Delivery and online ordering now represent 22% of total global foodservice spending, up from just 9% in 2019. That’s not a trend. That’s a restructuring. And if your restaurant is still treating third-party apps as a growth channel rather than a margin leak, you’re handing profits to DoorDash shareholders every single day.
The Numbers That Change How You Think About Your Restaurant
The U.S. restaurant industry is on track to hit $1.5 trillion in total sales in 2025, according to the National Restaurant Association’s 2025 State of the Industry Report. Impressive. But here’s the number that actually matters for your P&L: across the industry, 67% of average restaurant revenue now comes from food orders placed online or over the phone. Not from dine-in. Not from walk-ins. From digital. For the autopilot approach that runs review replies, Google posts, photo cadence, ranking audits, and the Maps grid scan in one subscription, see the Restaurant Velocity app.
For quick-service restaurants, the shift is even sharper. 75% of QSR sales are now generated through online and phone orders, per industry data from Toast. And among the roughly 2.6 billion global users expected to order food online by 2026, the youngest cohorts are driving the most volume, 92% of Gen Z adults order online at least once weekly (National Restaurant Association, 2024).
That’s the macro picture. The micro picture is where restaurant owners are getting hurt.
Third-party delivery fees run 15 to 30% per order. Restaurant net profit margins average 3 to 6% for full-service and 6 to 10% for quick-service operations (UpMenu, 2025). Do that math. A 30% commission on a $40 order is $12 out the door before you’ve paid a single labor or food cost dollar. No restaurant making 5% net survives long on that math. And yet, more than half of U.S. restaurants now operate on third-party platforms as their primary online channel.
This post compiles the most current restaurant online ordering statistics available, pulled from Euromonitor, the National Restaurant Association, Earnest Analytics, DoorDash’s own IR filings, and industry research through early 2026. Every number has a source. Every section has a take.
Sources: Euromonitor International World Market for Consumer Foodservice 2026; National Restaurant Association 2025 State of the Industry; Toast Food Delivery Statistics 2026; UpMenu Restaurant Profit Margin 2025
Global Food Delivery Market Size: The Numbers Are Wild
The global online food delivery market reached approximately $1.40 trillion in total revenue in 2025, according to Statista’s market forecast. That figure includes platform revenues, consumer spend, and logistics, depending on methodology, estimates range significantly. Euromonitor puts the global consumer foodservice industry at $3.36 trillion in 2025, with delivery commanding 22 cents of every dollar spent.
Whichever figure you use, the growth trajectory is consistent. The market is projected to expand at a CAGR of roughly 7 to 9% through 2030, driven by urbanization, smartphone penetration in emerging markets, and habit formation among younger consumers who genuinely cannot conceive of calling a restaurant to place an order.
| Market Segment | 2025 Value | Projected 2030 Value | CAGR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Online Food Delivery (Statista) | $1.40 trillion | $2.02 trillion | 7.63% |
| U.S. Online Food Delivery (IMARC Group) | $34.9 billion | $75.4 billion (2034) | 8.94% |
| Global Ghost Kitchen Market (Coherent Market) | $88.4 billion | $196.7 billion (2032) | 12.1% |
| U.S. Restaurant Industry Total (NRA) | $1.1 trillion (traditional) | $1.5 trillion (all foodservice) | 4.1% |
Sources: Statista Online Food Delivery Worldwide Market Forecast 2025; IMARC Group United States Online Food Delivery Market 2025; Coherent Market Insights Ghost Kitchen Market 2025; National Restaurant Association 2025 State of the Industry; Euromonitor International April 2026
The U.S. number is worth examining. At $34.9 billion, the U.S. online delivery market is meaningful, but it’s still dwarfed by China ($500+ billion in 2025 by Statista’s estimates), which has built delivery infrastructure at a scale America hasn’t matched. That context matters because it suggests U.S. adoption still has runway, particularly in suburban and rural markets where delivery density remains thin.
For restaurant operators, though, market size is mostly academic. What matters is your slice of the pie, and who’s taking a cut of that slice.
Want this done for you? The Restaurant Velocity team builds data-driven growth strategies for restaurants, from local SEO and paid channels to loyalty programs and menu engineering. Book a free 30-minute growth strategy call and we’ll audit your numbers on the call.
Platform Market Share: DoorDash Won. Grubhub Lost. Uber Eats Is Hanging On.
The U.S. food delivery platform market is essentially a two-player race. DoorDash holds between 56 to 67% of U.S. market share depending on the source and measurement methodology, Statista and Bloomberg Second Measure place it around 56 to 58%, while some aggregators cite up to 67%. Either way: dominant. Uber Eats runs second at roughly 23% market share. Grubhub? Collapsed.
