Delivery apps changed how people order dinner. For an independent restaurant they are useful: guests who have never heard of you can find you, order, and come back.
The trouble starts when they come back through the app again. The app takes its cut of every order, typically somewhere between 15% and 30% depending on your plan and country, even when the guest is a regular who would happily have ordered from you directly.
This guide shows how to keep the apps for what they are good at, and move your repeat orders to your own website.
Do the maths on your own orders
Take a restaurant that gets 300 app orders a month at an average of $30, on a 30% plan:
- 300 orders × $30 = $9,000 in app sales
- 30% commission = $2,700 a month to the app
Now suppose a third of those orders are regulars. If they ordered directly instead, you would keep around $900 a month, before card fees. That is more than $10,000 a year from one change in habit.
Run the same numbers with your own order count and plan. Most owners are surprised.
Keep the apps, move the regulars
You do not need to leave Uber Eats, DoorDash, Deliveroo or Just Eat. Think of them as advertising that pays per order: good for reaching new people, expensive for people who already know you.
The goal is simple: a guest's first order can come through an app; their second order should come through you.
What "ordering direct" needs
To make ordering from you as easy as ordering from an app, you need:
- Your own website with your full menu, fast on a phone, with prices and photos.
- Online ordering for pickup, paid by card, with orders arriving on a phone or tablet in the kitchen.
- Delivery, if you want it. Either your own driver, or an on-demand courier service. Several platforms offer delivery-only services with a flat fee per trip rather than a percentage of the order, which usually works out far cheaper on larger orders.
- Card payments. Card processing typically costs around 3% in the US and often less in the UK and Europe. That is still a fraction of an app commission.
Five ways to move your regulars
- A card in every app bag. "Order direct next time and get a free drink" with a QR code to your site. This is the single most effective step.
- A QR code at the counter and on tables that opens your menu and ordering page.
- An "Order online" link on your Google profile pointing to your own site, so people searching your name land on your menu first.
- Your Instagram and Facebook bio link pointing to your ordering page, not the app.
- A simple loyalty reward, such as every tenth direct order free, so ordering from you is the better deal.
Fix your Google profile while you are at it
Most guests check Google before they order or visit. Make sure your Google Business Profile has:
- correct hours, including holidays,
- fifteen or more good photos of your food and room,
- your menu and your ordering link,
- a reply to every review, good or bad.
It costs nothing and it is often the first impression a new guest gets.
Respect the rules on marketing messages
If you collect emails or phone numbers to send offers, follow the local rules: in the US, include a clear way to unsubscribe (CAN-SPAM); in Canada, you need consent before sending marketing messages (CASL); in the UK and the EU, you need a privacy notice and, for most marketing, consent (GDPR). Asking at checkout with an unticked box is a safe habit everywhere.
Measure one number every month
Track the share of your orders that come direct. If it moves from 10% to 30% over a few months, the savings follow. If it does not move, look at where your regulars are still ordering, and put your QR code there.
How we can help
At Qudexa we build and run this for independent restaurants: your website, commission-free ordering, your Google profile, review requests and social posts, for one monthly fee, and you own your domain and data.
- See an example restaurant site we built.
- See what we do for restaurants, with plans and prices, and request a free audit of your restaurant's online presence.
