Build your pizzeria website in Columbia
Columbia is a college town with a legendary pizzeria at its center and tens of thousands of students who change every year. A website lets an independent pizzeria win those students each fall, keep the year-round locals, and take orders directly instead of paying an app a commission on each one.
A town with a pizza landmark
In 1973, Shakespeare’s Pizza opened as a one-room takeout shop at Ninth and Elm, across the street from the University of Missouri. Over the decades it took over the building, survived a full demolition and rebuild with student housing on top, and became the place where generations of Mizzou students celebrated, studied late and came back with their own kids. Its fiftieth birthday party in 2023 drew a crowd downtown.
That sets the bar for every other pizzeria in Columbia. Customers here have a reference point, and they have strong opinions. An independent wins by being clearly itself: a style, a neighborhood and a reason to choose it. Your website is where you make that case.
Three colleges, one calendar
The University of Missouri, Stephens College and Columbia College together bring nearly 40,000 students to a city halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City. Downtown, East Campus and the West Broadway area are dense and walkable, and DoorDash and Uber Eats deliver there in minutes. But much of that demand disappears in summer, and home football weekends bring the opposite: packed streets and slow deliveries.
Your own site lets you plan for both. Late hours and group orders during the semester, game-day pickup slots, and a focus on the year-round neighborhoods when students go home.
The locals who stay
Beyond campus, Columbia has its own residents: families in the historic neighborhoods, artists and musicians in the North Village Arts District, and growing subdivisions on the west and south sides off I-70, where most people drive to pick up. They order all year, and every one of their orders through an app costs you a commission.
Keep your site simple: your style, your menu with sizes in inches, hours, delivery zone, phone number and an order button. Put the link on every box and receipt. In a town that loves its local landmarks, the pizzeria that is easy to order from directly can become one.