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How to build a restaurant reservation app as an aggregator
Apr 1, 2025
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According to the State of the Restaurant Industry 2025 survey, 90% of fine dining restaurant managers and 87% of casual dining restaurant owners prioritize increasing the number of diners in the restaurant over developing delivery and other off-premise destinations.
At the same time, 79% of diners expect to be able to order and pay with a smartphone. However, only large establishments or franchises are still focusing on restaurant app development. For small and medium-sized businesses, automation is still an option, not a necessity.
An alternative to developing your own app for a restaurant is to connect to an aggregator – a digital platform that brings together different establishments and allows users to make a table reservation or place a delivery order.
In this article, we will look at:
- How do restaurant aggregators work?
- What are the perspectives of this business model in the foodtech market?
- What functionality should be added to a restaurant app?
- How to convince restaurants of the benefits of integrating with aggregators?
- What are the specifics of developing and scaling aggregator apps?
We will also share insights from developing aggregators for restaurants and examples of successful projects in this area as a restaurant app development company.
What is restaurant aggregator app
Restaurant aggregators are food business apps and websites that connect restaurants of different formats, service levels, and cuisines. Such solutions bring benefits to everyone:
- Users get a convenient digital tool to search for new spots, make reservations, and order delivery;
- Restaurants open a new channel to reach new audiences, increase customer loyalty and automate service;
- Aggregator owners can earn commissions on orders and advertising.
Types of Restaurant Aggregators
According to Smart Ranking, an analysis agency, the foodtech segment was in the top 3 in 2024 with a CAGR of 66% in terms of total revenue growth. Aggregators are an important part of this market and are represented by several formats:
- Delivery aggregators – platforms for ordering food from restaurants with home or office delivery. Examples: Uber Eats, DoorDash, Yandex Food, Glovo.
- Restaurant aggregators – services that allow you to not only browse menus, but also book tables and leave reviews. Examples: OpenTable, TheFork, Zomato.
- Corporate food aggregators – services that provide food delivery for company employees. Examples: Eat Club, Relish.
- Hyperlocal aggregators – platforms that focus on specific cities or regions and offer exclusive deals from local restaurants.
- Cloud Kitchens and Virtual Restaurants – aggregators that offer menus from virtual delivery-only brands. Examples: Reef and CloudKitchen.
Each format is represented by a catalog of establishments that can be enhanced with other features: online table reservations, reviews, ratings, seasonal menus. etc.
Do you want to create your own aggregator app for restaurants? Contact us and we'll help you!
Importance of restaurant aggregators to the foodtech market
While the food delivery app solution remains the most popular option among all foodtech aggregators, other formats show promise: 62% of Americans prefer to visit restaurants in person because it gives them new experiences and impressions.
On the other hand, restaurants are faced with the need for automation to address the following issues:
- Table reservation errors and unannounced cancellations – administrators spend a great deal of time confirming reservations and clarifying details; if a guest doesn't show up at the specified time, the restaurant loses revenue;
- Manage the flow of guests and orders during peak periods - delays in serving food lead to customer dissatisfaction, which negatively affects the restaurant's reputation;
- Distribute the workload – if waiters are serving too many tables at once, order errors are inevitable;
- Gather feedback – the answer to the question, "Did you like everything?" remains in the waiter’s memory and is unlikely to be used to analyze service quality;
- Promote special offers and promotions – according to statistics, additional sales through personalized recommendations on websites and apps generate 10-30% of total revenue.
The development of an restaurant aggregator is not only about enhancing user convenience; it is also about establishing a sustainable business model that enables the owner of such a service to generate revenue.
Here are the main monetization methods that can be used.
Commission on orders
The aggregator charges a percentage of each successful transaction when paying for delivery or restaurant orders. The income depends on the sales of each connected business – the more orders, the higher the profit. Examples: Uber Eats, Glovo.
Subscription for restaurants
In this case, restaurants pay a fixed amount per month for access to the aggregator platform, which allows owners to receive a guaranteed profit regardless of the number of orders. Examples: OpenTable and TheFork.
Paid promotion of restaurants
If the aggregator has a large and active audience, restaurants can pay for dedicated positions in the catalog, advertising campaigns, or promotion in the aggregator's search. Typically, this format is used as an additional source of revenue at the expense of the restaurant's advertising budget. Examples: Zomato, Google Maps Business.
Courier and delivery service commission
When an aggregator connects third party delivery services, it can charge a percentage of their revenue. This allows you to reduce the burden on restaurants and monetize partnerships. Examples: DoorDash, Deliveroo.
Data and Analytics
By connecting analytics tools to the aggregator's system, it's owner can sell data about user behavior to restaurants, which can use it to adjust their strategies and adapt their menus, offerings to market demands. Examples: Google Analytics for Business, Semrush.
The monetization strategy is determined by the format of the aggregator and its target audience. The optimal approach is a combination of several models.For example, delivery aggregators can use commission retention for orders and paid promotion, and table booking aggregators can use subscription and payment for completed requests.
How Aggregators Benefit Restaurants
Restaurant aggregators provide automation tools that help businesses automate and streamline their processes. This helps businesses increase their profits.
Streamline the reservation process
Diners can make reservations with just a few clicks and leave their requests within the aggregator. Administrators can track occupancy to better manage seating and staffing. This helps avoid having too many tables and too few staff, which can lead to long wait times for orders.
