What’s the secret recipe for independent restaurant success? 

The truth is it’s not that simple. With the restaurant industry rapidly changing, it can be hard to keep up to speed. There are a lot of ingredients to consider: smooth restaurant operations, mouthwatering menus, irresistible marketing, and everything in between. That’s why merchants are turning to partners like Grubhub to help them succeed. Tools like an online marketplace, on demand delivery, Direct ordering and POS integration can help streamline your business’s operations. 

The best part, these tools are just the icing on the cake. Take a look at all the ways Grubhub can help your restaurant succeed.

What tools does Grubhub have to boost 

At Grubhub, we understand every restaurant is unique. That’s why we offer a range of services and solutions to cater toward your restaurant’s needs. Whether you are simply looking for a new channel to list your menu, or need support to upgrade your restaurant’s marketing strategy, Grubhub is here to help. 

No matter where you’re at in your business journey, Grubhub has the tools you need to stay on track.

Tools for when your business is just getting started:

Marketplace: List your restaurant on Grubhub’s online ordering marketplace where customers can explore and discover restaurants. 

Grubhub Delivery: Enlist the service of licensed Grubhub drivers who deliver your dishes to your customers. 

Technology Integrations: Improve the way you manage takeout and delivery orders through integrations with popular restaurant technology. 

Tools for when your restaurant is ready to grow: 

Virtual Restaurants: Increase your revenue potential with your own virtual restaurant. 

Promotion and Loyalty Tools: Target the right customers with smart, personalized and free-to-use marketing tools for restaurants. 

Tools for when your restaurant is ready to perfect its digital presence: 

Direct: Launch your own commission-free online ordering service that can be customized to fit your restaurant’s brand. 

Grubhub+: Reach loyal and active customers with Grubhub+.

Marketing assets: Tap into our marketing materials to showcase your Grubhub partnership.

Wondering how all these customized solutions can help your restaurant? Let’s dig in.

What is Grubhub Marketplace? 

Grubhub Marketplace is where hungry diners seek and discover new local restaurants. Marketplace highlights hundreds or restaurants in the area, allowing customers to place a delivery or pickup order online. Over 33 million hungry diners come to Grubhub to search for their next meal. By listing on Marketplace, your restaurant gets instant visibility on the Grubhub app and Grubhub.com. 

Signing up for Marketplace is the first step in partnering with Grubhub. Your restaurant will receive a Merchant Welcome Kit with marketing materials and a tablet upon request so you can start taking orders instantly. You also get a free photoshoot of your menu dishes to make your menu look as mouth watering as your cuisine. If you’re an existing Marketplace partner, you can still schedule a free photoshoot or reach out to account support to learn more. 

Restaurants can manage their Marketplace profile through the Grubhub for Restaurants portal. Through this channel, restaurants can: 

• Easily manage orders 
• Look at restaurant finances 
• Optimize menus 
• Tap into real-time data insights 
• Streamline delivery settings and boundaries 
• Boost order volume with Grubhub Promotions and Loyalty tools 

When you sign up for Marketplace, you can choose your partnership level and unlock industry-leading tools to help your restaurant drive success. We offer different pricing plans that can work with your restaurant:

We know time is money for independent restaurants. That’s why we ensure that restaurants are up and running on Grubhub Marketplace as soon as possible – often within an hour.

What are the benefits of Grubhub Delivery?

Grubhub delivery allows restaurants to expand their delivery boundaries and reach customers in a timely manner, giving customers real-time updates on their progress. Restaurants who are listed on Grubhub Marketplace can opt-in to using Grubhub delivery drivers. Our fleet of over 300,000 drivers are experienced and professional, equipped with the right tools to make sure your cuisine reaches satisfied customers. 

With Grubhub delivery, you can: 

• Use real-time order tracking to keep customers and staff in the know. 
• Offer customers an excellent experience with on-time delivery in our insulated bags, plus 24/7 customer care on every order. 
• Simplify driver management and let us take on overhead such as driver salaries, insurance and tips.

Grubhub delivery has helped restaurants take a lot off their plates by handling out-of-house services. Once an order is accepted by a restaurant, a Grubhub delivery driver is assigned to pick it up. Timeliness is key to ensuring happy customers, and our cutting edge technology helps streamline delivery. Customers get real-time updates about where their food is in the prep process and notifies them when their delivery is on the way. Learn more about how the Grubhub Delivery process protects your restaurant’s reputation. 