Grubhub once commanded 70% of the U.S. delivery market, in 2016. By late 2024, Earnest Analytics data showed its share had fallen to approximately 6% nationally before Wonder acquired the platform for just $650 million in January 2025. For context: Just Eat Takeaway (Grubhub’s previous parent) paid $7.3 billion for Grubhub in 2021. That’s a 97% value destruction in roughly four years. The collapse was a masterclass in what happens when you cede product experience and restaurant breadth to faster-moving competitors.
| Platform | U.S. Market Share (2024 to 2025) | Revenue / GOV | Active Users |
|---|---|---|---|
| DoorDash | 56 to 67% | $80.1B GOV (2024); $10.7B revenue | 42 million (2024) |
| Uber Eats | ~23% | $13.7B revenue (2024); $21.73B Q2 2025 bookings | 95 million globally |
| Grubhub | ~6 to 8% | Orders fell 13% YoY (Q4 2023) | 24.6 million (2023, declining) |
Sources: Earnest Analytics December 2024; DoorDash Full Year 2024 Financial Results (IR filing Feb 2025); Business of Apps Uber Eats Statistics 2026; Business of Apps Grubhub Statistics 2026; Statista U.S. Online Food Delivery Market Share 2025
DoorDash processed over 2.5 billion orders in 2024, up 19.5% year-over-year. They also crossed into profitability, first annual net profit of $117 million in 2024. That profit came on the backs of restaurants paying commissions, consumers paying delivery and service fees, and DashPass subscribers. The platform is extracting value from all sides of the transaction simultaneously.
Uber Eats is smaller but stickier. Uber One has 46 million subscribers globally, and Uber Eats’ advertising business now generates over $2 billion in annualized revenue, which tells you something important: the delivery apps are becoming ad platforms, and eventually you’ll pay for visibility there just like you pay for Google Ads. That day is already here for many larger operators.
Commission Rates and the Margin Problem: This Is Where Restaurants Get Killed
Let’s be direct. Third-party delivery is a tax on your margin. The only question is whether your restaurant can afford to keep paying it.
Here’s what restaurants actually pay in 2025:
| Platform | Delivery Commission | Pickup Commission | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DoorDash Basic | 15% | 6% | Limited marketing exposure |
| DoorDash Plus | 25% | 6% | DashPass customer access |
| DoorDash Premier | 30% | 6% | Full marketing suite + Storefront |
| Uber Eats | 30% | 15% | Processing fees add 2 to 4% |
| Grubhub | 10 to 30% | Varies | Negotiated by restaurant size/volume |
Sources: CloudKitchens Delivery App Fees 2025; Orders.co Delivery App Commissions 2025; PopMenu Grubhub Fees for Restaurants 2025
The visible commission is only part of the cost. Factor in payment processing fees (2 to 4%), occasional marketing fees for promotional placement, and the operational friction of managing multiple tablets, and some industry analysis puts the true cost of third-party delivery at over 40% of order revenue in all-in terms (ActiveMenus, 2025).
Meanwhile, full-service restaurants run 3 to 6% net margins. Quick-service runs 6 to 10%. You don’t need a spreadsheet to see the problem. A restaurant running a 5% net margin that gives up 30% in commission on a $40 order has lost $12 in commission against maybe $2 in profit from that order, assuming the same food and labor cost structure. They’re effectively paying to serve DoorDash customers.
The Independent Restaurant Coalition has been pushing for federal caps on third-party delivery commissions (similar to caps enacted in New York City, San Francisco, and other municipalities during COVID that some cities have made permanent). But regulation moves slowly. The faster solution is building first-party volume. See the restaurant profit margin benchmarks we’ve put together to understand exactly where delivery economics break even for your concept.
First-Party vs. Third-Party Ordering Economics: The Math That Should Scare You
Here’s the stat restaurant owners need to print out and tape to their POS: 70% of consumers say they’d rather order directly from a restaurant than through a third-party app (ChowNow, 2024). Two out of three customers already prefer your website or app, they just don’t always know it exists.
And 67% of consumers who order directly from a restaurant do so because they want to support that restaurant specifically (DoorDash Consumer Trends 2025, yes, even DoorDash’s own research validates this). The demand is there for direct ordering. The gap is discovery, convenience, and habit.
