Count the taps from Google to a finished order
Open Google on your phone, search your restaurant, and order something. Count every tap and every wait. Most restaurants find seven or eight steps where they assumed three, and at least one point where they themselves hesitate.
Every step loses a share of people. Removing two steps is usually worth more than any amount of marketing pointed at the top of the funnel.
The friction is rarely the ordering platform
It's usually before it. The ordering link is below the fold, or there are two of them going to different places, or the menu takes six seconds to load, or the profile's order button points somewhere stale.
Fix the path first. Changing providers is a big project that often doesn't address the actual loss.
Account creation is where a first-time order dies
Forcing someone to create an account before their first order is the most common self-inflicted wound in direct ordering. Guest checkout first, then invite them to save details after the order is placed — when they've already decided you're worth it.
The confirmation screen is your best marketing real estate
The moment after someone orders is the highest-attention moment you get. That's where the ask to join the list, follow, or save the ordering link belongs — not in a popup that interrupts them beforehand.
Don't fight the apps, redirect the regulars
First-time discovery through a delivery app is often genuinely worth the commission. The repeat customer isn't. Insert something into the bag — a card, a code, a reason — that makes the second order come direct.
That single move changes the economics more than anything you can do on the website, because it targets exactly the orders you're overpaying for.