← Integrations · Online ordering
Take orders on your own site, stop paying Just Eat 25%.
We connect an ordering system to your website, or help you choose one: menu, basket, checkout and kitchen notifications, on your own pages. The customer types your URL, orders on your site, and the customer is yours, not Just Eat's.
The maths
Why your own site beats the marketplace on every order.
Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats all run on roughly the same model: 20-30% of the order value, plus a small "service charge" the customer pays, and they own the customer relationship, so the people you feed are theirs, not yours. They justify the cut with marketing reach. For an established takeaway whose customers already know them, most local takeaways, that 20-30% is the dominant cost line, and the lost customer ownership costs you for years.
Here is what an average £20 order looks like on each marketplace (UK averages; your numbers may vary slightly):
| Option | Order | Marketplace cut | Who owns the customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just Eat (UK, indie tier) | £20.00 | ~£3.00 (15%) | Just Eat |
| Deliveroo Marketplace | £20.00 | ~£6.00 (30%) | Deliveroo |
| Uber Eats | £20.00 | ~£6.00 (30%) | Uber Eats |
Run your own numbers: a takeaway doing 30 orders a day at a £20 average takes £600 a day, so a 15% to 30% cut is £90 to £180 a day leaving the business. On your own site you pay what your ordering system charges, which you can see before you sign, and, unlike the marketplace, it leaves the customer with you.
The honest counter-argument: the marketplaces do bring you orders you would not otherwise get. If 100% of your Just Eat orders are brand-new customers you would never have reached, the maths is closer. In practice, for established takeaways, most marketplace orders are existing customers who simply default to the app, they would have ordered direct if direct was easy, and ordering direct keeps them yours. When you are ready, run a free audit at /audit and we will show you the numbers for your own shop.
The checklist
What to look for in an ordering system.
Whether you already have one or you are choosing, these are the points we check an ordering system against.
- Menu management, sections, items, modifiers, photos and allergen flags, with edits that show on your site quickly.
- Order types, collection, delivery and, if you need it, table ordering by QR code, set per item.
- Opening hours, outside hours it should offer ordering for later rather than sending an order to a closed kitchen.
- Delivery zones, a postcode area or a drawn zone, with out-of-zone customers offered collection rather than an error.
- Kitchen view, an order queue with accept, reject and ready, on a tablet, a phone or a receipt printer.
- Customer updates, a text when the order is accepted and when it is on its way.
- Payments to your own account, you are the merchant, with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and you control refunds.
- VAT per item, if you are VAT-registered, the rate set item by item.
- An export, and a way in for us, your customer list as a CSV any time, and an API or a menu feed so your menu can appear on your site as real pages.
How it joins your site
Real menu pages, where the system allows it.
Your menu as real pages. Where the ordering system offers an API or a menu feed, your site fetches the menu and shows it as normal pages. Google can read every dish (good for "[your area] [your cuisine]" searches), the page loads fast, and the basket and checkout open from there.
An embedded ordering widget. Where the system provides one, we place it on your menu page, matched to your brand as far as it allows. It is quicker to set up, though the menu inside a widget is usually harder for Google to read.
A straight link. Your Order buttons open the system's own ordering page, ideally on your own web address. It works with almost any system; the trade-off is that the customer leaves your site to order.
Unfamiliar with these terms? The glossary has plain-English definitions.
How it goes
From "I want this" to "live on my site".
- Email us, or run a free audit at /audit. Tell us what you use for orders now, if anything.
- If you have a system, we check what it supports. If you need one, we compare a short list against the checklist above, and you choose.
- Your menu, opening hours and delivery zone go into the system, and its payments connect to your own bank account.
- We connect it to your site: the menu page, the Order buttons, and the ordering step matched to your brand where the system allows.
- A soft launch: you order from your own site to check the whole flow, then it goes in front of customers.
How long it takes depends on the system and what it supports, and a menu that is already digital is quicker. Connecting it is scoped into the quote for your build.
Common questions
What people ask before moving orders to their own site.
Should I cancel Just Eat / Deliveroo when this goes live?
Not necessarily. Most takeaways keep Just Eat running as a discovery channel for new customers while pushing existing customers to direct ordering via menus, receipts, and a "save 15% by ordering direct next time" sticker on the bag. After 6 to 12 months a lot of clients drop Just Eat entirely; some keep it as a tiny share of volume. Your call.
What about delivery, do you do that part?
No. The ordering system handles the order itself: menu, basket, payment, kitchen. The delivery is yours to arrange, with your own driver, a courier you contract with, or collection only. Some ordering systems connect to courier services, so if you need that, it goes on the shortlist.
How do payments work?
Choose a system where your business is the merchant and payments settle to your own bank account through its payment provider, on that provider's normal settlement cycle. No marketplace holds your money, and you control refunds. Card processing is charged by the payment provider, as with any online checkout.
Can customers pay cash on delivery or collection?
If you take cash, check that the system lets you switch it on per location and per order type. Many takeaways allow it for collection, where regulars like to pay in cash, and not for delivery, where drivers should not carry it.
What about VAT?
If you are VAT-registered, the system should set the VAT rate per item: some food is zero-rated, while other items, including hot takeaway food, are standard-rated. The breakdown should appear on each order and on the customer's receipt.
What if I am not sure I want to leave Just Eat yet?
You do not have to leave anything. Ordering on your own site can run alongside Just Eat indefinitely: direct orders through your site, Just Eat orders through Just Eat. A lot of takeaways use the direct channel for repeat customers and keep Just Eat for discovery, and every direct order keeps the customer yours.
Do you take a cut of my orders?
No. We charge for building and looking after your website, quoted to your business. What the ordering system costs is between you and its supplier, which is why pricing is on the checklist: avoid a system that takes a percentage of every order you would have taken anyway.
Get this on your site
Your site, your system, your customer.
It starts with a free audit. Tell us which ordering system you use now, or that you need one, and we will scope connecting it into the quote for your build and website management.