The economics of owning your channel are compelling:
- First-party ordering platforms typically charge 2 to 5% in processing fees, versus 25 to 30% on third-party
- Customer lifetime value for direct-ordering guests is 2 to 3x higher than third-party customers, per Paytronix 2024 data
- Customers who place direct online orders visit 67% more frequently than those who don’t order online at all (Lightspeed, 2025)
- Loyalty program members order 20% more frequently and spend 20% more per visit than non-members (DoorDash Merchant Blog, 2025)
- Switching from 30% commission to a 5% first-party platform can improve net profit margins by 15 to 20 percentage points on delivery orders (ChowNow analysis, 2024)
The customer data argument is also real. On DoorDash or Uber Eats, you never learn who your customers are. No email. No phone. No purchase history you can act on. When they order on your own site, that’s a relationship you own. Pair it with SMS marketing and email list building and that direct customer becomes 5 to 7x less expensive to retain than to acquire new.
First-party doesn’t mean abandoning third-party entirely, especially for restaurants without strong brand awareness. But the goal should be using third-party platforms as a customer acquisition channel and converting those customers to direct ordering relationships. That’s the playbook.
Sources: ChowNow Restaurant Profit Margins and Ordering Platforms 2024; Paytronix Online Ordering 2024 Trends; DoorDash Consumer Trends 2025; Lightspeed Online Ordering Statistics 2025
Want this done for you? The Restaurant Velocity team builds data-driven growth strategies for restaurants, from local SEO and paid channels to loyalty programs and menu engineering. Book a free 30-minute growth strategy call and we’ll audit your numbers on the call.
Consumer Behavior and Ordering Patterns: Who’s Ordering and How Often
78% of U.S. adults have downloaded at least one food-related app in 2025, up from 51% during the pandemic peak (Restolabs, 2026). Mobile apps now account for over 70% of all online food orders globally. This is not a niche behavior. It’s infrastructure.
But the generational split in behavior is sharper than most restaurant operators realize:
| Generation | Order Online Weekly | Avg. Order Value | Monthly Orders (3P Apps) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gen Z (18 to 26) | 92% | ~$36 | 5.1x/month |
| Millennials (27 to 42) | ~75% | ~$34 | 4.6x/month |
| Gen X (43 to 58) | ~40% | ~$31 | Significantly lower |
| Boomers (59+) | ~20% | ~$26 | Occasional |
Sources: National Restaurant Association Off-Premises Research 2024; Restolabs Online Ordering Statistics 2026; DoorDash Consumer Trends 2025; Deliverect Gen Z Food Delivery Stats 2025; Restaurant News Resource Gen Z Spending Data 2025
Gen Z is the delivery generation. 69% of Gen Z prefer delivery over dine-in. They spend $36 per order on average, more than any other cohort, and order delivery 5.1 times a month through third-party apps alone. This is the customer segment that will drive restaurant industry volumes for the next 15 years.
Want to reach them? Your Instagram presence matters. Your mobile experience matters even more. We’ve written about restaurant Instagram marketing specifically for capturing Gen Z attention, but the conversion happens on your website or app. Broken mobile ordering flows or slow load times kill that conversion. Every extra click between landing and checkout reduces conversion by up to 20%, per RestaurantEngine research.
Average order values skew higher online than in-person. Consumers spend 15 to 25% more on delivery compared to dine-in, due to upsell mechanics built into ordering interfaces and the absence of a server to feel awkward ordering a $16 dessert in front of. That’s actually good news: your online menu is your best salesperson if it’s built right.
Restaurant Adoption Rates by Segment: Not Everyone Is There Yet
Up to 80% of restaurants now use tech-driven ordering solutions, including mobile apps and online ordering platforms (Restroworks, 2025). But that number obscures significant variation by segment.
Quick-service and fast casual restaurants have almost universally adopted digital ordering, they had to, given that 48% of QSR sales in 2025 come through digital delivery and takeaway channels. Full-service restaurants have been slower but the numbers are moving: FSR digital orders have increased 237% since 2020. That’s not a trend. That’s a transformation in how sit-down dining generates revenue.
The laggards are independent restaurants. Many still don’t have a functional online ordering system, or rely entirely on third-party platforms. And those restaurants are, effectively, renting their customer relationships from DoorDash at a 25 to 30% monthly fee. If that sounds like a bad deal in perpetuity, it is. Our overview of AI tools for restaurants in 2026 covers some of the lower-cost ordering platforms that have made first-party direct ordering accessible even for single-location operators.
Off-premises dining now accounts for a larger share of total sales for 58% of limited-service operators and 41% of full-service operators compared to 2019 (National Restaurant Association, 2024). Half the industry has already crossed the threshold where delivery and takeout are bigger than dine-in. The other half is getting there.
Pickup vs. Delivery: Takeout Is Still King
Delivery gets most of the press. Pickup is still most of the volume.
