How to Get More Orders on Just Eat

Your Performance Score is the single most controllable factor in your Just Eat ranking, and it is calculated from two components: your Order Score and your Customer Experience Score. Understanding what drives each component allows you to make targeted improvements that directly translate into higher visibility and more orders.

The Order Score tracks three operational metrics. First, rejected orders: every time you reject an incoming order, it damages your score and, according to Just Eat's own estimates, costs you approximately five additional orders over the course of a year. If you are regularly rejecting orders because of stock issues, update your menu availability in real time through the Partner Hub app rather than waiting until an order comes in. Second, added preparation time: when you extend the estimated delivery time after accepting an order, customers are far more likely to leave negative ratings. Set realistic minimum order times in Partner Centre that reflect your actual kitchen capacity, especially during Friday and Saturday peak periods. Third, "On Its Way" notifications: pressing the "On Its Way" button for every delivery order that leaves your kitchen signals to Just Eat that your operations are running smoothly, and it reduces the number of customer service calls asking where their food is.

The Customer Experience Score is driven by your food and delivery ratings. For restaurants using Just Eat's delivery service, the delivery rating is partially outside your control, but food quality ratings are entirely on you. Invest in packaging that maintains food temperature and presentation during transit. Sealed containers, insulated bags, and separating hot and cold items make a measurable difference in how customers rate their experience.

To monitor your Performance Score, open the Partner Hub app daily. The real-time dashboard shows your current score, recent reviews, and personalised recommendations for improvement. Just Eat provides specific, data-driven suggestions based on your restaurant's patterns, such as which time slots generate the most rejected orders or which menu items receive the lowest ratings. Acting on these recommendations consistently is one of the fastest paths to ranking improvement.

Set a target of maintaining your Performance Score in the top tier for your area. Restaurants in the top performance bracket receive preferential ranking treatment, and even small improvements in score can shift your position above several competitors in a dense postcode.

Just Eat's own research delivers one of the most compelling statistics in food delivery: menu items with professional photos are 4x more likely to be added to a customer's basket compared to items without images. Despite this, a significant proportion of restaurants on Just Eat still list menu items with no photography at all, creating an enormous competitive advantage for those willing to invest in visuals.

Just Eat has specific image requirements that you must follow for your photos to be approved. Single item images must use a 3:2 aspect ratio at a minimum resolution of 1200 x 800 pixels, with space within the image for a 1:1 crop that keeps the entire dish visible. Bundle images require a 16:9 ratio at 1920 x 1080 pixels minimum. Files must be JPEG or PNG format and under 10MB. Critically, Just Eat will reject images that contain faces, hands, watermarks, text overlays, raw ingredients, or stock photography sourced from the internet. Your dish should be centred in the frame and occupy approximately 85% of the image area.

The content guidelines reflect what performs best on the platform. Each image should show a single dish shot from an angle that reveals all individual components. A chicken tikka masala, for example, should show the curry in a bowl with visible pieces of chicken, a vibrant sauce colour, and a garnish of fresh coriander, rather than a flat overhead shot where the ingredients are hidden beneath the surface. The goal is to help customers understand exactly what they will receive.

For restaurants with large menus, prioritise photographing your top-selling items and any high-margin dishes first. Even partial photo coverage dramatically improves your menu's visual appeal and increases average basket size, as customers browsing a menu with some photos are more likely to add additional items that catch their eye. Many restaurant owners report that adding photos to their top 20 items drives noticeable order increases within the first week.

AI-powered food photography tools like MenuPhotoAI can transform your existing food photos into professional, platform-ready images that meet Just Eat's specifications. Rather than hiring a photographer for hundreds of pounds or attempting DIY shots with inconsistent lighting, AI enhancement produces studio-quality results from smartphone photos in minutes, making it feasible to photograph your entire menu without closing your kitchen for a photo shoot.

StampCards is Just Eat's built-in loyalty programme, and it is one of the most underused tools available to restaurant partners. The concept is straightforward: customers collect a stamp with every order from your restaurant, and after collecting five stamps, they receive a discount on their sixth order. Each stamp is worth 10% of the order value, so the reward scales with spending. According to Just Eat, opted-in partners have seen up to 14% revenue growth in the first month and an average of 21% more returning customers.

What makes StampCards particularly valuable is that it is entirely free to join and operates within the Just Eat ecosystem. Customers see their stamp progress directly in the app, which creates a psychological incentive to order from your restaurant again rather than trying a competitor. The rewards earned at your restaurant can only be redeemed at your restaurant, ensuring that the loyalty benefit flows directly back to your business.

Setting up StampCards takes minutes through your Partner Centre account. Once activated, Just Eat handles all the tracking, notifications, and reward redemption automatically. Customers receive push notifications when they are close to earning their reward, which serves as free marketing that brings them back to your listing. This is particularly powerful because returning customers tend to place larger orders than first-time buyers, amplifying the revenue impact beyond the simple repeat visit.