At Grubhub, protecting your restaurant’s reputation is a top priority. That’s why we’ve introduced the Grubhub Guarantee: a promise to our restaurant partners and customers that we are committed to top service. If an order placed on our platform is not on time or offered at the best price, we will compensate diners with Grubhub Guarantee Perks, 100% funded by Grubhub. The Grubhub Guarantee has helped thousands of restaurants serve satisfied customers. 

Are you looking to expand your already established delivery fleet? With Grubhub, you can be flexible about how you integrate our delivery into your business by choosing from the following options we offer: 

• Self-delivery allows restaurants to use their own staff or delivery fleet to deliver orders placed on Grubhub’s website and app. Restaurants can control delivery boundaries and how much customers pay for delivery. 
• Supplemental delivery allows self-delivery restaurants to expand their delivery boundaries with Grubhub’s drivers. Restaurants can use both their own drivers and Grubhub’s. 
• Grubhub Delivery puts the responsibility of delivering your dishes to customers on Grubhub. Our drivers will deliver to customers in your area so you don’t have to worry about creating your own delivery fleet, getting driver insurance and scheduling deliveries.
• Extra mile delivery?

Take commission-free orders with Direct

Did you know that your restaurant automatically gets access to Direct when you partner with Grubhub Marketplace? Direct is a branded online ordering platform that can integrate with a restaurant’s existing website to take commission-free orders. Direct includes all the tools restaurants need like built-in digital order and food delivery, automatic online menu updates and access to customer data. 

What can your restaurant do with Direct? 

• Download customer data for free and market your restaurant to diners via email, social media or however you decide. 
• Learn how to better engage your customers, foster a community and build relationships leveraging customer data. 
• Create a digital ordering and food delivery experience personalized to your restaurant’s look and feel. 
• Automatically import your online menu and restaurant info from your existing Grubhub account. 

Hundreds of restaurants have found success with Direct. Take Chinese-American restaurant Pearl Express, for example. The family owned business was able to attract double the number of customers with their customized Direct site. With Direct, the Tran family is able to track and understand customer trends through accessing their ordering data. 

By implementing Direct, Pearl Express’ sales grew by a whopping 195%. 

Modern customers flock online to explore cuisine, and restaurants have learned that cooking up a successful digital presence isn’t complete without online ordering. In fact, restaurants with Direct linked on their website typically see 72x more average daily orders than those who don’t have Direct linked to their site. 

Want to learn more about how Direct can help you grow your bottom line? Take a look at The Direct Success Playbook to learn how to maximize the potential of Direct.

What is Grubhub+?

Grubhub+ is the premium version of Grubhub that offers more benefits to diners and merchants. With Grubhub+, diners can enjoy unlimited $0 delivery fees, exclusive perks and rewards, and elite care from Grubhub. Merchants who opt-in to Grubhub+ get exclusive access to GH+ diners – the most frequent, premium customers. 

Grubhub+ merchant status also means your business will be tagged and featured in the specific Grubhub+ category on our web and mobile app, making it easy for these loyal customers to find you. With this access, businesses can reach more customers and drive promotions to keep those engaged diners coming back for seconds.

Reach Amazon customers with Grubhub 

Grubhub and Amazon Prime have teamed up to give more benefits to diners and merchants. Prime members can get access to a free Grubhub+ membership that comes with no expiration and no Grubhub+ membership fees. These exclusive deals make activating Grubhub+ membership more enticing than ever for customers, driving more potential business to your store. 

Amazon customers in the U.S. can also discover and order from Grubhub merchants directly on Amazon.com and in the Amazon Shopping app. More savings, like $0 delivery fees on eligible orders, means more opportunities for customers’ dollars to go right to your business. And increased visibility on Amazon makes it easier for customers to discover thousands of local restaurants.

Use our free social media templates to let your diners know about Grubhub ordering on Amazon. Personalize these posts with your own photos and logo to motivate customers to order from your business through Amazon. Click here to get started.

How do promotion and loyalty tools help restaurants?

Promotion and loyalty tools are key to turning curious diners into repeat customers. In fact, restaurants see on average 34% more orders during the duration of a new customer promotion.

Calculating your return on investment (or ROI) is crucial when determining what promotions to implement. Grubhub’s account support team works with restaurants to determine what marketing tactics are worth investing in. Account Advisors are equipped with the knowledge to know what types of promotions are most effective on Grubhub. Your account support can help you determine a marketing goal and land on a budget – allocating the funds you want to invest in promotions to the channels that will help you reach your restaurant’s specific goals. 

The first step is to decide what type of promotion program you want to tap into. Promotions take the guesswork out of marketing by providing recommendations tailored specifically to your business and customizable promotions that fit your customers. Promotions use data and marketing algorithms to boost your ability to reach the right customers. 

