Just Eat UK 101: The Essential Guide For Restaurants (2024)

Just Eat is a worldwide food delivery marketplace platform that connects restaurants with millions of customers. Founded in Denmark back in 2001, the company steadily grew over the years. By 2020, they joined Takeaway.com from Amsterdam, becoming Just Eat Takeaway.com, a leading player in the online food delivery market.

This merger grew into a multinational company operating in 19 countries and became the parent company of food delivery brands, including Takeaway.com, Lieferando, Thuisbezorgd.nl, and Pyszne. Pl, 10bis in Israel, and those acquired from Just Eat, including SkipTheDishes and Menulog. After the acquisition, the company continued expanding by acquiring Grubhub in the United States and Bistro.sk in Slovakia.

The platform connects more than 12 million customers with local businesses monthly, allowing them to order food online through its app or website. The establishments on Just Eat have a solid chance for growth. According to company data, a restaurant can expect to average 4,000 orders yearly.

As part of its global expansion, Just Eat Takeaway.com has continued to build its presence in many countries. They formed partnerships, such as with iFood in Brazil and Colombia. This growth strategy strengthened their position as a global leader.

Just Eat works in over 400 towns in the United Kingdom, including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Leeds.

HOW DOES JUST EAT WORK? 

1. Order: Clients order their favorite meals through the Just Eat app or website.

2. Preparation: The restaurant receives it on their Orderpad device, prepares it, and marks it ready for pickup.

3. Delivery: Just Eat’s delivery system chooses a driver to pick up and deliver the order on time.
   

Discover how to manage all your Just Eat orders with its order management feature.

Diet Categories Available

Just Eat always seeks ways to keep consumers happy by considering specific dietary needs and choosing eco-conscious options. Just Eats labels their menus and allows users to filter based on nutritional requirements.

1. V- Vegetarian

2. VG- Vegan

3. NG- No Gluten

4. NN- No Nuts

5. ND- No Dairy

6. H- Halal

7. P- Pescatarian

Positive Impact Initiatives

As a global company, Just Eat has an extraordinary appetite to drive change. They cre­at­ed a frame­work that cov­ers direct and indi­rect impacts and high­lights key areas of focus:

1. Planet.

2. Food.

3. People and places.

They plan to switch 100% of their corporate car fleet to electric vehicles by 2030 and are already producing delivery uniforms made of 100% recycled plastic bottles.

REGISTERING AND SETUP

Getting your restaurant on Just Eat is simple. Follow these steps to deliver with Just Eat:

1. Sign up online: Visit the Just Eat website

2. Registration: Fill out some basic contact information and details about your business.

3. Access the Restaurant Dashboard and go live

After registration, you'll receive your Orderpad and be ready to start taking orders. Your business can typically go online within five working days after signing the contract and submitting all the required documentation.

JUST EAT FOR BUSINESS UK

Just Eat for Business is a B2B solution designed for companies to offer benefits to their employees through the best restaurants and caterers, then deliver their menu straight to offices all over the UK. Here is some data on Just Eat for Business:

• 5 million meals delivered

• 600+ vendor partners

• 30,000+ people fed every week

• 600+ companies who order every week

Businesses can choose from three features with this model:

1. Group Ordering:

This model is tailored for businesses, providing a simple way for your teams to order their meals from your choice of curated restaurants.

2. Individual Ordering:

The easiest way to share meal allowances with your employees - in the office or at home.

3. Office Catering:

Order food for meetings and work events, or bring your restaurant to the offices with pop-ups.

JUST EAT AUDIENCE AND ADVANTAGES

Just Eat invests in marketing to help your restaurant reach as many people as possible. With over 12 million customers visiting Just Eat every month, your business has a great chance to connect with more diners. The platform also offers tailored insights to help you improve your operations and satisfy your customers.

Just Eat’s 2023 Year at a Glance

1. 731k partners

2. 81m Active Consumers

3. 891m Orders

4. €26bn Gross Transaction Value

5. 19 countries

Key Advantages

Joining the platform offers many benefits, including:

• Orderpad Device: Receive a tablet and printer to efficiently manage orders.

• Electric Delivery Vehicle Discounts: Get up to £1,000 off electric bikes and scooters.

• Energy Bill Savings: Save an average of £1,150 annually on energy costs.