The strategic value of StampCards extends beyond direct revenue. Repeat customers improve your popularity metrics in the Just Eat algorithm, boosting your organic ranking. They also tend to leave better reviews because they already know and trust your food, which improves your quality score. And because Just Eat personalises search results based on order history, a customer who has ordered from you multiple times will see your restaurant ranked higher in their personal results, making them even more likely to reorder.

To maximise StampCards effectiveness, promote the programme within your packaging. Include a small card or sticker with orders reminding customers that they are earning stamps toward a free reward. This offline touchpoint reinforces the digital loyalty loop and can meaningfully increase participation rates. Some restaurant partners also time their StampCards activation to coincide with a new menu launch, using the loyalty incentive to drive trial of new dishes.

Promoted Placement is Just Eat's pay-per-click advertising product that positions your restaurant in one of the top five search results on the app and website. Unlike organic ranking, which takes time to build, Promoted Placement delivers immediate visibility, and you only pay when a customer actually clicks on your menu. This makes it a relatively low-risk way to drive incremental orders, provided you approach it with a clear budget strategy.

The system works on a weekly budget model. You set the maximum amount you are willing to spend per week, and Just Eat's algorithm distributes your visibility throughout the week based on demand. The cost per click varies depending on competition in your area, with denser postcodes in cities like London, Manchester, and Birmingham typically commanding higher click costs than suburban or rural areas. New contracts are fixed for an initial six-week period, after which they roll over on a weekly basis, giving you flexibility to pause or adjust.

The key to profitable Promoted Placement is understanding that it amplifies your existing performance rather than replacing it. Just Eat's system calibrates your promoted visibility in proportion to your organic ranking, so a restaurant with strong ratings and a high Performance Score will extract significantly more value from the same weekly budget than a poorly-ranked competitor. This means you should optimise your organic ranking first before investing in Promoted Placement. Launching paid visibility while your ratings are low or your menu lacks photos is likely to produce disappointing returns because customers will click but not convert.

Time your Promoted Placement investment around high-demand periods for maximum impact. Friday and Saturday evenings, bank holidays, major sporting events, and seasonal peaks like the start of the Premier League season or cold winter weekends drive surges in Just Eat usage across the UK. Increasing your weekly budget during these periods and pulling back during quieter midweek slots helps you concentrate spending where it generates the most orders.

Track your Promoted Placement performance through the Partner Hub analytics. Monitor your click-through rate, conversion rate from clicks to orders, and cost per acquired order. If your conversion rate is low despite strong click volume, the issue is likely your menu listing itself, whether that is missing photos, unclear descriptions, or pricing that does not match customer expectations. Use the data to iterate on your listing before scaling your budget.

On Just Eat, your menu description is often the deciding factor between a customer adding an item to their basket or scrolling past it. Unlike dine-in menus where a server can explain dishes, your written descriptions must do all the selling. Yet many restaurants on the platform still list items with minimal detail, such as "Chicken Curry - £8.99" with no further information. This is a missed opportunity that directly reduces your conversion rate and, by extension, your algorithmic ranking.

Effective Just Eat menu descriptions follow a specific formula: lead with the protein or hero ingredient, describe the cooking method, list key flavour profiles or sauces, and mention any notable accompaniments. For example, rather than "Lamb Kebab," write "Tender chargrilled lamb kofta seasoned with cumin and fresh mint, served in warm flatbread with crisp salad, pickled red onion, and creamy garlic sauce." The second description gives the customer a vivid mental picture of what they will receive and justifies the price point.

Just Eat's search functionality also means that detailed descriptions improve your discoverability. When a customer searches for "grilled chicken" or "vegan burger," the platform scans menu item names and descriptions. Restaurants whose descriptions include relevant terms naturally appear in more search results. Think about the words your customers would use to search for your food and incorporate those terms naturally.

Portion size and dietary information are particularly important on Just Eat, where customers cannot see the dish in person. Specify whether a curry serves one or two people, note if a dish is gluten-free or suitable for vegetarians, and mention spice levels. These details reduce uncertainty, which reduces abandoned baskets and increases order confidence. Just Eat's Partner Centre allows you to tag items with dietary labels, and using these tags ensures your dishes appear when customers filter by dietary preferences.

Review your menu descriptions quarterly and update them based on customer feedback. If you notice a dish consistently receives comments about being smaller than expected or spicier than anticipated, adjust the description to set accurate expectations. Menu descriptions that align with the actual delivery experience reduce negative ratings and encourage repeat orders. The Partner Hub analytics can help you identify which items have high view rates but low conversion, signalling that the description or photo is not compelling enough to close the sale.

