How to increase online orders for your takeaway: fix the funnel, not just the ads

Short answer: To increase online orders, work through the four stages every order passes through. Send more hungry people to your ordering page. Make the menu quick to choose from. Make checkout short, with clear prices and the payment methods people expect. Then make sure no order is missed and that reordering takes seconds. Small fixes at each stage add up to more orders without more advertising.

This guide is for UK takeaways that already take orders online, or want to. It shows where orders leak away and how to fix each leak.

Written for UK takeaways, cafés and restaurants. Updated October 2026.

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The online order funnel

Every online order goes through four stages. Orders leak away at each one.

Most takeaways only work on stage 1, with more ads and more flyers. But if half your visitors give up at stage 2, doubling your traffic just doubles your waste.

For wider tactics like combos, pricing and delivery-app costs, read how to increase takeaway sales. This guide focuses on the ordering journey itself.

Stage 1: Send more people to your ordering page

Put one link everywhere. Your own ordering link should be on:

• Your Google Business Profile, in the website and order fields. On Menuthere Lite and above, you can also push your menu, prices and photos to your Google listing. See our Google Business Profile guide
• Your Instagram and Facebook bios and Stories
• Your WhatsApp Business profile and away message
• QR codes on the shop window, counter, menus and bags
• Your phone message: "To skip the queue, order online at…"
• Receipts and bag cards for orders you send out yourself

Turn phone callers into online orders. On a busy Friday, you can't answer every call. Send a short message with your order link to anyone who calls during a rush. The free WhatsApp link generator makes a pre-filled link customers can tap.

Be found when people search. People search "pizza near me" at the moment they're hungry. Our local SEO guide covers the basics.

Stage 2: Make choosing easy

Speed matters. Most orders happen on phones, often on patchy mobile data. A slow menu loses people before they see a single dish.

Show the key facts first. On the first screen, customers want to know:

• Are you open? If not, when?
• Collection or delivery, and how long?
• Delivery fee, minimum order and any free-delivery threshold ("free delivery over £25")

Put best sellers at the top. A "Most popular" section helps people decide fast. Most customers don't scroll your whole menu.

Use real photos. At least for your top 10 dishes. Daylight, clean plate, no stock photos.

Write short, tasty descriptions. "Slow-cooked lamb, tomato and fenugreek, medium heat" beats "Lamb curry".

Make sizes and extras clear. Regular, large and family sizes, plus add-ons like extra cheese or a dip, should be easy to pick without reading small print. See our digital menu page.

Mark sold-out items straight away. A customer who orders a dish you've run out of may not come back.

Show allergen information. By law, UK customers ordering online must be able to get allergen information for the 14 allergens before they buy. Make it easy to find. On Menuthere you tag the 14 allergens and calories on each dish (every plan, Free included), and customers see them when they open the dish. Keep a full allergen matrix too, and make sure the information also reaches the customer with the delivered food, for example on a menu or label in the bag. See our 14 allergens guide.

Stage 3: Make paying painless

Let people order as a guest. Forcing an account sign-up before checkout puts many people off.

Ask for as little as possible. Name, phone number and address for delivery. That's enough.

Show the full price early. Delivery fees and any compulsory charges should be clear before checkout, not added at the last step. Surprise fees lose orders, and the DMCC Act 2024 bans drip pricing for mandatory charges. If your delivery fee depends on distance, the CMA says to show that a fee applies and how it's worked out, and keep a running total that includes it.

Offer the payments people expect. Card payments online, plus cash or card on collection if that suits you. With Menuthere, card payments go through your own Stripe account (Lite and above). Apple Pay and Google Pay are available if you switch them on in your own Stripe account. On the Free plan you can take cash, pay on pickup or payment links.

Take orders when you're closed. Customers browsing at 2pm for tonight should be able to order for a later time. Scheduled orders and pre-orders are on Menuthere Lite and above.

Use one simple first-order code. "10% off your first direct order" helps people try your page. Coupons are on Lite and above.

Stage 4: Deliver well and make reordering easy

Never miss an order. Use loud alerts on a phone or tablet and print kitchen tickets automatically. See our guide to takeaway order printers. The Menuthere partner app keeps ringing until someone accepts the order.

Give accurate times. Quote realistic collection and delivery times on busy nights. A late order hurts more than a longer quote.

Send updates. A message when the order is accepted, ready and out for delivery cuts "where's my food?" calls. With Menuthere Pro, these go automatically on WhatsApp from your own number. See WhatsApp ordering.

Make reordering one tap. Same link, saved details, a WhatsApp "Hi" that brings back the order button. The easier it is, the more often people come back. Takeaways with a big base of regulars sometimes add their own branded app with push notifications; see our Branded App page.

Diagnose your drop-offs

Use this table to find your biggest leak.

Worked example: small fixes, more orders

This is an illustration, not a benchmark. Use your own numbers.

A takeaway gets 1,500 visits a month to its ordering page.

Fixes: best sellers at the top, photos of 10 dishes, delivery fee shown on the first screen, guest checkout. No extra advertising. That's 113 more orders and about £2,700 more sales a month in this example.

Checklist: increase your online orders

• Own ordering link on Google, Instagram, WhatsApp, window and bags
• Phone message mentions your order link
• Menu loads fast on a phone
• Open status, times, delivery fee and minimum order on the first screen
• "Most popular" section at the top
• Photos of your top 10 dishes
• Clear sizes and add-ons
• Sold-out items marked
• Allergen information available
• Guest checkout, few fields
• Full price shown before checkout
• Card payment online
• Pre-orders when closed
• Loud order alerts and kitchen printing
• Order updates to customers
• One-tap reorder

How Menuthere helps

• Mobile ordering page for collection, delivery and dine-in. No app for customers to download.
• Menu import from a photo, a PDF or GloriaFood, with sizes, add-ons and sold-out marking.
• Partner app that rings until each order is accepted, with kitchen tickets and auto-accept.
• Allergens and calories on every dish, on every plan. Customers see them when they open a dish.
• Google menu push to your Business Profile (Lite and above).
• Delivery zones: basic zones on Free; advanced zones with a fee per zone on Lite and above.
• Minimum order value and a free-delivery threshold at checkout.
• Scheduled orders and coupons on Lite and above.
• WhatsApp ordering and automatic order updates from your own number (Pro, US$39 a month). Meta bills your own WhatsApp account per message, with no Menuthere markup.
• 0% commission. The Free plan covers up to 50 orders a month. Lite is US$17 a month (billed in US dollars; your bank converts it).

See our takeaway ordering system and online ordering system pages for the full picture.

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