The order of restaurants in the restaurant list of Takeaway.com is dynamic and subject to a wide variety of factors. One aim remains constant though – the position of a restaurant is based on its relevance to customers.
With this in mind, the main ranking parameters that we use on the platform are the main factors used to determine the order and prominence in which restaurants appear on our platform for the default listing (what we refer to as the ”best match”). Please note that when sorting options available on the website or mobile application are used, this will affect the impact of these parameters on that search or listing results, as the selected sorting option will typically focus on one specific parameter.
What are the main parameters?
Distance
The most important ranking parameter is distance. We show restaurants that are close by with priority above restaurants that are further away because Takeaway.com wants to spread the orders that arrive on our site as much as possible over the participating restaurants. We also want to ensure in general that our customers have to wait as little as possible for their food, and restaurants have to travel as few kilometres as possible when delivering their food. When the ‘pick-up’ option is selected instead of delivery, we recognise that location is even more important to customers and so all restaurants will be ranked only based on distance in the default listing.
Quality
The quality score is a measurement based on the average feedback of our customers via their most recent food and delivery ratings. In this way, we feel it shows a fair image of the delivered quality because Takeaway.com has millions of customers, all with different preferences.
Popularity
Popular restaurants often employ more delivery staff and can, therefore, typically cover a larger delivery area and a larger number of orders. Based on this popularity, they are often placed somewhat higher than restaurants that do not have this kind of capacity. Popularity is based on the amount of recent orders processed by a restaurant in comparison to other restaurants in that area. As a rule, this mainly applies to chains, but could also apply to bigger restaurants in the centre of a city.
New restaurants
New restaurants temporarily receive an improved position on Takeaway.com, mostly because there are little reviews available for new restaurants. After all, very few orders have been placed. To help such restaurants get started they receive a temporary (for a week, on average) higher position. New restaurants are displayed with the “New” label next to the restaurant’s logo.
Temporary factors
There are other factors that may temporarily influence the position of a restaurant, either indirectly because they impact the quality or popularity, or directly due to us temporarily moving restaurants down the list where we know that their orders are unlikely to be delivered to customers within a reasonable timeframe. These factors include, but are not limited to the weather, crowds at a particular location, opening hours, holidays and the capacity of the restaurant or delivery service. In addition, both Takeaway.com and the restaurant can decide to “close” a restaurant on the platform temporarily if it is too busy. This happens regularly.
Favourites
Customers have the possibility to categorise restaurants as one of their “favourites”. These restaurants will appear on the top of the listing in order for customers to find their favourite restaurants more easily. This is therefore a personal parameter, dictated solely by the customer.
Testing
From time to time, we may run tests or experiments to monitor and improve our service, and these may have a temporary impact on the position of restaurants.