• Free Merchandising: Boost your brand with complimentary Just Eat promotional materials.

FEES AND PAYMENTS

Just Eat offers significant benefits, such as increased exposure, reduced delivery management stress, and access to a vast customer base. However, restaurants must also consider the commission fees and the importance of integrating these costs into their pricing strategy.

Fees and commissions

Join Just Eat with no upfront joining fee. You pay:

• Orders Accepted on Just Eat - 14% commission on every order

For example, if you receive an order worth £20, Just Eat's commission would be £3.36 (£2.80 commission plus 56p VAT). Note: This commission does not include delivery service.

Delivery service

If you prefer to either manage your own delivery service or use Just Eat Drivers, you pay:

• Self-Delivery - 50p plus VAT per order

• Just Eat Delivery Service - 5% of the order value (minimum 50p, capped at £1.99)

Billing and Payments

Commission fees will be deducted from your weekly order revenue, and you will receive an invoice every Tuesday. The remaining balance will be deposited into your bank account every Friday.

TIPS TO RANK HIGH 

Getting top rankings on food delivery platforms like Just Eat is crucial to your restaurant's success and profitability. To help your business stand out and thrive, keep these tips in mind: 

Tip 1. Enhance delivery speed 

All customers care about this more than anything; they are hungry! Consider streamlining your kitchen operations and automating order processes, reducing preparation and delivery times.

Tip 2. Boost user ratings

High ratings are essential for visibility. Personalized feedback tactics can motivate your clients to make positive reviews. You must also focus on accuracy and quality to enhance customer satisfaction.

Tip 3. Offer special promotions

Plan special deals and promotions strategically to attract customers and improve your platform ranking. Consider creative pop-ups,  gift cards, loyalty programs, or limited-time offers to increase order frequency and customer loyalty.

Tip 4. Maintain order accuracy

Ensuring that every order is correct and meets customer expectations is critical. Implement systems to minimize errors and guarantee that all special requests are fulfilled, keeping customer satisfaction and fewer complaints.

POS INTEGRATIONS

Just Eat supports seamless integration with a wide range of point-of-sale (POS) systems, allowing restaurants to streamline their order processing.

By integrating your POS system with Just Eat, you can automatically accept online orders and send them directly to your POS, saving time and resources and reducing the chance of errors. This integration simplifies your operations by eliminating the need for staff to input orders into your POS system manually.

Additionally, a POS integration with Just Eat facilitates easy menu management. Platforms like Deliverect Restaurants enable you to synchronize your POS menu with Just Eat and other delivery platforms, allowing you to update and manage your menu in real-time. This connection also supports real-time inventory management, ensuring that each order accepted on Just Eat reflects your stock levels and helps you maintain accurate inventory.

ADVANTAGES AND POSSIBLE DRAWBACKS

Just Eat has effective resources and details to consider before joining. Let´s check some of them:

Advantages:

1. No upfront costs and no monthly fee needed: This is reasonably attractive for local and big businesses.

2. A refined UI design: The Just Eat app is designed to show your brand to the correct audience thanks to its categories and filtering preference system.

3. A massive marketing exposure toolkit: Just Eat offers a variety of tools and massive reach to help your brand be discovered and appreciated fully.

4. Distance range: It is a 2-mile radius for hot food and a 2.5-mile radius for cold food, but this may change depending on factors unique to each business.

Possible Drawbacks:

1. Delivery service fee: Whether you use your drivers or theirs, you will need to pay a delivery service fee, which is still fair considering you don´t have to pay a monthly fee and get all the benefits the app offers.

2. Waiting time to be online: Once you sign up and get your contract, you must wait within five days to start working and showing up inside the app.

3. Trading from a residential address: Just Eat doesn´t allow residential premises to join the platform. However, they could consider you if you decide to expand to a commercial premise. 

Closing thoughts

Just Eat has worked hard to become an efficient and competitive option in the global food delivery market by offering a platform that connects millions of customers with local restaurants. Its effective ordering process, extensive marketing tools, and commitment to positive impact make it an attractive option for consumers and restaurants.

For businesses looking to grow, Just Eat offers refined resources and reach necessary to succeed. This guide provides a general overview of the potential you can get by joining Just Eat’s model to level up your business.