rails Ordering Providers/marketplaces 
• Marketplace specific filters need to be reapplied on the affected categories/products/modifiers

Stores already live on a marketplace should take additional steps before enabling filters to mitigate order failures:

1. Confirm successful basket testing of new items at the demo vendor
2. Run price updater after adding new items to a store menu
3. Notify marketplaces of menu changes to schedule a menu refresh (filtering items that currently exist on marketplaces will make them immediately unorderable, but still visible on the marketplace without a menu refresh). We recommend refreshing the menu prior to store opening. 
   
   

Applying Filters

Set Filters for Category

Navigate to the category in Company Menu Admin:

1. Select Edit Category
2. Under Category Visibility, check/uncheck eligible platforms/marketplaces for the category. To view the list of specific marketplaces, click the caret icon next to "Rails Ordering Providers".
3. Click Save

Set Filters for Product

Navigate to the product in Company Menu Admin:

1. Select Edit Product
2. Under Product Visibility, check/uncheck eligible platforms/marketplaces for the product. To view the list of specific marketplaces, click the caret icon next to "Rails Ordering Providers".
3. Click Save

Set Filters for Modifier

Navigate to the modifier in Company Menu Admin:

1. Select Edit Modifier
2. Under Modifier Visibility, check/uncheck eligible platforms/marketplaces for the modifier. To view the list of specific marketplaces, click the caret icon next to "Rails Ordering Providers".
3. Click Save
   
   

Enabling Marketplace-Specific Filters

In order to use Rails Filters, the feature will need to be enabled via the Rails Settings page in the Dashboard. Only Brand Managers with the "Rails Settings" permission are able to enable Rails Filters through Dashboard.

Important:  Enabling Rails Filters will reset any existing Rails menu filter configurations. If your brand has pre-existing Rails menu filters configured for your menu items, then we highly recommend downloading your existing menu filter settings via the new “Menu Filter Summary” report in the Reports section of Olo Dashboard. 

1. From the Olo Dashboard, click on the “Brand” tab in the left nav.
2. The “Brand” tab will expand and display a list of sub-tabs. Select “Brand Settings”.
3. The “Brand Settings” page will appear with a list of tabs. Select the “Rails Settings” tab.
4. From the “Rails Settings” page, scroll down to the section labeled “Rails Filters” and ensure that the toggle for “Enable Marketplace-Specific Menu Filters” is set to “ON.” Don’t forget to click the “Confirm” button to save changes.
   
   

Examples

Display menu items only on the Rails marketplace

Foosburgers is a brand using Olo’s branded desktop and mobile sites. They're also working with DoorDash and Uber Eats on Rails.

Foosburgers exclusively offers a special Burger category designed for delivery on DoorDash and Uber Eats. They do not want to show this category for their branded sites. In Company Menu, Foosburgers unchecks Branded Sites and checks Rails Ordering Providers. This filtering will flow down to all of the underlying products in the category.

Display menu items only on branded sites

Foosburgers excludes fountain drinks from DoorDash and Uber Eats to prevent spills during courier transit. All other beverages are available on Rails. To configure this, the Beverages category is set up to allow both Branded Sites and EOP. However, Foosburgers will uncheck Rails Ordering Providers for the Fountain Drink product. Customers will not be able to order Fountain Drinks on DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Display menu items on some marketplaces but not others

Foosburgers wants to run an exclusive promotion on Bite Squad with a special item only available on their platform. The item should not be available for any other marketplace or on their branded sites. To configure this, the product should have Branded Ordering Channels and Rails Ordering Providers unchecked. They should expand Rails Ordering Providers using the caret icon, then check Bite Squad only. Customers will only be able to see and order the special item on Bite Squad.

Filter Reports & Visibility

Filtering products out of menus can become a complicated endeavor very quickly. That’s why we’ve added some additional reporting capabilities to help you filter your menus easily. 

Dashboard Reports

In the Reports (BETA) tool, there are two new reports available:

• Menu Filter Summary: This report helps answer the question of “Which menu items are being filtered (and for which marketplace if applicable)?”
• This report is helpful for brands that have menu filters already configured and want to enable the new Rails filters feature for the first time. 
• Menu Items with Rails filters: This report helps answer the question of “Which menu items are being filtered for any Rails marketplace and which marketplaces is it being filtered for?”

