Dive Brief:
- A majority (58%) of customers prefer to use a restaurant’s app or website to order delivery, according to NCR Voyix’s 2025 Customer Experience Report.
- Customers were split, with 29% preferring to use a restaurant’s first-party app and 29% preferring to use the website. Another 15% said they would prefer to call the restaurant directly for delivery.
- Many consumers cited convenience (65%), ease of customization (50%) and earning loyalty points (36%) as reasons for ordering directly.
Dive Insight:
The results are consistent with last year’s sentiments and may reflect a gradual shift toward restaurants offering more online ordering and first-party delivery options. Olive Garden has been testing first-party delivery on its app and website through Uber Eats’ white-label service since last year instead of offering delivery on a marketplace.
“Third-party delivery is challenging,” Olo’s CEO Noah Glass told Restaurant Dive during the ICR Conference. “It’s challenging from a profitability perspective because you’re paying a 20% to 30% commission to the delivery marketplace. It’s challenging in that the brand gets zero data about who that guest is.”
While third-party orders drive traffic and result in transactions, the restaurant doesn’t get a guest data profile, making it more difficult to market to guests for repeat visits, Glass said.
Ordering directly from restaurants is often perceived as less expensive compared to third-party marketplaces. Menu prices are often higher to cover the commissions restaurants pay. Consumers also may pay fees to the marketplaces, which represent another, intermediary layer of business looking to turn a profit.
First-party delivery’s perceived price advantage could be helpful in regaining momentum with delivery, as 38% of consumers surveyed for the NCR Voyix report that they are ordering delivery less than they used to due to inflation. A bulk of customers, 60%, already expect prices for delivery to increase, and 25% expect prices for delivery to remain the same.
NCR Voyix’s report is based on a blind survey of U.S. consumers in November 2024 and has a margin of error of +/-4%.
