How to Replace Foodhub With Direct Online Ordering

Restaurants and takeaways using Foodhub can build a direct ordering channel that captures the same volume at a fraction of the cost per order. The switch takes a few weeks and the financial case is usually clear. This guide covers how to do it.

What Foodhub costs your restaurant

Foodhub is a food delivery marketplace operating in the UK. It connects restaurants with customers searching for local takeaways and handles ordering, payment processing and, in some cases, delivery logistics.

The immediate cost is commission — a percentage of each order that goes to Foodhub rather than your restaurant. The less visible cost is the customer relationship. When someone orders through Foodhub, their contact details and order history belong to Foodhub. You receive the order and the net payment. The customer's email address, phone number and purchasing behaviour stay with the platform.

This means you cannot market to that customer directly. You cannot run a loyalty programme they access through your brand. You cannot understand their ordering patterns to improve your offer. They remain a Foodhub customer who happened to order from you — not your customer.

For restaurants doing meaningful volume through Foodhub, this cost compounds over time. Every repeat order from a marketplace customer is a repeat commission payment on a customer you never fully acquired.

What direct ordering changes

When a customer orders through your own website or app:

  • You receive their name and contact details
  • Their order history is stored in your system
  • You can enrol them in loyalty
  • You can market to them directly
  • Commission on future orders is zero or significantly reduced

A customer who orders through your direct channel ten times a year has a materially different value than a Foodhub customer ordering ten times a year. The difference is not just the commission saving — it is the marketing and retention potential that comes with every future order.

Step 1: Choose a direct ordering platform

The first practical decision is choosing how to take direct orders.

Options include:

  • Building your own. Technically possible but expensive to develop, maintain and keep secure. Requires ongoing developer resource. Not recommended for most restaurants.
  • Using a dedicated direct ordering platform. The practical choice for most takeaways and restaurants.

Flipdish provides a branded website and, optionally, a branded mobile app. Your restaurant's name, logo and design are front and centre — it looks and feels like your restaurant's own channel. Orders route directly to your kitchen. Payment processing is handled by the platform. You retain the customer data.

When evaluating platforms, look for:

  • Branded website and app — not a listing page on someone else's platform
  • Direct customer data access — your data, not the platform's
  • POS integration so orders flow directly to your kitchen
  • No per-order commission model
  • UK support and local implementation capability

Flipdish meets all of these criteria and works with restaurants and takeaways across the UK and Ireland.

Step 2: Set up your menu to convert visitors

A direct ordering page that does not convert is not better than Foodhub. Your menu needs to work for customers who are actively choosing where to spend their money.

Photos on every main item. Menu items with photos consistently outperform those without. You do not need a professional food photographer — well-lit images against a clean background work effectively. The investment pays back quickly.

Descriptions that answer questions. Customers ordering online cannot ask questions at the point of decision. Your descriptions need to handle the common ones: what allergens are in this, how large is it, what comes with it. A customer who cannot answer their question abandons the order.

Realistic delivery times. Over-promising on delivery time damages repeat ordering more than almost any other single factor. Build in real estimates, particularly during peak hours.

Logical structure. Organise the menu around how customers browse, not how your kitchen operates. Popular items should be visible without scrolling. Limited-time items should be prominently placed.

Step 3: Run a launch offer to move customers across

The most effective way to start transferring customers from Foodhub to your direct channel is a launch promotion. A first-order discount of 10–15% through your direct channel gives people a concrete reason to try the new option.

This costs less than it sounds. A customer who normally orders £25 through Foodhub costs you commission on that order. The same customer ordering £25 directly with a 10% first-order discount costs you £2.50 — likely less than the Foodhub commission on the same transaction — and you capture their contact details for all future orders.

Keep the offer time-limited. Two to four weeks creates urgency without training customers to expect permanent discounts.

Step 4: Actively move customers to the direct channel

Having a direct channel is not the same as having customers on it. You need to redirect your existing Foodhub customers deliberately.

Include a flyer with every order. A small card in the delivery bag pointing to your website — with a QR code and a short message about ordering directly — converts a consistent percentage across your order volume. Keep it simple: website address, QR code, brief incentive.

Social media. Post about the direct channel on Instagram, Facebook and wherever your restaurant has a following. Share the URL. Run the launch offer publicly. Customers who follow you are already engaged — they are the easiest to convert.

Packaging. Boxes, bags and napkins carry your brand to customers at the moment they are most engaged with your food. A QR code on packaging drives passive conversions across every order you send out. This is one of the lowest-effort, highest-reach channels available to a takeaway.

Push notifications if you have an app. A branded mobile app through Flipdish enables push notifications to enrolled customers. A direct message — "Order through our app this week and earn double loyalty points" — reaches your most loyal customers without any ad spend.

Step 5: Set up loyalty from the start

Marketplace customers have no inherent reason to prefer your restaurant over any other on the platform. A customer enrolled in your loyalty programme does.

Flipdish loyalty features allow you to reward repeat direct orders with points, run targeted promotions and identify your highest-value customers by behaviour. A customer who has accumulated loyalty points on your direct channel has a concrete reason to return — independent of anything Foodhub offers.

Set up loyalty before you launch your direct channel, so every customer who orders from day one is enrolled from the start.

Step 6: Automate re-engagement

Once you have direct customers with contact details and order history, you can market to them in ways that are simply not possible through a marketplace.

Flipdish AI Marketing uses order data to run automated campaigns:

  • Re-engage customers who have not ordered in 30 or 45 days
  • Promote new menu items to customers who have previously ordered similar dishes
  • Target offers based on when individual customers typically order
  • Identify customers who have only placed one order and send a re-engagement offer

These run automatically. They do not require a marketing team to write each campaign. They work because you own your customer data — something not available when orders go through Foodhub.

Should you close your Foodhub listing?

Not necessarily, and certainly not immediately. Most restaurants transition gradually:

  1. Build the direct channel and launch it
  2. Actively redirect customers over three to six months
  3. Track the split between Foodhub volume and direct volume month on month
  4. As direct orders grow, assess whether the Foodhub commission is still justified by the volume it generates
  5. Reduce the listing, limit its availability or close it when the direct channel can sustain the revenue

Some restaurants keep a Foodhub listing at a reduced level permanently, treating the marketplace as a customer acquisition tool that feeds into their direct ordering base. Others close completely once they have confidence in their direct volume.

The right approach depends on your business and how quickly your customer base moves. There is no single correct answer.

The financial calculation

The maths is not complicated. Take your current annual Foodhub commission spend. Estimate conservatively — 20–30% of your Foodhub volume moving to direct in the first year is realistic for a restaurant that actively promotes the switch. Multiply that shifted volume by your commission rate.

For a restaurant paying £20,000 per year in Foodhub commission and shifting 25% to direct, the annual saving is £5,000. The Flipdish platform cost on a typical single-site arrangement is less than that. The saving grows as more volume shifts.

At meaningful Foodhub volume, the payback on a direct channel is typically less than six months.

Why Flipdish for this transition

Flipdish is purpose-built for exactly the transition described in this guide. It is used by takeaways and restaurants across the UK and Ireland who have moved from marketplace-first to direct-first ordering. The implementation team handles menu setup, website configuration, payment integration and POS connection — most restaurants are live within two to three weeks.

The platform also provides the tools that make a direct channel worth building over the long term: loyalty programmes, AI marketing, AI phone ordering for customers who prefer to call, order analytics and customer data management.

For a takeaway currently paying Foodhub commission on every order, the question is not whether to build a direct channel — it is how quickly to start.

Start building your direct ordering channel at flipdish.com/online-ordering.