One of the least understood aspects of Just Eat's algorithm is that it can temporarily demote restaurants experiencing capacity issues. If your kitchen is overwhelmed and orders are being delayed, rejected, or receiving extended preparation times, Just Eat will reduce your visibility to protect customers from a poor experience. While this makes sense from a platform perspective, it means that your busiest periods, when demand is highest, are exactly when you risk losing algorithmic visibility.

The solution is proactive capacity management through your Partner Centre settings. Before peak periods, adjust your minimum order time to reflect realistic preparation capabilities. If your standard prep time is 30 minutes but Friday evenings typically push it to 45 minutes, update the setting before the rush begins rather than adding time to individual orders after customers have already placed them. Customers are far more tolerant of a listed 45-minute wait time than they are of receiving a notification that their 30-minute order has been delayed.

Just Eat's Partner Hub app allows you to toggle menu items on and off in real time. If you run out of a popular ingredient during service, deactivate that item immediately rather than rejecting orders when they come in. Every rejected order damages your Performance Score and costs you an estimated five future orders. Building a simple prep checklist that your kitchen team reviews before each peak service, confirming stock levels for high-demand items, prevents unnecessary rejections.

Consider your staffing model during peak delivery hours. Many restaurants optimise staffing for dine-in service but understaff for delivery preparation. On Just Eat, Friday and Saturday evenings between 6pm and 9pm account for a disproportionate share of weekly orders. Having dedicated staff for packing and quality-checking delivery orders during these windows reduces preparation times and minimises errors that lead to negative ratings.

The "On Its Way" notification is another peak-hour tool that many restaurants neglect. Pressing this button for every outgoing delivery signals operational efficiency to the algorithm, reduces customer service calls, and contributes positively to your Performance Score. Train your staff to make this a mandatory step in the dispatch process, not an afterthought. Consistent use of this feature during high-volume periods demonstrates to Just Eat that your restaurant handles capacity reliably, which protects your ranking even when you are busy.

Just Eat's Offer Finder is a personalised recommendation tool within Partner Centre that analyses your restaurant's performance data and suggests the most effective promotional campaigns for your specific situation. Rather than guessing which discount or offer might work, the Offer Finder uses Just Eat's platform-wide data to recommend promotions that have proven effective for restaurants similar to yours in your area.

The types of offers available through Just Eat include percentage discounts on orders over a certain value, free item promotions such as a free drink with orders over £15, and reduced delivery fee offers. Each type serves a different strategic purpose. Percentage discounts are effective for increasing order frequency and attracting price-sensitive customers, while free item promotions tend to increase average order value because customers spend more to reach the qualifying threshold. Reduced delivery fees lower the barrier to first-time orders and are particularly effective for restaurants in areas where delivery charges are a deterrent.

Timing your promotions strategically amplifies their impact. Just Eat features weekly promotional events including "Cheeky Tuesdays" with percentage discounts and "Freebie Fridays" with free item add-ons. Aligning your restaurant promotions with these platform-wide events means your offer benefits from Just Eat's own marketing spend, as the platform actively promotes these events to its customer base through push notifications, email campaigns, and app banners. Running a 20% off promotion on a random Wednesday will generate far less traffic than the same offer aligned with a featured promotional event.

Monitor the profitability of each promotion carefully using Partner Hub analytics. Calculate your cost per incremental order by comparing order volumes during promotional and non-promotional periods. A 15% discount that generates a 40% increase in orders is likely profitable even after accounting for the margin reduction, but a 25% discount that only generates a 10% increase may not justify the cost. The Offer Finder helps you find this balance by recommending discount levels based on what has worked for comparable restaurants.

Be strategic about which menu items you include in promotions. Featuring high-margin items like sides, drinks, and desserts as free add-ons costs you less than discounting your core mains. Similarly, offering a percentage discount with a minimum order value of £20 or more tends to push customers toward ordering an additional item they might not otherwise have added, increasing your total basket value even after the discount is applied.

When a restaurant first joins Just Eat, the platform provides a temporary ranking boost for the first couple of weeks and displays a "New" label on the listing. This initial visibility window is designed to help new partners build their customer base and operational performance, but many restaurants squander it by going live before their listing is fully optimised. Treating your Just Eat launch with the same planning you would give a physical restaurant opening can set the trajectory for your entire tenure on the platform.

Before you activate your listing, ensure every element is polished. Upload professional photos for at least your top 20 menu items, following Just Eat's 3:2 aspect ratio and 1200 x 800 pixel minimum requirements. Write detailed, appetising descriptions for every item. Set realistic preparation times that your kitchen can consistently meet. Verify that all dietary labels and allergen information are accurate. Test the ordering flow yourself to catch any issues with item modifiers, pricing, or availability settings.