Roughly 65% of consumers choose to pick up their orders themselves, versus 35% who primarily use delivery (Lightspeed, 2025). And when the National Restaurant Association says that nearly 75% of all restaurant traffic now happens off-premises, most of that off-premises traffic is takeout, not DoorDash delivery.
This matters for restaurant economics in a big way. Pickup carries no commission. The customer comes to you. Your margin is intact. Yet most restaurants have invested more in their third-party delivery integrations than in their pickup experience, dedicated pickup shelves, clear signage, and a smooth order-ahead flow. That’s backwards.
The most profitable digital order a restaurant takes is a pickup order placed directly through its own website or app. Zero commission. Full margin. Owned customer data. Restaurants that engineer frictionless online-order-pickup flows are consistently seeing higher repeat rates and better unit economics than those leaning on delivery.
51% of U.S. consumers say ordering takeout is “essential to their lifestyle”, 67% of Gen Z and 64% of Millennials say the same (NRA Off-Premises Research, 2024). Takeout is not a pandemic habit. It’s permanently embedded consumer behavior. Build the infrastructure around it.
Ghost Kitchens and Virtual Brands: Hype Meets Reality
The ghost kitchen market was supposed to be the future. The numbers are real, the global ghost kitchen market is valued at approximately $88.4 billion in 2025 and projected to reach $196.7 billion by 2032 at a 12.1% CAGR (Coherent Market Insights, 2025). The U.S. ghost kitchen industry alone is estimated at $2.9 billion with 7,606 businesses operating (IBISWorld, 2025).
But the early euphoria has cooled. Virtual brands, delivery-only concepts run out of existing restaurant kitchens, proliferated through 2021 to 2022, peaked in hype, and have since undergone significant consolidation. Chains that launched 10 virtual brands during COVID are down to 2 or 3. The ones that worked had either strong brand recognition driving orders (celebrity partnerships, established fan bases) or genuinely differentiated menus that didn’t cannibalize the host kitchen’s identity.
The model still makes economic sense in specific contexts:
- Existing restaurants with underutilized off-peak kitchen capacity
- Delivery-dense urban markets where real estate costs make physical locations prohibitive
- Operators with kitchen infrastructure who want to test menu concepts before committing to a new brand
Euromonitor’s long-range projection suggests ghost kitchens could eventually become a $1 trillion global market by 2030. That projection, made in 2021, looks aggressive in 2026. The growth is real but slower than early projections suggested, primarily because consumer brand discovery through delivery apps is harder than platforms initially sold to operators.
Sources: Coherent Market Insights Ghost Kitchen Market 2025 to 2032; IBISWorld Ghost Kitchens in the US 2025; Euromonitor Ghost Kitchen $1T Projection via Restaurant Dive; OysterLink Ghost Kitchens 2026 Statistics
The ROI of Owning Your Ordering Channel: Build or Bleed
This is the section that should actually change how you allocate your marketing and technology budget in 2026.
Restaurants that have built robust first-party ordering, their own website ordering, their own app, their own SMS and email remarketing loops, are not just protecting margin. They’re building a compounding asset. Every direct customer you acquire gets more valuable over time. Every third-party customer you acquire gets more expensive to retain because the platform owns that relationship, not you.
The numbers on direct ordering economics:
- 67% of consumers prefer ordering directly from a restaurant’s website or app (DoorDash Consumer Trends 2025)
- 45% of customers say mobile ordering options encourage them to order more frequently (Restolabs, 2026)
- Mobile-optimized sites capture 42% more online orders than sites with mobile usability issues (RestaurantEngine, 2024)
- Strategic “Order Now” CTAs can increase conversion rates by up to 83% compared to unclear ordering paths (Restolabs, 2025)
- Loyalty members generate up to 65% of a restaurant’s total revenue despite representing a smaller portion of the customer base (Punchh, 2024)
We’ve seen this pattern with our own clients: restaurants that invest in building direct ordering infrastructure, a properly designed website, a loyalty program, SMS reactivation campaigns, and review generation, consistently outperform those relying primarily on third-party platforms, even controlling for concept type and location.
The catering revenue opportunity is also worth flagging. 75% of catering orders are now placed online, and over 53% of corporate buyers plan to increase their catering budgets in 2025 (Checkmate, 2025). The U.S. catering market is projected to reach $77.18 billion in 2025. Restaurant operators who build a dedicated online catering ordering flow, separate from their regular delivery menu, are tapping into a higher-margin, lower-frequency revenue stream with significant corporate demand. Most haven’t.
