How to Replace Foodhub With Direct Online Ordering

Can you replace Foodhub with direct online ordering?

Yes. If you're taking orders through Foodhub now, you can move those orders onto your own website and app. It isn't a switch you flip on a Monday morning. The new channel has to be working first, and then you have to get customers to actually use it, which is the harder bit. But takeaways do it all the time, and once orders come in directly you stop handing a slice of each one to a marketplace.

Why restaurants leave Foodhub

Foodhub is a UK online ordering marketplace. It pitches itself to restaurants as the cheaper option next to Just Eat or Deliveroo, and if you've been paying those commissions it can look like a sensible halfway house on the way to independence.

A lower rate doesn't change who owns the customer, though. When someone orders from you through Foodhub, their email address, their order history and their contact details sit with Foodhub. You can't email them. You can't put them on a loyalty scheme. On a dead Tuesday in February you can't send them a "haven't seen you in a while" offer, because as far as your business is concerned they don't exist.

Then there's the dependency. Fees, where you rank in the listings, what promotions you're expected to run, the rules in general. Foodhub sets all of it. If they change the model, you live with it.

Customers also see Foodhub's app before they see anything of yours. You're one listing in a scroll of other takeaways, some of them two streets away and some of them cheaper.

Foodhub typically charges a fee on card payments as well. It's small on any one order, but it adds up when you're doing a few hundred orders a week.

And there's no way to reward a regular. The customer who has ordered every Friday for two years gets treated exactly the same as someone ordering for the first time. Every order starts from zero.

What direct ordering actually means

Customers order through something you own: a website with your name on it, an app, or both. You decide how it looks and how it works. You get the customer data. You pay for the technology platform, but you're not paying commission on every order, so you keep the margin.

Orders come into your kitchen through your own system instead of a marketplace tablet sitting by the till. And what happens with that customer next - whether you email them, give them points, send them a voucher when it's quiet - is your call.

Step 1: Pick a platform

You need something to run the direct channel. At a minimum that means:

  • an ordering website with your branding on it
  • iOS and Android apps
  • order management that works with your current POS, or replaces it
  • payments built in
  • some way to market to the people who order

Flipdish is built for restaurants and takeaways doing exactly this. You get a branded restaurant website, mobile apps and a restaurant POS, so online orders and walk-in orders land in the same kitchen queue. Nobody's juggling two screens and a printer.

It also has AI marketing tools for bringing customers back, a loyalty programme for repeat orders, and AI phone ordering if your phone still rings a lot.

Step 2: Get the new channel live before you leave Foodhub

Don't close the Foodhub account first. That's how you lose a month of takings.

Do it in roughly this order:

  1. Build the website and app, then test them properly. Place real orders. Try to break it.
  2. Show staff how orders come through and what to do when one goes wrong.
  3. Soft-launch to your regulars before you tell everyone.
  4. Start pushing Foodhub customers towards the direct channel.
  5. Scale Foodhub back as direct orders grow, then close it.

Run both side by side for a while. It means paying Foodhub a bit longer, but you're not betting the week's revenue on a launch going perfectly.

Step 3: Move your Foodhub customers across

This is where it's won or lost. Most people on Foodhub ordered from you because Foodhub was already open on their phone. They need a reason to change.

Start with an offer on the first direct order. Money off, a free side, free delivery. Something concrete they can see. You'll usually get the cost back within two or three repeat orders, and faster if loyalty points are already set up.

While you're still on Foodhub, put a printed card in every delivery bag. Every single one, not just when someone remembers. Put the promo code on it and tell people why ordering direct is better for them: quicker reordering, loyalty points, and they can deal with you directly if something's wrong with the order. The bag is the one part of a Foodhub order you fully control.

Post your ordering link on social media, and keep posting it. Once isn't enough. People follow you because they like your food, so point them at the place where their order does the most for your business.

Check your Google Business Profile. A lot of takeaways still have the Foodhub link sitting on there. When someone searches your restaurant's name, they should land on your own site, not a marketplace page with your competitors listed underneath you.

Once you've got a list of direct customers, use email and push notifications. New menu items, a midweek deal, a nudge to someone who hasn't ordered in a month. Flipdish's marketing tools can automate most of this, so it isn't another job for whoever's closing up.

Step 4: Sort out phone orders

Plenty of takeaway customers still phone. Usually regulars, and often the ones who order the most. If direct ordering is going to fully replace Foodhub, phone orders have to work on a busy night, not just a quiet one.

Flipdish's AI phone agent answers the call, takes the order by voice, sends it to the kitchen and confirms it with the customer. Nobody on staff has to pick up. It takes more than one call at a time, so the phone isn't ringing out at 7pm on a Friday while the only free pair of hands is covered in flour.

If you get a lot of calls, this matters more than it sounds. A missed call on a Friday is a lost order, and some of those customers will just go back to Foodhub because it was easier. With the phones handled, staff stay on prep and service.

Step 5: Build the customer list

Every direct order gives you a customer whose details you now hold. Make sure the system actually catches them:

  • Prompt people to create an account or save their details on their first order.
  • Collect email addresses, with proper consent.
  • Give loyalty points or rewards on every direct order.
  • Set up a re-engagement campaign that goes out by itself when someone hasn't ordered for a set number of weeks.

That list is one of the few things in a takeaway that gets more valuable the longer you have it. You can use it to fill a quiet night, win back people who've drifted off, and look after your best regulars. And you don't pay a platform every time you want to reach them.

Step 6: Make reordering easy

People go back to whatever's easiest. After your first proper push, go through the ordering process yourself, on your own phone, like a customer would:

  • How many taps does it take to reorder the usual?
  • Does the app work on both iPhone and Android without errors?
  • Are the delivery and collection time estimates right, or is every order 15 minutes late?
  • Does payment go through cleanly, and does the receipt turn up straight away?

Flipdish saves addresses and payment methods, so a repeat order takes seconds. If it works the same way every time, people keep using it. If it fails once at the payment screen, some of them won't try again.

What about delivery?

Foodhub gives you the marketplace, but it typically doesn't supply drivers. Most Foodhub restaurants run their own delivery. If that's you, moving to direct ordering doesn't change anything about how the food gets to the door.

If you rely on a courier network, check that your new ordering platform connects to a delivery management tool before you switch. Flipdish has delivery tools built in.

How long does it take?

Getting a Flipdish website and ordering system live usually takes a few weeks. Building up direct order volume takes longer. For most operators it's three to six months while customers get out of the marketplace habit and into yours.

It gets better as it goes. A direct customer is worth more to you over time than a marketplace one. You can market to them without paying a platform fee, and their order history tells you what to promote and when.

Is it worth it?

For most takeaways and restaurants on Foodhub, yes.

Every customer you move across is one you can contact, reward and keep, and that adds up month after month. A restaurant with a working direct channel can see who its regulars are, reach them when trade is slow, and doesn't have to worry about where a marketplace decides to list it this week.

How Flipdish helps

Flipdish covers each part of moving off Foodhub:

See how it works at flipdish.com/online-ordering.