How to Increase Takeaway Sales: 12 Takeaway Marketing Ideas

Short answer: Start with your delivery app listings: photos on your best sellers, best sellers at the top, clear descriptions, an optional drink, side and dessert on every main, and dish names customers actually search for. Then work on ratings, use the apps' loyalty tools, make sure you show up on Google Maps, and give regulars a reason to order direct.

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1. Put photos on your best sellers

Deliveroo's Hub measures Menu Completeness, based on items with photos and descriptions. Start with your top ten items. See Deliveroo's photo rules.

2. Put best sellers at the top

Customers scroll on a phone. The first few items they see do most of the selling, so lead with the dishes that sell and get good ratings.

3. Write descriptions that sell

Say what's in it, how big it is and why it's good. Vague names leave customers guessing, and guessing customers back out.

4. Offer a drink, side and dessert with every main

In our takeaway listing audits, not one takeaway offered a dessert at the basket, and optional drinks and sides were rare. One curry house had 15 drinks and 4 desserts on its menu, and none of its 61 mains offered any of them. Add an optional add-on group to every main. Keep it optional: required choices slow the order down.

5. Use the dish names customers search for

Customers search the apps for dishes as well as restaurants. In our audits, house spellings hid takeaways from those searches: one didn't appear for "lassi", "haleem" or "doner" because its menu spelled them its own way. Put the common spelling in the dish name and keep yours in the description, then search for your best sellers from a nearby postcode to check you show up.

6. Keep every app the same

We often find a fully photographed menu on Just Eat and almost no photos on Deliveroo, or prices that differ between apps in both directions. Copy your photos and descriptions to every app, and if one app costs more, apply the same rule to every dish.

7. Set honest prep times

Uber Eats says lowering your default prep time and offering items that travel well can help your ranking. But only promise what you can deliver: late orders hurt ratings.

8. Fix the pattern in your ratings

Read your last 30 low ratings and find the common theme: cold food, missing items, slow delivery. Fix that one thing first. See how to improve your rating.

9. Win back first-time customers

Just Eat says it ranks businesses higher when they turn new customers into repeat customers. Just Eat also runs StampCards, a loyalty scheme for partners, which is worth looking into.

10. Get on Google Maps properly

Many people search "takeaway near me". A complete Google Business Profile with your hours, menu link, photos and reviews puts you on the map, separately from the apps. Tap every link on your own profile: in our audits, ordering websites were often missing an "Order online" button, and some links led to sites that were down.

11. Give regulars a reason to order direct

Every direct order avoids a platform's commission. See commission-free ordering.

12. Find out what's costing you orders

If you're not sure where to start, send us your listing link and we'll rank the fixes for you, free. See a sample listing audit to see what an audit covers.

Want more takeaway sales?

We'll check where you really appear in the areas around you, compare you with the restaurants above you, and tell you the 3 to 5 fixes to make first. Free, within 24 to 48 hours. Get your free diagnostic →

Sources

Platforms change their rules and fees. Figures were checked on the date above. Restaurant Hero is independent. We're not part of, or endorsed by, Just Eat, Deliveroo or Uber Eats.

How to increase takeaway sales: 12 things that work