How to Take Online Food Orders Without Just Eat
Can you take online food orders without Just Eat?
Yes. Plenty of restaurants in the UK and Ireland take orders through their own website or app, with no marketplace in the middle. You keep the order value minus a payment processing fee of 1-2%. On Just Eat, commission is usually 25-35%.
Why restaurants are cutting back on Just Eat
Just Eat takes a commission on every order that comes through the platform. That's the obvious cost. The less obvious ones:
- Just Eat has the customer's details. You don't.
- You can't email or text those customers later with an offer.
- Platform rules decide a lot about your pricing and promotions.
- Your listing sits on the same page as the takeaway down the road.
Say you do £10,000 a month through Just Eat. At 25-35%, that's £2,500-3,500 a month in commission, or £30,000-42,000 a year.
How to take online orders without Just Eat
Your own ordering website
Customers search for you by name, open your menu and order. The order goes straight to the kitchen and you pay the payment processing fee, usually 1-2%, and nothing else per order.
Flipdish online ordering gives you an ordering website with your own menu and branding. It connects to your kitchen systems, so orders don't get lost between the website and the pass.
A branded mobile app
An app is for the regulars. Once someone has it on their phone, ordering from you takes a couple of taps, and you can send push notifications about offers or new dishes.
Flipdish branded mobile apps are built for single restaurants and for groups, and push notifications come included.
Social media links
Put a link to your own ordering page in your Instagram and Facebook bio, not a link to your Just Eat listing. It only works if you post often enough that people actually see it.
Your Google Business Profile can show an "Order online" button when someone searches for your restaurant. Point it at your own ordering site. If it points at a marketplace, you're paying commission on customers who were already looking for you.
Moving customers from Just Eat to direct ordering
This doesn't happen on its own. Most people ordered on Just Eat because the app was already on their phone. They'll order direct if it's just as easy, and if they know the option exists.
What restaurants do:
- Print the ordering URL on bags, boxes and receipts
- Stick a QR code on the packaging that goes to the ordering page
- Give a discount or extra loyalty points on the first direct order
- Email customers whose details you already have from elsewhere
- Keep the link in your social bios and mention it in posts
- Ask your regulars. A lot of them will switch if you just tell them it helps you.
You don't have to leave Just Eat straight away. Many restaurants stay listed while direct orders build up, then look at the commission bill again once they can see what's coming through their own channel.
Direct ordering vs Just Eat: the numbers
| Just Eat | Direct ordering | |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | 25-35% per order | None |
| Payment processing | Included in commission | 1-2% of order value |
| Customer data | Just Eat's | Yours |
| Marketing to customers | Not possible | You can email, text and send offers |
| Ordering page | Just Eat branded | Your brand |
| Repeat order tools | Just Eat's loyalty scheme | Your own loyalty programme |
Take 100 orders a week at a £20 average. That's £2,000 a week. On Just Eat you'd pay £500-700 of it in commission, about £26,000-36,000 a year. Through your own site, the payment fee on the same orders is £20-40 a week.
What happens to your Just Eat reviews if you leave?
They stay on Just Eat, but nobody can order from a listing that isn't live, so they stop doing much for you. Direct ordering platforms have their own ratings. Google reviews are the ones worth pushing, because they stay with you whichever ordering platform you use.
How Flipdish fits in
Flipdish covers the whole direct ordering setup in one platform: ordering website, mobile app, kiosks, POS integration, payments and customer marketing.
The Flipdish AI marketing platform uses your order history to send offers to customers who've stopped ordering, and to nudge people who first found you on a marketplace into ordering direct. You don't have to set up each campaign by hand.
Do you still need Just Eat at all?
Maybe. If Just Eat brings you people who'd never find you otherwise - tourists, people who've just moved to the area, someone trying the street for the first time - it can still earn its commission. If your Just Eat orders mostly come from regulars who'd happily order direct, you're paying 25-35% for nothing.
Work out what you paid Just Eat in commission last month. Then compare it with what a direct ordering setup costs. Once a decent share of orders moves over, most restaurants find the commission was the bigger number by a long way.