How to rank high on online food delivery platforms (2025)

The rise of third-party delivery platforms comes with the significant benefit of increased visibility for restaurants joining them.

These delivery apps have become extremely popular. However, the increasing number of businesses using third-party providers to offer delivery has led to intense competition. Standing out in this crowded industry is now more important than ever.

While most, if not all, of the online ordering apps have a ranking algorithm, quite a few metrics are commonly used to determine a restaurant’s ranking in food-ordering apps.

You can improve your restaurant’s in-app position if you improve the metrics below.

If you want to improve your positioning on delivery apps and outrank your competition Pulse by Deliverect is the solution for you

Ramp up delivery time

It's common for 60% of online shoppers to prioritize delivery time when placing orders. Food delivery apps understand this factor and arrange restaurants according to preference. If your restaurant accepts orders quickly, the kitchen can prepare the meal faster, resulting in prompt pickup and delivery to the customer.

Automating the delivery process can help speed up delivery times considerably.

By using Deliverect Restaurants' integration, all your orders are automatically accepted and printed in the kitchen, saving time with each delivery.

Specific delivery channels can calculate the average time it takes for your restaurant to prepare a particular type of dish by utilizing intelligent data from previous orders. This ensures that couriers arrive at the appropriate time without waiting until the order is finished, saving time. As a result, it is essential to streamline your delivery operations to enhance estimated delivery times.

Improve user ratings

People often rely on customer reviews when booking a hotel, making a restaurant reservation, or ordering food online. User ratings are a common ranking measure in delivery apps, and the "top-rated" category is typically prominently featured.

While there is no exact science behind reviews, your best chance to improve your ratings is to give the customers what they want: good value for money, fast delivery times, and a good-looking, tasty meal. Of course, getting the customer’s order right is crucial to maintaining good ratings. Order accuracy is a critical element of the online ordering process, along with fast delivery.

With a POS integration, your restaurant can torpedo the risk of human error because online orders no longer need to be entered manually, ensuring the customer gets exactly what he orders.  

How can you convince your online customers to give you a review? Restaurant businesses often feel less connected to their delivery customers as they don’t have a direct line of communication with them. With millennials being a driving force behind food delivery, social media would be one of the best ways to reach them. User-generated content is supposedly 20% more influential when purchasing other data, so why not use that? 

One way to gather feedback and increase your online presence is to add handwritten notes to your deliveries. You can ask satisfied customers to leave a review or take pictures and tag your social media channels. This will provide valuable insight into your products and business while boosting your digital footprint.

 Learn more about Pulse by Deliverect and outsmart your competition on delivery apps

Provide special offers 

Creating special offers is another surefire way to rank high on various delivery platforms. Most food ordering apps have an exceptional deals category, usually shown as one of the first when you scroll through the app.

There’s a wide range of promotions to choose from, so you can pick the one that’s most suited for your business and which is supported by the specific delivery platform: 

• Buy one, get one free (often abbreviated as BOGOF)

• $5 / €5 off your first order

• Free delivery for orders over $25 / €25

• Free dessert with orders over $20 / €20

• Menu deals with a free side

If you already work with Deliverect Restaurants, our menu builder will save you time setting up, duplicating, scheduling, and publishing online menus for the different delivery channels.

Get featured

Many online food ordering platforms include a section called "featured" or "top picks," often divided into meal categories such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

However, it is unclear what criteria restaurants must meet to be listed in this section. The algorithm that ranks restaurants automatically considers multiple factors, but the details are unavailable to the public.

These factors include:

• Operational performance: your online rate, acceptance rate, average acceptance, prep & courier wait time, …

• Conversion metrics: how many customers go on to place an order after having viewed your online shop

• App rating: your restaurant’s user rating

• The distance between the customer and the restaurant

• Preference data from regular customers

While you cannot do much about the last two items on the list, you can work on optimizing your restaurant offering and operational performance. Both will increase your customer base, rating, conversion rate, and—ultimately—your ranking on the food delivery platform.