Growth Guide
How to Get More Takeout and Carryout Orders
Last updated: August 2026
Takeout is the highest-margin order most restaurants take — no table turned, no server tied up, and when it comes in direct, no commission. The playbook has three parts: make direct ordering effortless, stop losing the orders already trying to reach you, and convert app customers into direct ones.
Own the Direct Channel
Online ordering on your own site
Phone-friendly, few taps, and the full menu with photos. Every order here is commission-free — versus the 15-30% a marketplace takes for the identical order — and it captures the customer's contact for reorders.
Point every surface at it
The order link on your Google Business Profile, the Instagram bio, printed receipts, a QR in the window. If Google's order button points at a marketplace reseller, you are paying commission on customers who searched for you by name.
Stop Losing Orders You Already Have
The phone at rush is a revenue leak
A busy signal or a ring-out during dinner is an order placed with a competitor instead. Count your missed calls on one busy Friday — most owners are surprised by the number, and it repeats every week.
AI phone answering takes the whole rush
AI phone ordering answers every call — including three at once at peak — takes the order with modifiers, and sends it straight to the POS and kitchen printers. Ginger's runs $250 a month flat, with no per-order commission.
Quote honest times
A promised 15 minutes that becomes 40 loses the reorder. Slightly padded and early beats optimistic and late, every time.
Convert App Customers to Direct
A menu card in every bag
Your own packaging is your ad space: a card with the direct ordering link, your phone number, and a small first-direct-order incentive rides along with every marketplace order.
The arithmetic of one conversion
A weekly regular moved from a 25% commission tier to direct ordering keeps that commission on every future order — on a $30 weekly order, roughly $390 a year, from one customer, for the cost of a printed card.
Make Pickup Smooth
A dedicated pickup point
A labeled shelf or counter sign so pickup customers do not queue behind dine-in. Thirty seconds in and out is part of why they choose takeout again.
Packaging that travels
Vented containers for fried items, sauces packed separately, the bag sealed and labeled with the name and item count. The unboxing at home is the takeout experience — it is what the reorder decision is based on.
A Menu Built for Takeout
Bundles raise the ticket
Family meals and combos priced slightly under the sum of their parts raise order size while simplifying the kitchen's work during rush.
Let the checkout do the upselling
Online checkout suggests drinks, sides, and desserts on every single order — the upsell no busy cashier remembers to make. Aim slow-daypart takeout specials at your own contact list, not at the hours you are already full.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get more takeout orders without DoorDash?
Set up commission-free ordering on your own site, point your Google Business Profile order button and every other surface at it, answer every phone call, and put a direct-ordering card in every bag that leaves the restaurant. Marketplaces can stay for discovery — the goal is moving repeat customers direct.
How do restaurants handle phone orders during rush?
Either dedicated staffing or AI phone answering. The measure that matters is missed calls: each one is an order placed elsewhere. AI answering picks up every call simultaneously, takes orders with modifiers, and sends them to the kitchen — which is why it suits the exact hours staff cannot get to the phone.
Is direct takeout more profitable than delivery apps?
Usually by a wide margin. A direct pickup order pays no commission and no delivery costs — the customer comes to you — while the same order through a marketplace gives up 15-30%. On a $30 order, that is $4.50-$9 of margin kept simply by owning the channel.
Should my Google order button link to a delivery app?
Point it at your own ordering page. Customers who found you on Google searched for your restaurant — routing them through a marketplace pays commission on demand you already own. Google lets you set the preferred ordering link on your Business Profile.
What takeout packaging matters most?
Vented containers so fried food stays crisp, sauces packed separately, and a sealed bag labeled with the customer name and item count. The meal is judged at the customer's table, not your counter — packaging is what carries the quality that far.
Never Miss Another Phone Order
Ginger answers every call with AI, takes the order with modifiers, and prints it in the kitchen — on a free POS with commission-free online ordering. Hardware included for eligible restaurants.
© 2026 Ginger. Free restaurant POS with built-in AI phone ordering.