20% more revenue in takeaway and delivery: why a loyalty program is indispensable

85 percent of the Dutch hospitality industry does not have a digital loyalty program. At the same time, guests who do participate in such a program spend an average of 20 percent more per visit. For takeaway and delivery restaurants, that literally means thousands of euros in revenue walking out the door every month — while you have long possessed the data to prevent it.

This is according to recent research by POS system Scanfie and payment solution Klearly among over 330 hospitality entrepreneurs. In this blog, we explain why takeaway and delivery specifically benefit so greatly from a loyalty program, which opportunities you are currently missing, and how you can launch a working program within one month.

The core: returning guests are worth their weight in gold

The figures from the study do not lie:

• 85% of hospitality businesses have no loyalty program at all
• 20% higher spending per visit among loyalty program participants
• 51% of entrepreneurs only know their guests through conversations and observation
• Only 3% actually analyze buying behavior with digital tools
• 36% do not measure whether marketing efforts are effective

For a dine-in restaurant, that is already a missed opportunity. For a delivery or takeaway restaurant, it is frankly incomprehensible — because you have something a traditional restaurant does not: every order is by definition a digital order, backed by a name, address, phone number, and complete order data.

Why takeaway and delivery are the perfect channels for loyalty

During a regular restaurant visit, you often do not even know who was at the table. With every online order, you do. This gives you four major advantages over classic hospitality:

1. You automatically have customer data

Name, contact details, order history, preferences, order frequency, average order value — with every order, it rolls into your system. No separate registration form, no barcode scanner, no manual entry. The data is already there.

2. You can segment by behavior

Who orders pizza every Friday? Who hasn’t ordered for three months? Who spends an average of more than €40 per order? Who only orders lunch on workdays? With these segments, you can run targeted campaigns that truly pay off — no more mass discounts that hurt your margin.

3. Repeat orders are the norm, not the exception

Unlike an average restaurant visit (a few times a year), regular takeaway and delivery customers order weekly or even more often. A loyal customer spending €25 per week is worth €1,300 on an annual basis. If you lose one, you lose that entire amount. If you keep an extra one, you win it.

4. Marketing costs have already been incurred

Advertising on Google, Meta, or via delivery platforms costs money. Bringing back an existing customer via a well-timed push notification or email is 5 to 25 times cheaper than acquiring a new customer. Yet the majority of the hospitality industry invests almost everything in acquisition and almost nothing in retention.

What most restaurants are still doing wrong

A painful picture emerges from the Scanfie/Klearly research: entrepreneurs focus primarily on the moment of the transaction, and not on what happens afterward. Every visitor essentially remains a one-time opportunity if you do not know who your guests are.

The three most common mistakes:

1. No registration at checkout. Customers order as guests, and you lose them immediately after the transaction.
2. No distinction between customer types. A new customer and a loyal weekly orderer receive the same generic newsletter.
3. Discount instead of relationship. Loyalty is not about points or discounts — it is about recognition and relevance. A personalized birthday offer for a favorite dish does more than a 10% discount for everyone.

How to set up a loyalty program for your delivery or takeaway restaurant in 4 steps

A working loyalty program does not have to be complicated. Our clients launch one within a single month. Here is how you approach it:

Step 1: Automatically collect customer data with every order

Ensure your ordering website or app creates a (lightweight) account by default. At CashDesk, we link online order data directly to a central customer profile — without the customer feeling an extra step. Faster checkout is already reason enough for the customer to create a profile.

Step 2: Define 3 simple segments

Do not start with 20 segments. Start with these three:

• New customers (1 order): goal = second order within 14 days
• Regular customers (3+ orders in 60 days): goal = retention + upsell
• Dormant customers (no order in 30+ days): goal = reactivation

Step 3: Create one relevant action per segment

• New customer: automatic “welcome back” email with a small treat on the second order
• Regular customer: monthly exclusive offer on the most ordered dish
• Dormant customer: “we miss you” message with an attractive incentive within 7 days

Step 4: Measure, learn, scale up

Track for each action: open rate, conversion to order, average order value. Cut what doesn’t work, double down on what does. The fact that 36 percent of the hospitality industry does not measure marketing effectiveness is exactly why so many campaigns yield nothing.

What does it deliver in concrete terms?

Let’s do the math for an average takeaway/delivery restaurant:

That is nearly one hundred thousand extra revenue per year — from the same customers, with the same kitchen, without extra advertising costs. For a chain or franchise, this naturally increases much further.

Loyalty as a competitive advantage in an unpredictable market

Rising procurement costs, higher wages, a tight labor market, price-sensitive consumers — margins in the hospitality industry are under structural pressure. In such a market, regular, returning guests are not a luxury but a necessity. They provide you with predictable revenue, lower marketing costs, and a buffer against market fluctuations.

Entrepreneurs who invest in a digital loyalty program now are building a more stable revenue base that competitors without customer insight cannot match. And the beauty is: the longer you run it, the more valuable your data becomes.

Get started with CashDesk

The CashDesk Loyalty Program is an extension that you can seamlessly activate within your existing CashDesk ordering website. Because all orders already come in through your own website, you don’t need to link separate tools or transfer customer data — everything runs on one central platform:

• Integrated into your existing CashDesk ordering website
• Customer profiles that build automatically with every online order
• Segmentation based on ordering behavior, frequency, and average order value
• Automated email and push campaigns per segment
• Fully GDPR-compliant and hosted in the Netherlands

The Loyalty Program is an optional, paid extension on top of your CashDesk subscription. For most delivery and takeaway restaurants, the investment is earned back within a few weeks.

Want to know how much revenue you are missing with your current setup? Schedule a free demo and we will calculate it together based on your own order data — including an honest estimate of what the Loyalty Program can concretely deliver for your business.

 

 

 

Source:

Published via Emerce (May 12, 2026, Industry Wire): https://www.emerce.nl/wire/nederlandse-horeca-twintig-procent-omzet-liggen-door-gebrek-loyaliteitsprogrammas