How Restaurants Can Get Customers to Order Direct
Why direct ordering matters
Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo take somewhere between 15% and 35% of every order. On a £20 order that's up to £7 gone before you've paid for a single ingredient or a shift.
When a customer orders through your own website or app, that cost drops to almost nothing. The same £20 order might cost you about 50p to process.
Say you're doing £10,000 a month through marketplaces. Move half of that to your own channel and you save around £7,500 a year at the lowest commission rate. At the top end it's more than double that.
Six ways to get customers ordering direct
1. Put a direct ordering prompt on every receipt and bag
The people already ordering from you like your food. Every bag and receipt that goes out the door is a chance to tell them they can order from you directly, and pay less or earn a reward for doing it.
A sticker that says "Order direct at [yourwebsite.co.uk] and get a free item on your next order" costs pennies. Stick it on every bag.
2. Run a loyalty scheme that only works on direct orders
If customers only earn rewards when they order through your own channel, they've got a real money reason to switch. That's what changes habits.
Flipdish's customer loyalty tools let you set up points, stamps or discounts that only apply to direct orders. A marketplace won't do that for you.
3. Charge less on your own channel
Some restaurants price their menu slightly higher on marketplaces to cover the commission. If a dish is £12 direct and £13.50 on the app, tell people. "Order from us directly and pay less" is a perfectly good message.
Read the marketplace terms first. Some of them have price parity rules.
4. Collect email addresses wherever you can
Anyone who eats in or picks up could become a direct online customer. Get their email through Wi-Fi login, loyalty sign-ups or digital receipts, then send them a short email about ordering direct.
Something like "Did you know you can skip the commission apps? Order at [yourwebsite.co.uk]" costs almost nothing to send, and it goes to people who already know you.
5. Make ordering direct nicer than using the app
Marketplaces are good at getting you found. Once someone knows you, you can beat them on the ordering itself: pages that load fast, a menu with decent photos, clear allergen information, live order tracking and saved favourites for regulars.
Flipdish's online ordering platform is built for restaurants and does all of this without you needing a developer.
6. Send social followers to your own ordering page
Put your direct ordering link in your Instagram and Facebook bios. Add it when you post food photos. Every so often, run an offer that only works on your own channel and push it on social.
Keep doing it every time you post. A marketplace link in your bio sends your own followers to someone who charges you commission on them.
What to expect
This is slow. Expect three to six months of steady effort before the numbers really move. The first people to switch will be:
- regulars who order often
- people who already follow you on social
- customers who've eaten in and had a good time
People who found you through marketplace search are harder to win over. It can be done, though, if their first order goes well and you give them a reason to come back direct.
The technology you need
All of the above depends on having a direct ordering setup that actually works. That means:
- an ordering website that's fast on a phone
- a branded app, if you do enough volume to justify one
- a POS system that shows direct and marketplace orders on the same screen
- a loyalty programme tied to direct orders
- email marketing that's connected to your customer data
Flipdish does all of these in one platform: online ordering, branded apps, POS, loyalty and marketing, built for restaurants. With one system instead of four or five, your customer data, order history and loyalty points sit in the same place, so you can see who orders what and email them about it.
Where to start
Start with the cheap, easy stuff - stickers on bags and the link in your social bios. Once that's running, set up a loyalty scheme for direct orders and start collecting emails. Every order you move off a marketplace keeps the commission in your till.