How to Replace Foodhub With Direct Online Ordering

Why restaurants look for a Foodhub replacement

Foodhub is a food delivery marketplace operating in the UK. Like Just Eat and Deliveroo, it connects restaurants with customers who want to order online, charging commission on each transaction in return.

Foodhub positions itself as a lower-commission alternative to the major platforms — and that is true to a degree. But the fundamental economics of a marketplace remain the same regardless of the rate: you pay per order, you do not own the customer, and your business depends on the platform's continued viability and goodwill.

Restaurants increasingly look for an alternative because they want to change those fundamentals, not just negotiate a better rate.

What the problems actually are

Commission reduces margin on every order. Even at a lower commission rate, the marketplace takes a slice of every transaction. For restaurants operating on 10–15% net margins, a commission of 12–15% means the platform takes more than the restaurant profits from each order. That is not a sustainable structure at meaningful order volume.

You do not own the customer. When someone orders through Foodhub, their contact details, order history and preferences belong to the marketplace. You cannot market to them, run loyalty campaigns, measure their lifetime value or re-engage them if they lapse.

Visibility depends on the algorithm. Foodhub controls which restaurants appear prominently in search results. Your position can change based on commission tier, review score or platform decisions outside your control.

No loyalty capability. Foodhub customers cannot be enrolled in your loyalty programme. There is no way to offer personalised incentives or build the kind of repeat-purchase relationship that sustains a restaurant long-term.

Dependency risk. Marketplace fee structures change. Platforms have entered and exited the UK market. Building your entire online presence around a third-party platform is a risk that compounds over time.

What a direct ordering channel actually is

A direct channel means customers place orders through your own website or app, not a marketplace. The order goes straight to your kitchen, and you keep the full transaction value minus a substantially lower platform fee.

The main components are:

A branded ordering website. Your own domain, your own look. Customers who find you through search, social media or word of mouth can order directly without going through a marketplace.

A branded mobile app. For restaurants with regular customers, a branded app drives loyalty and repeat orders. Customers download it once, reorder easily and receive your push notifications — not Foodhub's.

POS integration. Orders from the website and app go straight into the kitchen queue as counter orders do. No separate tablets, no manual entry, no reconciliation across two systems.

Customer data ownership. Every direct order builds your customer database. You own the email addresses, order histories and preferences.

How Flipdish builds the direct channel

Flipdish online ordering provides the complete direct channel infrastructure — branded website, branded app and POS integration — in one platform.

Flipdish handles the technical build: the website, the payment processing, the POS connection. You are not managing multiple vendors or building integrations. The menu is set up once and runs across all channels.

The Flipdish branded mobile app is published in the App Store and Google Play under your restaurant's name. It looks like your app, not a Flipdish app. That matters for brand recognition and customer retention.

For restaurants with physical counters, self-service kiosks extend the direct ordering capability in-venue. Kiosk orders consistently show higher average order values than counter orders because the kiosk presents upsell prompts and add-ons in a structured way.

The Flipdish AI Phone Agent handles inbound phone orders automatically, capturing revenue from customers who still prefer to call rather than order online.

How to migrate customers from Foodhub

1. Get the direct channel live first. Before reducing your Foodhub presence, ensure your ordering website, app and POS integration are all working smoothly. The direct channel needs to be ready to handle orders before you start redirecting customers.

2. Promote it at every touchpoint. Packaging inserts, receipts, window stickers, social media posts and email (if you have any direct customer contacts already) all work. The message is straightforward: order directly from us for a better deal and to support your local restaurant.

3. Offer an incentive for the first direct order. A 10% discount on the first order through your own website or app gives customers a reason to switch. The friction of downloading an app or creating an account is low — an incentive removes the final hesitation.

4. Redirect marketing spend. If you are running paid social or search ads pointing to your Foodhub listing, redirect that spend to your own website. You are already paying to acquire the customer; capture them for your own channel.

5. Use loyalty to retain them. Flipdish AI Marketing automates the follow-up: win-back messages for customers who have not ordered in a while, birthday offers, segment-targeted promotions based on order history. This runs automatically without requiring a dedicated marketing resource.

6. Use in-venue to enrol them. For customers who visit the restaurant in person, a kiosk or counter interaction is an opportunity to introduce the app and enrol them in your loyalty programme. A single in-person interaction can convert a Foodhub customer into a direct channel customer permanently.

Understanding your current Foodhub performance before you move

Before reducing your Foodhub presence, get a clear view of what it is contributing:

What proportion of total online order volume comes through Foodhub?
What is the average order value on Foodhub versus your direct channel (if one exists)?
What is the effective commission rate across your current order mix?
How many Foodhub customers are repeat customers versus first-time orders?

This baseline tells you how fast the migration needs to happen and what the financial impact is during the transition. Restaurants with a high proportion of repeat Foodhub customers will typically see faster migration success, because regulars are motivated to use your direct channel once they know it exists.

What to expect during the transition

Direct channels do not reach full volume immediately. Realistic expectations:

Months 1–2: Direct ordering website and app are live. Loyal customers begin switching.
Months 2–4: In-restaurant promotion, social posts and the first incentive campaign drive meaningful volume.
Months 4–6: Direct channel volume growing month on month. Repeat order rates are strong because loyalty tools are active.
Months 6–12: Direct channel accounts for a material percentage of total online orders. Margin improvement is visible in the P&L.

Most restaurants do not exit Foodhub on day one. The sensible approach is to grow the direct channel while maintaining marketplace presence for discovery, then reduce marketplace investment as the balance shifts.

The margin improvement in practice

The financial case depends on the commission rate and your order volume.

If Foodhub charges 12–15% commission:

On a £25 order, the marketplace takes £3–£3.75.
On a direct Flipdish order, the transaction fee is substantially lower.
On £5,000 per week through direct, the saving over a year is significant enough to fund meaningful marketing investment.

The compounding effect matters too. Every direct customer enrolled in loyalty spends more frequently and at higher average values than an anonymous marketplace customer. The long-term revenue impact of owning your customer base exceeds the per-order fee saving.

SEO and organic discoverability

A direct ordering website is also a search engine asset. A Foodhub listing is not a page you can optimise.

Your own website can rank in Google for searches such as "order [restaurant name] online" or "pizza delivery [your town]". Over time, organic search becomes a meaningful source of direct orders at zero marginal acquisition cost.

Flipdish handles the technical SEO infrastructure — page speed, mobile optimisation, structured data — as part of the platform. You provide the content: menu descriptions, location pages and brand information.

Will you lose customers?

Some customers will continue using Foodhub out of habit. That is normal. The goal is not to abandon the marketplace immediately but to shift the balance progressively.

The customers most valuable to you — regulars, high-frequency orderers — are the ones most motivated to use your app once they know it exists. Those are the customers you most want to own directly.

Marketplace presence for discovery remains useful. A customer who discovers you on Foodhub can become a direct customer after their first order, if you handle the conversion process.

Starting the move

Flipdish provides the infrastructure to build a direct channel without the technical complexity. The platform handles the ordering website, app, POS integration and loyalty in one place, so you can focus on converting marketplace customers into direct customers rather than managing technical builds.

For restaurants currently on Foodhub and ready to start shifting the balance, get in touch with Flipdish to understand how the migration works in practice.