Sources: DoorDash Consumer Trends 2025; Restolabs Online Ordering Statistics 2026; RestaurantEngine Conversion Rate Data 2024; Punchh Loyalty Program Data 2024; Checkmate Restaurant Catering Key Statistics 2025; Expert Market Research U.S. Catering Market 2025
Want this done for you? The Restaurant Velocity team builds data-driven growth strategies for restaurants, from local SEO and paid channels to loyalty programs and menu engineering. Book a free 30-minute growth strategy call and we’ll audit your numbers on the call.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of restaurant sales come from online ordering in 2025?
Approximately 67% of an average restaurant’s revenue now comes from food orders placed online or over the phone, according to industry data compiled by Restolabs (2026). For quick-service restaurants specifically, that figure rises to 75%. Off-premises orders, delivery and takeout combined, now represent nearly 75% of all restaurant traffic, per the National Restaurant Association’s 2024 research.
What is the food delivery market size in 2025 and 2026?
The global online food delivery market reached approximately $1.40 trillion in 2025 (Statista). Delivery accounted for 22% of all global consumer foodservice spending in 2025, up from 9% in 2019, according to Euromonitor International’s April 2026 report. In the U.S., the online food delivery segment is valued at approximately $34.9 billion in 2025 with projected growth to $75.4 billion by 2034 (IMARC Group).
What is DoorDash’s market share in 2025?
DoorDash holds approximately 56 to 67% of the U.S. food delivery market, depending on the measurement source and time period. Earnest Analytics and Bloomberg Second Measure typically place it in the 56 to 60% range. DoorDash processed over 2.5 billion orders and $80.1 billion in Gross Order Value in 2024, reporting its first annual net profit of $117 million.
How much commission does DoorDash charge restaurants?
DoorDash charges restaurants 15% commission on its Basic plan, 25% on Plus, and 30% on Premier. Pickup orders on all plans carry a 6% commission. Uber Eats charges 30% for delivery and 15% for pickup. Beyond the commission, payment processing fees of 2 to 4% apply. Total all-in costs for third-party delivery can exceed 40% of order revenue when all fees are factored in.
Do customers prefer ordering directly from restaurants or through apps?
70% of consumers say they’d rather order directly from a restaurant than through a third-party app, and 67% who do order directly say it’s because they want to support the restaurant (DoorDash Consumer Trends 2025, notably, even DoorDash’s own research confirms this). The barrier is awareness and convenience: consumers default to apps when they don’t know a restaurant has its own ordering system.
What happened to Grubhub’s market share?
Grubhub fell from roughly 70% U.S. market share in 2016 to approximately 6% nationally by late 2024, per Earnest Analytics. Just Eat Takeaway, which paid $7.3 billion for Grubhub in 2021, sold it to Wonder for just $650 million in January 2025, a roughly 97% value destruction in three years. Grubhub’s orders fell 13% year-over-year in Q4 2023, and its user base dropped from 33.8 million in 2021 to 24.6 million in 2023.
How do pickup and delivery compare in restaurant ordering volume?
Pickup still dominates. Approximately 65% of consumers choose to pick up their orders themselves, while 35% primarily use delivery (Lightspeed, 2025). Nearly 75% of all restaurant orders are now off-premises, but most of that is customer-collected takeout, not third-party delivery. Pickup is also more profitable for restaurants since it carries no platform commission.
How big is the ghost kitchen market in 2025?
The global ghost kitchen market is valued at approximately $88.4 billion in 2025, projected to reach $196.7 billion by 2032 at a 12.1% CAGR (Coherent Market Insights). The U.S. alone has 7,606 ghost kitchen businesses with an industry value of $2.9 billion (IBISWorld, 2025). Growth is real but slower than the 2021 to 2022 hype cycle suggested, due to challenges in brand discovery on delivery platforms.
How often does Gen Z order food online?
92% of Gen Z adults order food online at least once weekly, the highest of any generation (National Restaurant Association, 2024). 69% prefer delivery over dine-in. Gen Z averages 5.1 delivery orders per month through third-party apps, spends approximately $36 per order, and overwhelmingly expects seamless mobile ordering experiences. Restaurants without strong mobile ordering flows are effectively invisible to this cohort.
What is the average online food delivery order value?
In the U.S., the average delivery order value ranges from $20 to $35, with variation by platform, concept, and consumer age. Gen Z averages ~$36, Millennials ~$34, Gen X ~$31, and Boomers ~$26 (Restaurant News Resource, 2025). Consumers spend 15 to 25% more on delivery orders compared to equivalent in-restaurant meals, due to upsell mechanics and the absence of in-person restraint, which is useful context when building your online menu strategy.
