How Sangam Tandoori took back a third of their orders from the delivery apps

Industry: Hospitality, local restaurant

Location: Williamstown, Victoria

Partnership since: 2022

Services: Website strategy and development, digital ordering platform, ongoing digital growth partnership

At a glance

• A third of orders won back. Roughly 30 to 40% of order volume shifted off Uber Eats and DoorDash to the restaurant's own website, keeping the majority of each sale instead of losing 30% to commission.

• The website out-earns the ad budget. Organic and direct traffic convert at around 5.3 to 5.4%, more than three times the rate of generic paid search.

• We won back existing customers, not chased new ones. No city-wide ad blitz, just a direct ordering channel that gave loyal locals a reason to skip the app.

• Built once, supported since 2022. Monthly check-ins, not build-and-leave, so when the business changed the partnership adapted with it.

The situation

Sangam Tandoori had a website before they came to us. It had been built overseas, it barely worked, and it wasn't doing the restaurant any favours. More importantly, the business had become heavily reliant on third party delivery platforms, Uber Eats and DoorDash among them, for somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of their orders. Every one of those orders came with a 30 percent commission attached.

That's not a small leak. On a restaurant's margins, a 30 percent cut on more than half of all orders is the difference between a healthy business and one that's working hard to stand still.

What we actually did

We didn't start with a website brief. We started by understanding the business.

Is Sangam Tandoori trying to become a national award winning destination restaurant, or is it a strong local favourite that families in Williamstown order from every week? The honest answer was the latter, and that answer shaped everything that followed. There are only so many people within reach of one suburban restaurant. Pushing an aggressive Google Ads strategy to chase customers from across Melbourne would have meant spending heavily to win people who were never the realistic, repeatable customer base. The smarter move was the low hanging fruit already sitting in front of the business: the customers Sangam Tandoori already had, ordering through a channel that was quietly taking a third of the revenue with it.

So the goal became specific. Build a digital ordering platform that gives existing customers a genuine reason to order direct instead of through an app. The gross amount the business takes in doesn't need to change. What changes is how much of it the owner actually keeps.

What we built

• A self-authored website on a platform that doesn't lock the business into paying us for every small menu change or update. If the owner needs to add a dish or adjust a price, he can do it himself.

• A direct ordering system integrated with the restaurant's own kitchen printers, so when an order comes through the website, it prints in the kitchen the same way any other order does. Two copies, to two stations, exactly how the owner wanted his workflow to run. Nothing about how the kitchen operates had to change.

• Automated order status updates by SMS and email, so customers get a message when their order is received, when it's in progress, and when it's ready, the kind of experience people are used to from the big delivery apps, built directly into the restaurant's own platform rather than paid for through a third party tool.

• A 5 percent discount for customers ordering direct, enough to make switching worthwhile for the customer, while still returning roughly 25 percent of what would otherwise have gone to commission back to the business.
  

The results

Within about three months of the new site going live, a significant share of orders had shifted from third party apps to Sangam Tandoori's own website, recovering roughly 30 to 40 percent of total order volume back to a channel where the owner keeps the majority of the sale.

Looking at the data since, the picture is consistent. Organic search and direct traffic, the two channels a strong, well-built local website earns over time, convert at roughly 5.3 percent and 5.4 percent respectively. That's more than three times the conversion rate of generic paid search traffic. The foundation does more of the work than any amount of ad spend would.

Like any real business, Sangam Tandoori has been through change since. When their delivery driver left, the business had to lean on third party platforms again while they found a replacement. We didn't treat that as a one-off project that was already finished and someone else's problem. It's exactly the kind of moment ongoing partnership is for, and with a new driver now in place, we're back working with the owner to reapply the same strategy and refresh the site for where the business is today.

A genuine, ongoing partnership

We've worked with Sangam Tandoori since 2022. That means monthly check-ins and an annual review, not a website handed over and forgotten. When something changes in how the business operates, we're already there.

"What stood out was that you didn't just try to sell us a new website, you took the time to understand how our restaurant actually operates and what made sense for our business... Knowing you're still there whenever we need advice or need to adapt to changes has given us real confidence that we're supported for the long term." Owner, Sangam Tandoori

What's next

One thing the data has made clear is where the next opportunity sits. Sangam Tandoori's website performs strongly in traditional search, but almost no traffic currently comes from AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity. As more people start their search for a local restaurant by asking an AI assistant rather than typing into Google, that's a gap worth closing, and it's the next chapter of this partnership.

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FAQ

How can a restaurant reduce delivery app commission fees?

Build a direct online ordering channel and give customers a reason to use it. Delivery apps typically charge around 30 percent commission, so shifting even part of your order volume to your own website keeps far more of each sale. A small direct-order discount, automated order updates and a smooth ordering experience can make switching worthwhile for customers while returning most of that commission to the business.

Is it worth building your own online ordering system instead of relying on Uber Eats or DoorDash?

For many local restaurants, yes. The apps are useful for discovery, but the commission adds up fast on repeat customers who already know you. A direct ordering system integrated with your kitchen workflow lets you keep the majority of each sale from your regulars, without changing how much customers pay or how the kitchen operates.

How do you get customers to order direct instead of through a delivery app?

Make it easy and slightly more rewarding. A modest discount for ordering direct, order status updates by SMS and email like the apps provide, and a fast, simple checkout give loyal customers a genuine reason to switch, while the business keeps far more of the revenue.

Thinking about what's actually happening with your own digital channels?

We're not a web design agency. We're a digital growth partner that looks at your whole business, your website, your ordering systems, your visibility in search and in AI, and finds the changes that actually move revenue.