How to Replace Foodhub With Direct Online Ordering
The short answer
Replace Foodhub by launching a branded ordering website and app through a direct ordering platform like Flipdish. Run both channels in parallel. Redirect Foodhub customers to your own channel using packaging inserts, in-store signage and loyalty incentives. As direct order volume grows, your dependence on Foodhub decreases naturally.
What is Foodhub?
Foodhub is a UK food delivery marketplace. Unlike Just Eat and Uber Eats, which charge restaurants a percentage commission on each order, Foodhub uses a flat monthly subscription. This makes it cheaper than commission-based platforms for high-volume takeaways.
Foodhub's appeal is visibility: customers searching the platform find your restaurant without you needing your own ordering channel. For restaurants without a direct presence, it offers accessible reach.
The real cost of Foodhub
The monthly subscription is only part of what Foodhub costs your restaurant.
Customer data. Every customer who orders through Foodhub belongs to Foodhub. You receive the order but you cannot contact that customer directly, run loyalty programmes for them or track their behaviour over time.
No brand differentiation. On the Foodhub app, your restaurant sits alongside your competitors. A customer who orders from you today can be attracted by a competing listing next time. There is no mechanism to build brand preference.
Platform dependency. Your online revenue depends on a platform you do not control. Changes to Foodhub's fee structure, visibility algorithm or terms affect your business directly.
No compound value. Every Foodhub order builds Foodhub's customer base, not yours. A direct ordering channel builds your own customer database with every order, creating value that compounds over time.
What direct ordering gives you
A direct ordering channel — your own branded website, app or both — gives you:
- Customer ownership: every customer who orders direct is yours, with their order history and contact details available to you
- Brand control: customers interact only with your brand, with no competing restaurants alongside
- Loyalty mechanics: points programmes, exclusive discounts and personalised offers for returning customers
- Better long-term economics: the per-order cost of your own channel decreases as the same fixed platform cost spreads across more orders
- Marketing capability: the ability to contact, reactivate and upsell customers who already know your food
Step 1: Choose a direct ordering platform
The platform you choose determines your long-term capability. Look for:
- A branded website on your own domain
- A branded mobile app (iOS and Android) under your restaurant's name
- Integration with your POS so orders go directly to the kitchen
- Loyalty and customer marketing tools built in
- Reliable support from a team that understands UK restaurants
Flipdish provides all of this. Its platform connects branded web ordering, apps and POS in one system. AI marketing is built in to grow your direct customer base automatically over time.
Step 2: Set up and launch
Your platform provider handles the technical setup with your support. Flipdish provides onboarding assistance — your menu, pricing and configuration are built with their team. Aim to have your direct channel live and properly tested before you start promoting it to customers.
Step 3: Redirect Foodhub customers
This is the work that determines how quickly your direct channel grows. It requires consistent effort across several months.
Packaging inserts. Include a small card with every order — Foodhub and direct — saying “Order direct and save” with your URL or a QR code linking to your app. A discount code for first direct orders increases conversion considerably.
Receipts. Print your ordering URL on every receipt.
In-store signage. Table cards, counter stands and window decals. Keep the message clear: your URL, one reason to use it (save money, earn points, faster service).
Staff prompts. Train staff to mention direct ordering when customers collect in-store. A simple line like “You can order direct on our app and earn points” is one of the highest-converting tactics and costs nothing.
Social media. Announce the launch and run a time-limited first-order offer to drive downloads.
Direct outreach. If you have any existing customer contacts — from a loyalty scheme, email list or SMS database — send a message announcing your app.
Step 4: Give customers a reason to switch
Customers using Foodhub need a concrete incentive to change their habits.
Effective approaches:
- A loyalty points programme available only through your own channel
- A first-order discount for new app users (10–15% is typical)
- A free item with first direct order
- App-exclusive deals not available on Foodhub
- Faster preparation or priority fulfilment for direct orders
The goal is to make direct ordering the more attractive option until it becomes habitual. Once a customer has ordered direct two or three times, the behaviour typically sticks.
Flipdish AI Marketing automates win-back and loyalty campaigns as your customer base grows, so the ongoing effort required from your team decreases over time.
Step 5: Manage the transition
Do not cancel Foodhub immediately. Run both channels in parallel and monitor weekly order volumes on each. Most restaurants see meaningful direct order growth within three to six months of actively promoting their own channel.
Some operators keep a marketplace presence for new customer discovery while directing existing customers to the direct channel. This is a reasonable long-term strategy: use the marketplace to be found by new customers, then convert them to direct ordering through in-order communications.
Capturing phone orders in the same system
Many UK takeaways still take significant revenue by phone. If you are building a direct ordering channel, capturing phone orders in the same system matters for consistent reporting and kitchen management.
The Flipdish AI Phone Agent answers calls automatically, takes the order and sends it directly to your POS. During busy periods when staff cannot reliably answer every call, this ensures no phone order is missed and every order is captured in your customer database.
What realistic progress looks like
Restaurants that actively redirect customers — packaging inserts, staff prompts, social media and a launch offer — typically see their direct channel representing a meaningful share of digital orders within six months. The pace depends on order volume, consistency of promotion and the strength of the loyalty incentive.
Restaurants that simply launch a direct channel without promoting it see slow progress. The platform is a tool. The promotion is the engine.
What success looks like
Success is not necessarily zero marketplace presence. It means your restaurant is no longer dependent on Foodhub. A restaurant where direct orders make up the majority of digital revenue, where you know your customers by name and order history, where you can reactivate lapsed customers and reward your most loyal ones — that is the outcome worth building toward.
The economics of that restaurant are materially better than one where all digital revenue flows through a platform you do not control.
How Flipdish can help
Flipdish online ordering gives you a branded website and app, connected to your POS, with loyalty tools and AI marketing built in.
Thousands of UK and Irish restaurants use Flipdish to grow their direct ordering revenue. Many started by running Flipdish alongside their marketplace presence, then grew the direct channel into their primary ordering source.
Visit flipdish.com to see how it works and request a demo.