Uber Eats, Glovo, Bolt Food and similar marketplaces are among the best ways for a restaurant to be discovered. You don't need to leave them, and you shouldn't. The useful decision is not "marketplaces or not", it is what role each channel plays.
The simplest way to think about it fits in one picture: the marketplace is a busy shopfront; your own channel is your home. Both are useful, and they do different things.
The shopfront and the home
A shopfront attracts people walking by: it is visible, catches the eye and brings in people who weren't looking for you. The home is where you welcome people, build a relationship and keep what is yours.
- The marketplace (shopfront): brings new customers, visibility, payment and often delivery. It costs a commission per order, typically 15% to 30%, the price of a spot in one of the busiest windows in town. On the other side, you don't get a direct relationship with the customers living near you.
- Your own channel (home): where your customers order directly, with no GetFoodies commission, where you keep the data and where you build loyalty.
The three moves
1. Keep the shopfront attracting
Stay on the marketplaces and let them do what they do well: bring new faces. Commission on a customer who didn't know you is a fair acquisition cost.
2. Open the home to people who are already yours
People who find you directly (regulars, Google, social media, a QR code on the table, counter or window) can order on your channel. Always respect each platform's rules: customers who come from a marketplace belong to that marketplace.
3. Build in the home
Your own channel is where you build loyalty, promotions, referrals and the return of people who drifted away. Knowing your neighbourhood is good for both sides: customers are recognised and rewarded, and the restaurant remembers them.
How to tell you're doing it right
Ask one question each quarter: what share of my customers do I know by name and can I contact? If it is close to zero, the business depends entirely on channels you don't control. As your own channel grows, that share goes up.
360° marketing
Shopfront and home work best with a presence around them. GetFoodies gives you the home; Get Social handles social posts, your Google profile, review replies and the newsletter. Together they are your restaurant's 360° marketing.
How GetFoodies provides the home
An ordering website and app with your brand, no GetFoodies commission per order, the data of every customer and loyalty built in. The marketplaces stay your shopfront. We are working on showing marketplace orders in the same dashboard; that is not available yet.
The decision
It isn't marketplace yes or no. It is shopfront and home, each in its role.