NOTE: There is typically a 1-day gap between when filters are applied and the data appearing in these reports. If you need real-time visibility, refer to the Menu Audit Logs section below. 

Menu Audit Logs

We’ve added additional information to the logging of filter edits within the “Attributes” section of each row. Within Attributes, you’ll be able to see which channels & marketplaces an item is visible and not visible on. 

Note: Filter changes will always be categorized as a “X Edited” category, where X = Category, Product, or Modifier. 

Important Callouts

1. As with all menu changes/edits, we highly recommend you make these updates after normal business hours; menu changes can be processed significantly faster by Olo and ingested significantly faster by Rails Marketplace partners, leading to a lower likelihood of order failures. 
   
   
2. The marketplaces listed and visible in Rails Filters are enabled via the Rails Settings page in the Olo Dashboard. Dashboard Managers with the “Rails Settings” permission can access the Rails Settings page and make changes by going to BRAND (in the left nav) > Brand Settings (from the tab drop-down items) > Rails Settings (in the text tabs). We encourage brands to adjust their marketplace visibility to reflect their current marketplace relationships. 
   
   
3. An explanation of the indicators:
   
   
   • (All selected) or (## selected) - Is a counter indicator indicating the number of ordering providers which have been selected
     
     
   • (####/1913 enabled vendors) - Is a counter indicator indicating the number of vendors which are active on that particular marketplace. This number reflects the vendors which are active and can be adjusted in Rails Management.
     
     
     
     
   • Rails Filters are managed within the Company Menu for these platforms listed below.
     • Important: Stores already live on a marketplace should take additional steps before enabling filters to mitigate order failures:
     • The filter settings for the parent category/product/modifier will be applied to nested entities. (ex: A product that is filtered out of a marketplace cannot have its modifier filtered back into the marketplace.)
     • Rails filters can only be configured using the Menu Admin interface within the Dashboard and cannot be configured using Menu/Store Sync or Menu Import Service.
     • Enabling and then disabling Rails filters will cause marketplace-specific filtering to be disabled, and revert back to Rails-wide filtering. 
       
       

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to do anything to use this feature if I already have filters active on my menus? 

A: If you’d like greater control over which marketplaces your filters are active for, then YES, you’ll need to follow the steps above to enable and apply the filters. If you’re comfortable with the previous filter functionality (where you’re only able to filter for ALL Rails marketplaces or NONE) then you won’t need to adjust anything. 

 

My brand uses MIS/Menu Sync (aka Store Sync) to send Olo menus. Can I use this feature? 

A: Rails filters can only be configured using the Menu Admin interface within the Olo Dashboard and cannot be configured using Menu/Store Sync or Menu Import Service (MIS) files. 

 

If I’ve filtered a product out of a specific marketplace, will I need to go in and filter out all of the child/nested modifiers active for that product too?

A: It depends. If the filtered product has a unique modifier or modifier group, then that will automatically be filtered out as well and no further action is needed. However, if the filtered product has a shared modifier or modifier group nested within, then those modifiers/groups will need to have filters applied to them individually.

What is the default visibility of a new category or product?

When a category or product is created, it will be available to branded channels and to Rails marketplaces (if you’re working with Rails Partners). As a reminder, categories and products are not available until they are actually added to the Store Menu. 

Can a category include a mix of brand-exclusive or Rails-exclusive products?

Yes, configure the category filter to include both Branded Ordering Channels and Rails Ordering Providers. Then, select the appropriate visibility settings for each underlying product. Products inherit visibility settings from the category and category settings override any underlying product visibility. Similarly, modifiers inherit visibility settings from the product.

What if I filter on a modifier group with a preselected option?

If a modifier group containing a pre-selected modifier is filtered out of an ordering platform, the order will be sent to the POS with the pre-selected option. 

Why don't I see a certain marketplace in the list to filter?

Make sure the marketplace is enabled under Brand Settings. Learn more about enabling marketplaces in this article.

How can I basket test Rails-exclusive products or categories?

Update the Basket from External Ordering Partners (EOP)? field to Yes within the basket tester tool. Our article on basket testing has further details on running basket tests for items and how you can troubleshoot invalid basket tests.