How to Get More Orders on Grubhub

The single highest-impact change you can make on Grubhub is adding professional-quality photos to your entire menu. Grubhub's own internal data demonstrates that restaurants with photos and item descriptions receive up to 70% more orders and generate 65% higher sales compared to text-only menus. This is not a marginal improvement. It is the difference between a restaurant that breaks even on delivery fees and one that builds a profitable delivery channel.

Grubhub's photo review system means every image you upload goes through an automated approval process before it appears on your listing. Photos that are blurry, poorly lit, or show non-food content will be rejected. To maximize approval rates and visual impact, shoot each dish against a clean, uncluttered background with natural or diffused lighting. Overhead angles work well for bowls, salads, and plated entrees, while 45-degree angles highlight burgers, sandwiches, and stacked items.

The platform allows multiple photos per menu item, which is an underutilized feature. Use this to show different angles, included side dishes, or the dish in its actual delivery packaging. Diners on Grubhub are making split-second decisions while scrolling, and a compelling photo is what stops the scroll.

For restaurants that cannot afford a professional food photographer, which Grubhub estimates can cost between $400 and $1,500 per session, AI-powered photo enhancement tools like MenuPhotoAI offer a practical alternative. You can photograph your dishes with a smartphone and transform them into studio-quality images that meet Grubhub's specifications for a fraction of the cost. This is especially valuable for restaurants that update their menu frequently, since each new dish needs photography.

Grubhub also offers a free photoshoot to partners as part of onboarding. While this is a great starting point, the session typically covers only a limited selection of dishes. To truly maximize the photo impact across your full menu, you will need a scalable solution for ongoing photography needs.

Grubhub+ is the platform's premium membership program, costing $9.99 per month and offering members unlimited free delivery on orders over $12, lower service fees, and 5% credit back on pickup orders. What makes Grubhub+ especially significant for restaurants is its integration with Amazon Prime: all U.S. Prime members can access Grubhub+ for free, which has dramatically expanded the subscriber base. Active Grubhub+ members save an average of $336 per year, which means they order frequently and represent the highest lifetime value customers on the platform.

To capture this lucrative segment, your restaurant needs to be eligible for Grubhub+ orders. This requires meeting Grubhub's operational standards and opting into the program through your Grubhub for Restaurants portal. Once enrolled, your restaurant appears with a Grubhub+ badge in search results, which signals free delivery to subscribers and significantly increases your click-through rate.

Inside the Grubhub for Restaurants dashboard, the Customer Insights tool breaks down your orders by Grubhub+ versus non-Grubhub+ customers. Use this data to understand what percentage of your revenue comes from members and tailor your offerings accordingly. If you notice that Grubhub+ diners favor certain dishes or order at specific times, adjust your availability and promotions to match.

Restaurants on the Plus pricing package gain access to tools specifically designed to target Grubhub+ customers with personalized promotions. This means you can create member-exclusive offers that appear only to Grubhub+ diners, effectively bidding for the most valuable customers on the platform. During slower periods, running a Grubhub+ targeted promotion can fill seats that would otherwise go empty.

The algorithm also factors in Grubhub+ participation when ranking restaurants. Being a Grubhub+ eligible restaurant is a positive signal that increases your baseline visibility, particularly among the high-frequency ordering segment that drives the most revenue.

Grubhub's Smart Promotions system is an always-on marketing engine that automates customer acquisition and retention. Unlike manual promotions where you set a fixed discount and hope for the best, Smart Promotions uses Grubhub's data to automatically optimize which offers are shown to which customers, when, and at what discount level. You set a monthly budget and your goals, and the system handles the rest.

To access Smart Promotions, your restaurant needs to be on a marketing rate of at least 15%. Once activated, you can choose between three promotional formats: a percentage off the order total, a dollar amount off, or a free menu item with purchase. Smart Promotions then targets three customer segments automatically: new customers who have never ordered from you, lapsed customers who have not ordered recently, and active customers who can be turned into loyal regulars.

The power of Smart Promotions lies in its optimization engine. Rather than offering every customer the same 20% discount, the system might show a new customer a free appetizer to encourage a first order while offering a returning customer a smaller percentage discount to nudge a repeat purchase. This targeted approach stretches your marketing budget further and produces higher return on investment than blanket discounting.

