How to Increase Direct Orders for Your Restaurant

Why direct orders matter for your restaurant

When a customer orders through Deliveroo, Uber Eats, or Just Eat, you typically pay 14–35% in commission. When they order directly through your website or app, you pay a fixed platform fee — and you keep the rest.

At scale, the difference is significant. A restaurant turning over £500,000 in delivery and collection orders could be paying £70,000–£175,000 per year in marketplace commissions. Shifting even 30% of that volume to direct orders substantially improves margins.

Beyond cost, direct orders give you:

Customer data — Email addresses, order history, and preferences that marketplaces never share
Loyalty relationships — The ability to reward repeat customers directly
Brand control — Customers associate the experience with you, not the marketplace

1. Build a fast, mobile-first direct ordering channel

The most important step is having a direct ordering channel that actually converts. A slow website with a complicated checkout loses customers to the frictionless marketplace experience.

A restaurant online ordering system designed for hospitality — not bolted onto a generic web platform — will outperform a DIY setup. Look for:

Mobile-first design (most restaurant orders come from smartphones)
Guest checkout option alongside customer accounts
Saved payment methods for repeat customers
Real-time delivery time estimates

The best systems, such as Flipdish online ordering, connect directly to your POS so kitchen staff see all orders in one queue — no separate tablet.

2. Incentivise customers to switch channels

Customers use Deliveroo because it is convenient. To win them back to direct ordering, you need to give them a reason to switch — and then make the experience good enough that they stay.

Effective incentives:

First direct order discount — A simple "10% off your first order at [website]" printed on takeaway bags and packaging is one of the highest-return promotions in restaurant marketing.
Loyalty points only on direct orders — Make your loyalty scheme exclusive to direct channels. A customer who earns points on your app has a reason to return to your app.
Faster delivery on direct orders — When your POS handles all orders in one queue, you can prioritise direct channel orders at peak times.

3. Use packaging and receipts as marketing

Every bag that leaves your kitchen is an opportunity to redirect a marketplace customer.

Include in every bag:

A card with your website URL and a discount code for direct ordering
Your QR code linking to your ordering page
A message explaining the benefit ("Order direct — faster delivery, exclusive offers")

This is particularly effective because it targets customers who are already buying from you and are satisfied with the food. They are the highest-probability converters.

4. Run loyalty exclusively on your direct channel

A loyalty programme that works across Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and your own website provides no incentive for direct ordering. A scheme that only rewards direct orders is a sustained conversion engine.

With Flipdish AI Marketing, you can:

Offer points on direct orders only
Send targeted win-back campaigns to customers who haven't ordered recently
Segment customers by order frequency and order value
Automate re-engagement messages

When customers know that loyalty benefits only accumulate through your own channel, the behaviour shift follows.

5. Capture and use customer data

Marketplaces do not share customer data with you. This is not an accident — it is their business model.

Every direct order is an opportunity to collect an email address. Once you have that data, you can:

Run email campaigns promoting direct ordering
Offer exclusive discounts to lapsed customers
Promote new menu items before they appear on marketplaces
Send automated re-order reminders based on typical order frequency

A restaurant CRM that captures and acts on this data turns a one-time customer into a regular. Flipdish AI Marketing is built specifically for this.

6. Make direct ordering the easiest option

Marketplaces win on discoverability and convenience. You win by making your direct channel even more convenient for existing customers.

Tactics:

Saved addresses and payment methods — A returning customer should be able to reorder in three taps
Reorder button — Show previous orders prominently
Push notifications — A branded restaurant app allows you to send targeted promotions directly to customers' phones, bypassing email open rates
Google Business Profile — Add your direct ordering link as the main "Order Online" button in your Google listing

The Google Business ordering link alone can meaningfully increase direct order volume with no ongoing cost.

7. Reduce your marketplace visibility gradually

Pulling off marketplaces entirely is rarely the right move — they still bring new customers you wouldn't otherwise reach. The goal is to convert marketplace-acquired customers to your direct channel over time.

A practical approach:

Build your direct ordering channel first
Add the direct ordering channel to packaging and receipts immediately
Launch loyalty exclusively on your direct channel
Start email marketing to direct order customers
Gradually increase prices on marketplaces to reflect the commission cost (many operators add 10–15% to marketplace menus)
Use marketplace presence for acquisition, direct channel for retention

Measuring progress

Track these metrics monthly:

Metric	What it tells you
% of orders through direct channel	Your current split
Average order value by channel	Whether direct orders are larger
Repeat order rate by channel	Whether direct customers are more loyal
Customer acquisition cost	Whether marketplace acquisition is actually profitable
Commission paid as % of revenue	The true cost of marketplace dependence

How Flipdish helps operators drive direct orders

Flipdish is built specifically around the first-party ordering model. The platform gives restaurant operators:

A branded website and app for direct ordering
A loyalty and CRM system that incentivises repeat direct orders
Marketing automation that converts marketplace customers over time
Full customer data ownership from day one

For operators serious about growing direct sales, see Flipdish online ordering and Flipdish AI Marketing.