Where do your promotions appear on Grubhub? 

• Your promotions will appear on the search page and at the top of your restaurant’s menu page so that diners can see your offerings featured on the Grubhub app and on Grubhub.com. 
• The rewards tab is a section on the Grubhub app where customers can browse restaurant promotions. This encourages diners to cash in their discounts. 

Take a more in-depth look into how to run promotions on Grubhub. 

Once your promotions are in place, the final step is to track your success and fine-tune your strategy. On Grubhub For Restaurants you can view the details of your promotion effectiveness and snapshots of your performance and ROI. You can adjust your promotions budget throughout your partnership to match customer demand.

View customer insights on Grubhub for Restaurants

Grubhub merchants get access to our customer insights dashboard that provides information on orders and diners. On this dashboard, merchants can see their financial, ordering, and comparative data for review.

The customer insights dashboard gives comparative data to restaurants based on two categories: new vs returning customers and GH+ vs non-GH+ customers. Both dashboards present data on the following information:

• Total sales: The gross sum of all prepaid orders before any deductions are made
• Total orders: The number of prepaid orders received within the selected timeframe
• Average daily orders: The total orders divided by the number of days in the selected timeframe
• Average order values: The total sales divided by the total orders

Click here to learn more about what insights you can learn about your Grubhub customers.

Streamline your business with technology integrations

There are a lot of ingredients that go into running a successful restaurant, and oftentimes this means tapping into different technologies to assist with operations and reach customers. Grubhub works with all kinds of technology providers—point-of-sale (POS) systems, middleware and others—to help streamline a restaurant’s ordering and fulfillment operations. Restaurants can increase efficiency by simplifying order throughput to a single system. 

Implementing POS integrations has allowed restaurants to: 

• Increase efficiency 
• Update multiple menus in real time 
• Reduce clutter 
• Streamline employee training

Showcase your partnership with customized marketing materials

We offer a variety of print and digital materials to help businesses market their Grubhub partnership. These materials are designed to enhance brand awareness and attract more customers to your business. Our marketing toolkit includes social media posts, email banners, wall signs, and more to kickstart your advertising strategy.

We also offer customizable social media templates on Canva for easy co-branding online. Designed specifically for merchants, these templates are built to show off business’s food, ambiance, staff, and more. They’re easy to update with your own photos and branding so your social profile continues to tell your business’s unique store.

Get personalized assistance with account support

Teamwork is essential in the restaurant industry; satisfying customers is not a solo job. When you partner with Grubhub, you get access to a dedicated account support team that’s invested in your restaurant success. Your account support team is your main point of contact with your Grubhub partnership. 

What does account support do to help your restaurant? 

• Share best practices to optimize your Grubhub partnership 
• Perfect your online menu 
• Provide industry tips and insights 

Account support will work with you to ensure you’re getting the most out of your Grubhub partnership. They are available to consult with you on everything from menu best practices to marketing strategies and everything in between. Your account support team will work with your restaurant team, consulting on the day-to-day workings of your restaurant to drive revenue.

Everything you need to help your business succeed all in one place

Running a restaurant doesn’t come with a recipe. With the restaurant industry rapidly changing, it can be difficult to stay ahead. Dig into our resources for insight on how you can grow your restaurant and support your business.

Get expert insights from The Feed

The Feed is your one stop shop for restaurant industry insights. We have the information to help you gain more customers and improve operations. The Feed is updated weekly with blogs about the top issues and trends in the industry.

Improve operations with restaurant guides

If you’re looking for some more meat, take a look at our variety of guides that feature key insights for restaurant success. Wondering how to step up your online ordering? Or how a third-party delivery service can help your business? We’ve got you covered.

Here are a few guides to help you get started:

• Guide to Marketing Your Grubhub Partnership: All marketing assets, tools, and tips you need to drive more Grubhub orders to your business.
• National Food Holiday Guide: Download our food holiday marketing strategy to promote your menu all year long.
• Online Ordering Guide: Get insights into how to perfect your online ordering strategy.
• The Complete Guide to Grubhub: Learn how Grubhub solutions have helped grow restaurants of all sizes.

Grow your business with Grubhub

There’s no secret recipe for restaurant success, but there are tools that can help your restaurant grow. 84% of independent operators agree that Grubhub drives incremental revenue by giving customers a way to find or discover new restaurants. Grubhub has helped restaurants reach customers and grow their business.

Over 365,000 restaurants have trusted Grubhub to help get their delicious cuisine to hungry customers. Join the ranks of the thousands of restaurants who have found success with Grubhub. Partner with Grubhub today.