Inside your Grubhub for Restaurants dashboard, you can track exactly how each promotion performs. The analytics show new customers acquired, returning customer orders generated, total promotional spend, and the incremental revenue attributed to each campaign. This transparency allows you to fine-tune your monthly budget based on actual performance data.

A practical approach is to start with a monthly Smart Promotions budget of $100 to $200 and monitor the results for 30 days. Track your cost per new customer acquisition and your repeat order rate. If the numbers are favorable, scale the budget upward. Many restaurants find that Smart Promotions deliver a 3:1 to 5:1 return on spend, meaning every dollar invested generates three to five dollars in incremental revenue.

Grubhub's built-in loyalty program lets you create a rewards system directly within the platform, eliminating the need for third-party loyalty apps or punch cards that do not translate to delivery. The program works by allowing diners to earn rewards after spending a set cumulative amount at your restaurant. Once they hit the threshold, they unlock a reward such as a free item, a discount, or a special offer.

Setting up the loyalty program is done through the Promotions and Loyalty section of your Grubhub for Restaurants portal. You define the spending threshold (for example, spend $75 to earn a reward) and the reward itself (such as a free dessert or $10 off the next order). The program then runs automatically, with Grubhub tracking customer progress and notifying diners when they are close to earning a reward.

The strategic value of the loyalty program goes beyond the direct cost of the reward. Grubhub's algorithm considers loyalty program participation as a positive ranking signal, which means having an active loyalty program can improve your visibility in search results. More importantly, the program creates a behavioral loop: diners who are close to earning a reward will choose your restaurant over competitors to reach their threshold, even if another option is slightly cheaper or closer.

When setting your loyalty thresholds, consider your average order value. If your average Grubhub order is $35, setting a reward threshold at $70 to $100 means customers need two to three orders to earn their reward. This sweet spot is close enough to feel achievable but requires genuine repeat behavior. Setting the threshold too high ($200 or more) risks diners abandoning the program before they reach the goal.

The loyalty reward itself matters too. Free items with high perceived value but low food cost, such as a dessert, appetizer, or drink, deliver the best return. A free brownie that costs you $1.50 to produce but is valued at $6.99 on the menu creates a strong incentive without eroding your margins. Track your loyalty program's performance in the Grubhub dashboard and adjust the threshold and reward quarterly based on redemption rates and repeat order frequency.

Grubhub's Sponsored Listings are a pay-to-play advertising tool that places your restaurant at the top of search results and category pages. Unlike organic ranking, which depends on multiple performance factors, Sponsored Listings give you direct control over your visibility by adding an additional commission on top of your base marketing rate.

The cost of Sponsored Listings is structured as a percentage of each order, typically ranging from 3% to 10% on top of your existing commission. For restaurants on a Premium marketing package, the combined rate with a sponsored listing typically reaches around 20% of the order value. In competitive markets like New York City, the minimum commission for a sponsored listing starts at 20%, reflecting the intense competition for top positioning.

Grubhub recently expanded its advertising platform to give merchants more control over their sponsored placements. Through the Grubhub for Restaurants portal, you can now manage the frequency, location, and targeting of your ads directly, rather than relying solely on Grubhub-managed placements. This means you can allocate more budget during peak hours (lunch from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, dinner from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM) and reduce spend during slow periods.

The key to profitable Sponsored Listings is understanding your unit economics. Calculate your average order value, subtract your food cost, your base Grubhub commission, and the additional sponsored listing fee, and ensure you still retain an acceptable margin. For a restaurant with a $35 average order, a 20% combined commission means $7 goes to Grubhub. If your food cost is 30% ($10.50) and your packaging cost is $1.50, you retain $16 per order. Whether that margin justifies the advertising spend depends on your labor model and overhead.

Use Sponsored Listings strategically rather than as an always-on expense. Run them during your first 90 days on the platform to build initial order volume and reviews. Re-activate them during seasonal slow periods or when launching new menu items. The dashboard analytics will show your impression count, click-through rate, and orders attributed to sponsored placement, giving you the data needed to calculate your actual return on investment.

