How to Get Customers to Order Directly Instead of Through Delivery Apps
Eleven ways for restaurants, cafés and cloud kitchens to move regulars from delivery apps to their own ordering link and keep the commission.
Food delivery apps are very good at one thing: putting your restaurant in front of people who have never heard of you. They are much less kind to you when the same guest orders for the fifth time. You still pay commission on that order, the guest's phone number stays with the app, and the money arrives days later.
The answer isn't to leave the apps. It's to let them find you new guests, and then give the guests who already like you a better way to order from you directly. Here is how.
What a direct order is worth
Work it out with your own numbers. Say 300 of your orders each month come from guests who have ordered before, and your average order is ₹400. That's ₹1,20,000 of repeat business.
| Through an app | Direct | |
|---|---|---|
| Value of 300 repeat orders | ₹1,20,000 | ₹1,20,000 |
| Commission (example: 25%) | ₹30,000 | ₹0 |
| What reaches you | ₹90,000, days later | ₹1,20,000, at once |
| Guests' phone numbers | Stay with the app | Yours |
Commission rates vary by app, city and agreement, and apps often charge for ads and discounts on top, so put in your own rate. Here is what reaches you from the same ₹1,20,000 at a few different rates:
Worked out from the example above (300 orders × ₹400), before payment and delivery costs. Ads and discounts on the app would lower the app rows further.
Even if only a third of those regulars switch, it adds up to real money every month. (GST is the same either way: on app orders the app collects it, on direct orders you do.1)
1. Get your own ordering link
You need somewhere for direct orders to go: a simple website with your menu, prices and photos, where guests can order for delivery or takeaway and pay you by UPI or cash. It has to be as easy as the app, on a phone, with no app to download, or guests won't bother.
2. Put a QR code in every bag
The guest holding your food is the warmest lead you will ever have. Put a card or sticker in every delivery bag, with a QR code that opens your ordering link and one clear reason to use it: "Order direct next time and get 10% off" or "Free dessert on your first direct order".
3. Add the link to your Google Business Profile
When people search for your restaurant's name, your Google listing is often the first thing they see. Add your ordering link as your website and in the order or menu link, so that people already looking for you can order without opening an app. Google also lets you add your menu to your profile on Search and Maps.2
4. Use WhatsApp
Many of your regulars already message you. Put your ordering link in your WhatsApp Business profile, your status and your quick replies, so a guest who asks "are you open?" gets a link to order instead of a conversation.
5. Put it in your Instagram bio
If you post your food on Instagram, the link in your bio should go to your own ordering page, not to an app listing.
6. Give a reason to switch, once
A first-order coupon is the easiest nudge. You don't need to undercut the apps forever: one good reason to try ordering direct is usually enough, because after that it is simply easier.
7. Reward regulars with loyalty points
Points on every direct order give regulars a reason to keep coming back to your link. Tie them to the guest's phone number so there is no card to lose and nothing to download.
8. Make reordering one tap
Most regulars order the same few dishes. If your ordering page remembers what they had last time and lets them order it again in one tap, it becomes faster than searching for you on an app.
9. Send offers to guests who've gone quiet
Once guests order direct, you have their names, numbers and what they ordered. Use them carefully: a short WhatsApp message with an offer to a guest who hasn't ordered in a month is far cheaper than paying for visibility on an app. Don't message so often that people mute you.
10. Use table QR codes and the counter
Dine-in guests and walk-ins are already your customers. A QR code on the table or at the counter, linking to the same ordering page, teaches them where to order from home next time.
11. Make the direct experience better, not just cheaper
Guests will order direct when it is genuinely better: accurate delivery times, a way to follow the order, a friendly note in the bag, and a quick reply when something goes wrong. These are things only you can control, because on your own link you own the whole experience.
Keep the apps, but for what they're good at
Stay on the apps to be found by new guests. Measure how many of your orders come from repeat guests, and aim to move more of them to your own link each month. That number, not your app ranking, is the best measure of whether your business is getting stronger.
How Dineto helps
Dineto gives every restaurant, café and cloud kitchen its own ordering website with 0% commission, and the tools that bring guests back: coupon codes, loyalty points, one-tap reordering, offers sent to past guests on WhatsApp, and a customer list that fills itself as guests order. Guests pay you directly by UPI or cash, and each order goes straight to the kitchen as a numbered KOT.
Opening a delivery-only kitchen? Start with our guide to starting a cloud kitchen in India.
Sources
We check every figure in this guide against these sources. Rules change, so the date of each is given.
- Circular No. 167/23/2021-GST: GST on restaurant services supplied through e-commerce operators (opens in a new tab)CBIC, 17 December 2021 · gstcouncil.gov.in
- Now it's easier to show what your business offers on Google (opens in a new tab)Google · blog.google
