Third-party delivery apps are great at putting your restaurant in front of new diners, and ChowNow is built to help you keep the ones they introduce. Where a marketplace order gives you a transaction and keeps the customer, ChowNow gives you a commission-free way to earn that diner’s next order on a channel you own, while still working alongside the delivery apps you already use. Here’s exactly how ChowNow does it.

How does ChowNow help restaurants reduce dependence on third-party delivery?

ChowNow helps restaurants reduce third-party delivery dependence by giving them a commission-free channel to send diners to, and the marketing tools to bring them back to it. With ChowNow direct online ordering on your own website and branded app, orders run on a flat monthly subscription with no percentage taken off the top, and the restaurant owns 100% of the customer data on every one. The marketplaces stay useful for discovery; ChowNow makes sure the diner they discovered doesn’t have to go back through them to reorder.

Does ChowNow integrate with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub?

Yes. ChowNow integrates with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, plus 20+ POS systems, so you don’t have to choose between marketplace reach and a workflow that works. Your third-party and direct orders come together instead of living on separate tablets, which means you can keep the apps for what they’re good at while steadily building the direct channel you own.

How does ChowNow’s order aggregation work?

ChowNow’s order aggregation pulls your DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub orders into a single dashboard and routes them into the POS your kitchen already runs, so there’s no tablet row, no re-keying, and no missed tickets. Every channel lands in one place, so running marketplaces and direct ordering side by side is less work than juggling them separately, not more. That single view is also what lets you see how much of your volume is still commission-based, and shift it over time.

What is the ChowNow Discovery Network?

The ChowNow Discovery Network is a discovery channel you own: it publishes your menu and direct ordering link across the sites diners already use, like Google, Yelp, Apple Maps, and more, with every order arriving with industry-low commission. It’s how ChowNow helps you get found the same way the delivery apps get found, without the commission and without handing over the customer. For many restaurants it’s the piece that replaces marketplace discovery with discovery they control.

How do the ChowNow branded app and Rewards bring customers back?

The ChowNow branded app brings customers back by removing the competition at the moment of reorder, there’s one restaurant on the screen, yours, instead of a marketplace full of alternatives, and ChowNow Rewards gives diners a reason to keep choosing it. The effect compounds: De Babel saw a 34% boost in weekly orders after launching their branded app, the same diners ordering more often through a channel the restaurant owned.

Do restaurants own their customer data with ChowNow?

Yes, with ChowNow, the restaurant owns 100% of diner contact and ordering data on every direct order: names, emails, and order history. That ownership is the whole engine behind winning customers back, because it’s what lets you email a lapsed regular, text a first-order offer, or invite a diner into your loyalty program. On a third-party marketplace, that relationship stays with the platform; with ChowNow, it’s yours to build on for the life of the restaurant.

Is ChowNow’s monthly fee worth it compared to third-party delivery commissions?

ChowNow’s flat monthly fee is designed to pull ahead of commission-based ordering as your volume grows, because it doesn’t take a percentage of every order the way third-party delivery does. Marketplace commissions commonly run 15% to 30% per order, every order, forever; a flat subscription costs the same whether you do 50 direct orders a month or 500. The clearest proof is a real restaurant: since 2022, De Babel has driven $1.1M in commission-free sales and avoided an estimated $165,000+ in commission fees, money that stayed in the business.

Your first 60 days with ChowNow

In month one, we’d launch direct online ordering, connect your POS, and publish your ordering link everywhere through the Discovery Network so diners can find your direct channel. Then give them a reason to use it with a loyalty reward, a first-direct-order incentive, and your branded app promoted to regulars. Once the orders roll in, measure your direct-versus-marketplace share, add up the commission you avoided, and set a target for next quarter. Keep the marketplaces running as your discovery engine the whole time, and let ChowNow turn the diners they introduce into regulars you own.

FAQ

Does ChowNow replace DoorDash and Uber Eats?

No (and yes), ChowNow works alongside them and offers its own places for diners to discover you. Third-party marketplaces can stay one of your new-customer discovery channel and ChowNow gives you the commission-free direct channel, the branded app, and the opportunity to convert those diners into repeat regulars.

How is ordering through ChowNow different from a diner ordering on a delivery app?

A ChowNow direct order is commission-free and comes with the customer’s contact and order data attached, so you can market to them again. A delivery-app order carries a per-order commission and keeps the customer relationship on the platform.

How long does it take to get started with ChowNow?

Most restaurants are live within a few days to a few weeks with a menu build, a POS connection, and your direct ordering link added to your site and listings.

Want to see how ChowNow turns the diners you’re already paying to discover into regulars you own? Book a free demo.