Grubhub tracks a metric called "food on time rate," which measures how long delivery drivers wait at your restaurant for orders to be ready. This metric is one of the most heavily weighted signals in the ranking algorithm because it directly impacts the diner experience. When drivers wait, estimated delivery times become inaccurate, food quality degrades, and customer satisfaction drops. Grubhub boosts restaurants with faster average prep times to maintain accurate ETAs across the platform.

Inside your Grubhub for Restaurants dashboard, you can view your average prep time, driver wait time, and food-on-time rate. If your driver wait time consistently exceeds five minutes, your ranking is almost certainly being penalized. The goal is to have food ready or nearly ready when the driver arrives, which requires aligning your prep time estimates with reality.

The most common mistake restaurants make is underestimating their prep time in the Grubhub portal settings. If you list your prep time as 15 minutes but consistently take 25 minutes, drivers arrive too early and wait, your food-on-time rate drops, and the algorithm punishes you. It is far better to set a realistic prep time of 25 minutes and consistently meet it than to advertise 15 minutes and regularly fall short. Grubhub rewards consistency and accuracy over speed.

Operational improvements that directly impact your Grubhub metrics include dedicating a staff member to monitor the Grubhub tablet during peak hours, confirming orders within seconds rather than minutes, and organizing your kitchen workflow to batch delivery orders efficiently. Auto-accepting orders during peak times eliminates the confirmation delay entirely and signals operational readiness to the algorithm.

During rush periods, consider temporarily extending your prep time in the portal rather than accepting orders you cannot fulfill quickly. This proactive adjustment maintains your food-on-time rate and prevents the downward spiral of late deliveries leading to poor reviews leading to lower rankings. Grubhub's system responds to these operational signals in near real time, meaning improvements you make today can result in better ranking positions within days.

Grubhub is a search-driven platform, which means diners frequently type specific queries like "chicken tikka masala," "gluten-free pizza," or "spicy ramen" into the search bar. Your menu item titles and descriptions are the primary text that Grubhub's search engine indexes. If your menu simply says "Combo #3" or "House Special," you are invisible to these search queries and forfeiting a massive volume of potential orders.

Every menu item should have a descriptive title that includes the primary ingredient and preparation method. Instead of "Grilled Chicken Sandwich," write "Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Avocado, Bacon, and Chipotle Aioli on Brioche." This title is not only more appetizing but also matches search queries for "chicken sandwich," "avocado," "bacon," and "chipotle." Each additional keyword increases the number of searches where your item can appear.

Descriptions should be two to three sentences that paint a picture of the dish while naturally incorporating searchable terms. Mention the protein, key ingredients, sauce, cooking method, and any dietary attributes (vegetarian, gluten-free, keto-friendly, halal). Grubhub's algorithm pairs these descriptions with diner search behavior, so a well-written description does double duty: it helps diners find your item and then convinces them to add it to their cart.

Grubhub's own guidance confirms that restaurants following menu best practices, including adding detailed descriptions alongside photos, receive significantly more orders. The platform treats description completeness as a profile quality signal, meaning a fully built-out menu with descriptions on every item earns a higher baseline ranking than a sparse menu with only item names and prices.

Use the Grubhub for Restaurants portal to audit your menu monthly. Identify items with missing or minimal descriptions, and prioritize writing descriptions for your highest-margin dishes first. Pay attention to trending search terms in your market by reviewing the Customer Insights dashboard, which reveals what your customers are searching for and ordering. Align your descriptions with those trends to capture emerging demand.

The Grubhub for Restaurants portal is your command center for understanding and growing your delivery business. Many restaurant operators set up their Grubhub listing and never return to the dashboard, missing out on data that could transform their performance. The portal provides detailed analytics across revenue, order volume, customer behavior, and menu performance that no other free tool can match.

The main dashboard displays your total revenue and orders on both weekly and monthly timeframes, with data spanning the last 90 days. This gives you enough history to identify trends: Are weekday lunch orders growing? Has your average order value increased since you added combo meals? Is a seasonal menu item outperforming expectations? These insights inform real operational and menu decisions.

The Customer Insights feature is particularly powerful. It segments your customer base into new versus returning diners and Grubhub+ versus non-Grubhub+ customers, showing you the financial contribution of each segment. If you discover that 60% of your revenue comes from Grubhub+ members, that insight should drive your promotional strategy toward member-exclusive offers. If your new customer acquisition is stalling, it might be time to increase your Smart Promotions budget.