During the boost period, your primary objective is to accumulate positive reviews and build order volume. Consider running an introductory offer, such as 20% off first orders or a free side with every order, to maximise the number of customers who try your restaurant while you have elevated visibility. The volume of orders and positive ratings you generate during these first two weeks directly determines your organic ranking position once the boost expires. A restaurant that generates 200 orders with a 4.5-star average during the boost will settle into a far stronger organic position than one that only manages 50 orders with mixed reviews.

Operationally, staff your kitchen for higher-than-normal delivery volume during the boost period. Rejected orders or slow preparation times during your launch are particularly damaging because they set a low Performance Score baseline that takes weeks to recover from. Brief your team on the importance of the launch window and ensure everyone understands the "On Its Way" notification process and packaging standards.

After the boost expires, watch your analytics closely for any drop in order volume. This is the point where the strategies outlined in this guide, from StampCards activation to Promoted Placement investment, become essential for maintaining momentum. The boost gives you a head start, but sustained growth requires ongoing optimisation.

Your quality score on Just Eat is calculated from recent customer ratings for food and delivery, and it is one of the two highest-weighted factors in the ranking algorithm alongside distance. Just Eat weights recent reviews more heavily than older ones, which means that a sustained effort to improve review scores can shift your ranking position in a matter of weeks rather than months. This recency bias is good news for restaurants willing to put in the work.

The most effective way to improve food ratings is to focus on the moment of delivery rather than just the moment of cooking. Food that tastes excellent in your kitchen but arrives lukewarm, poorly presented, or with mixed-up items will receive low ratings. Invest in packaging that maintains temperature: foil-lined bags for hot items, sealed containers that prevent leaking, and separate bags for items that should stay crisp rather than steaming next to a hot curry. These packaging improvements typically cost pennies per order but can shift your average food rating by half a star.

Address negative reviews promptly and professionally. Just Eat's Partner Hub allows you to view and respond to customer feedback. While you cannot remove negative reviews, a thoughtful response that acknowledges the issue and explains what you have done to fix it demonstrates to both the reviewer and future customers that you take quality seriously. Many customers who had a single bad experience will reorder if they feel their feedback was heard.

Encourage reviews by including a small thank-you note in your delivery packaging. A simple message like "Thank you for ordering from us! We would love to hear your feedback on Just Eat" gently prompts satisfied customers to leave a rating. Most customers only leave reviews when they are unhappy, so a polite reminder nudges the satisfied majority to balance out the occasional negative experience.

Track your rating trends in Partner Hub analytics and correlate them with operational changes. If your ratings dipped after introducing a new delivery packaging supplier, or improved after extending your preparation time during peak hours, these insights help you identify which changes have the most impact. Focus on maintaining a consistent upward trajectory rather than chasing a perfect score, since the algorithm rewards consistent improvement.

The Just Eat Partner Hub is far more than an order management tool. Its built-in analytics suite provides restaurant-specific data that, when used consistently, removes the guesswork from menu optimisation, staffing decisions, and marketing investment. Yet many restaurant partners only use the Hub to accept orders and never explore the performance insights available to them.

The real-time dashboard shows your daily revenue, order volume, and latest customer reviews at a glance. Make it a habit to check this dashboard at the start of each day and again after the evening rush. Spotting a dip in order volume early allows you to investigate whether it is caused by an operational issue, a competitor's promotion, or a broader market trend before it compounds over multiple days.

The performance insights section provides your Performance Score breakdown and personalised recommendations. These recommendations are generated by Just Eat's algorithms based on your restaurant's specific data patterns, making them more actionable than generic advice. If the system identifies that your rejection rate spikes on Sunday lunchtimes, it will recommend adjusting your availability settings for that period. If your ratings drop on specific menu items, it will flag those dishes for review. Following these personalised recommendations is one of the easiest paths to ranking improvement because the suggestions are already calibrated to your situation.

Sales trend data reveals which days and time slots generate the most revenue, which menu items are your highest sellers, and how your average order value changes over time. Use this data to inform your promotional strategy: running offers during your slowest periods can smooth out revenue peaks and troughs, while investing Promoted Placement budget during your naturally busiest periods maximises the return from paid visibility.

Cross-reference your Just Eat analytics with your own kitchen operations data. If a dish shows high views but low order conversion in the Hub, it likely needs better photography or a more compelling description. If a dish has high order volume but disproportionately poor ratings, there may be a quality or packaging issue specific to delivery. The Partner Hub gives you the customer-facing data; combining it with your kitchen-side knowledge creates a complete picture for optimisation decisions.

Set monthly review sessions to analyse your Just Eat performance trends. Compare month-over-month order volume, average order value, rating scores, and Promoted Placement ROI. This regular cadence prevents you from reacting to daily fluctuations while ensuring you catch and address longer-term trends before they affect your ranking.