Grubhub also added Order Frequency Insights, which shows how often your customers reorder and how your retention compares to similar restaurants in your market. This competitive benchmarking helps you understand whether your repeat rate is above or below average, and where to focus improvement efforts.

The menu performance section reveals your top-selling items, which items get the most views but fewest orders (indicating a pricing or photo problem), and which items are rarely viewed at all (suggesting a positioning or naming issue). Use this data to restructure your menu layout, moving high-performers to the top of each category and reworking underperformers.

Finally, the portal allows you to dispute refunds directly. If a customer requests a refund that you believe is unwarranted, you can submit an adjustment request that takes about one minute, down from the ten minutes it used to require through customer support. Protecting your revenue from unwarranted refunds directly impacts your bottom line.

Grubhub's review system is distinct from other delivery platforms because it uses faceted ratings that evaluate three separate dimensions of the ordering experience: delivery time accuracy, order accuracy, and food quality. Each facet receives its own score, and these individual scores combine into an overall star rating. This granular approach means you can identify exactly which aspect of your operation is dragging down your overall score.

The platform collects these ratings through short post-order surveys that appear when diners log back onto Grubhub after receiving their meal. On a daily basis, Grubhub collects approximately 70,000 of these data points across its platform. For your restaurant, this means every order is a potential review, and the volume of data makes it very difficult for a few bad experiences to be offset by a few good ones. Consistency is what matters.

Start by reviewing your faceted scores in the Grubhub for Restaurants portal. If your delivery time accuracy is low but your food quality is high, the problem is operational, not culinary. Address it by adjusting your prep time estimates, improving your packaging to keep food warm during transit, or ensuring orders are staged and ready before the driver arrives. If order accuracy is your weak facet, implement a double-check system where a manager verifies every order against the Grubhub ticket before handing it to the driver.

Responding to reviews is also critical on Grubhub. The platform allows restaurant owners to reply to customer reviews, and doing so demonstrates that you take feedback seriously. A thoughtful response to a negative review can actually improve a diner's perception and increase the likelihood of a second order. Keep responses professional, acknowledge the issue, and describe the specific steps you have taken to prevent it from happening again.

Monitor your faceted ratings weekly and set internal targets. A food quality score above 4.5, combined with order accuracy above 95% and on-time delivery above 90%, will place you in the top tier of restaurants in most Grubhub markets. The algorithm rewards this consistency with sustained high visibility.

In early 2025, Wonder Group completed its acquisition of Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway for $650 million, a dramatic markdown from the $7.3 billion Just Eat Takeaway paid in 2020. This ownership change is not just a corporate headline; it has direct implications for how restaurants should approach the Grubhub platform going forward.

Wonder Group is a food technology company that operates a network of physical food halls where multiple restaurant brands cook under one roof for delivery and pickup. By acquiring Grubhub, Wonder now combines its first-party restaurant operations with Grubhub's massive third-party delivery marketplace. The stated mission is to bring together first-party and third-party restaurants, groceries, and meal kits into a single app experience.

For existing Grubhub restaurant partners, this means several things. First, competition on the platform may intensify as Wonder integrates its own restaurant brands directly into Grubhub's marketplace. These first-party brands will likely receive premium placement and operational advantages since Wonder controls both the restaurant and the delivery platform. Independent restaurants need to ensure their Grubhub profiles are fully optimized to remain competitive.

Second, the acquisition signals continued investment in the Grubhub platform. Wonder raised $600 million in additional funding in 2025 at a $7 billion valuation, and the company has stated plans to nearly double its physical locations. This expansion means more marketing spend, more diners on the platform, and potentially new tools and features for merchant partners.

Third, the integration opens potential opportunities for restaurants to participate in Wonder's broader ecosystem. As the platforms merge, there may be new promotional channels, cross-platform visibility options, and bundled offerings that are not yet available.

The practical takeaway is that Grubhub is not shrinking. Under Wonder's ownership, the platform has new capital, new strategic direction, and ambitious growth plans. Restaurants that invest in optimizing their Grubhub presence now will be well-positioned to benefit from whatever new features and expanded diner base the Wonder era brings.