See how we set up online reservations for a restaurant that serves 2,000 guests a day.
Restaurant and brewery Druzya
We've automated the workflows for place reservation and kitchen load control, developed a website with an admin section, and replaced all the programs within the restaurant.
Increase repeat bookings
Satisfied diners are more likely to recommend a restaurant to other aggregator users:
- 49% of customers visit a new restaurant based on a recommendation from family or friends;
- 35% of customers read reviews before making a reservation.
By analyzing its strengths and weaknesses, a restaurant can improve its brand awareness and attract new audiences.
Competitive field
In the aggregator, all businesses are treated the same. This makes managers focus more on customer service, analyzing trends, and meeting guests' needs.
Beautiful and convenient digital menu, professional photos of the interior, positive reviews and high-level service help it stand out from the competition and improve its image.
High conversion rate
When ordering or making a reservation online, the user doesn't have to wait a long time for a response or face difficulties communicating with the administrator. Also, the system updates quickly, so guests can see which tables are available at their favorite restaurant and which delivery slots are open.
Effective staff management
Statistics show that 45% of restaurants do not have enough staff to optimally distribute the workload.
Automation has two main benefits for restaurants. First, it reduces staff stress. Second, it increases productivity. Waiters make fewer mistakes, orders are processed faster, and the restaurant serves more guests, increasing sales and profits.
Olga V.
Business Manager
Want to know more benefits? Let's discuss them during a consultation
How to Prepare for Restaurant Aggregator App Development
If you are planning to launch a restaurant aggregator, here are some things to consider before you begin development.
Conducting market research
First, you need to identify the needs of your diners and venue management to understand how your product will solve their problems and what value it will bring to the market. For example, when we developed the restaurant aggregator Foodclick, we fixed the problem of table reservations.
The founder conducted market research and realized that confirming reservations was time-consuming, and that cancellations without warning resulted in lost revenue. We developed online table reservation software to automate the process, freeing up staff and managing guest seating more efficiently.
Attracting first users
One of the most important tasks for a new tech product is getting people to use its product. At the beginning of development, you can do this with the help of research and a focus group. This means giving users access to the MVP (minimum viable product) and collecting feedback on its functionality.
Then you can use loyalty programs to increase retention. For example, you could give customers a discount on their first order or the ability to earn points for partial payment. This format builds trust in the aggregator's brand, allows you to attract new audiences, and increases profits: 75% of consumers who participate in loyalty programs buy more from the companies they work with.
John Dory. Multifunctional loyalty programme app for a large seafood retailer
We created a cross-platform mobile application for a fast-growing seafood retail chain that combines a loyalty programme, customer support chat, product showcase, interactive map of all points of sale and unique promotional offers.
Attracting Restaurants
The success of an aggregator depends on the number of restaurants that join. Restaurant owners and managers are often busy with operational tasks, so it can be difficult for them to find time to learn about the product in detail. A quick and effective way to attract new outlets can be a promotion that demonstrates the functionality of a demo version that clearly shows the main benefits of connecting to the aggregator.
Connecting Restaurants
If the registration process is limited to the aggregator team, each new restaurant will need to be added manually. On the manager's side, they need to fill out forms, open a bank account, connect to acquiring, and perform many other actions that can delay integration and require a lot of additional resources. Therefore, it is important to develop a standardized set of documents and instructions in advance to quickly connect the restaurant.
Payment splitting
Monetizing restaurant and delivery aggregators means taking a commission for each order placed. Therefore, it is important to automatically split payments after payment, with each party automatically receiving their share of the profit. If third-party delivery services are connected to the aggregator, payments for them will also be taken into account.
You can also add a cashless tipping feature for waiters to the aggregator. To do this, you need to create a separate form, where restaurants can enter the list of staff and their bank card details. Such a payment will be made separately, and all necessary taxes will be paid by the employee himself.
Content and Order Management
Give your restaurant managers access to their own admin panels to design their personal page, edit restaurant menus, work with incoming requests and product functionality. You can implement such functionality with our open-source tool – Admiral. It’s the frontend framework, which includes many ready-made elements for quick and easy development of admin panels. It's great for creating menu badges and other tasks.
Onboarding and training
Changes in processes often make employees resistant and reluctant to use new technologies. Therefore, after a restaurant has registered and connected to the aggregator, it's important to onboard them. This can be done through videos, a trial mode in the demo version, or text materials with instructions and illustrations.
Large restaurant networks are also deploying artificial intelligence-based chatbots trained on corporate content. They help employees get answers quickly and at any time. This saves resources and increases efficiency.
Each restaurant has a unique brand identity that should not be lost among other restaurants. For quick customization, you can provide a common template that automatically pulls colors and branding elements. Such a solution will make the restaurant recognizable and fits its profile perfectly into the aggregator interface.
Olga V.
Business Manager
Still have questions? Book a free consultation
On-demand functionality for restaurant aggregators
Let's look at the example of the Foodclick restaurant aggregator. The app's idea was to combine online and offline to help businesses reach more customers and increase conversion rates.
Let's take a look at how users and employees interact with the app.
Selecting a restaurant
The user can search for a restaurant in different ways. They can look through a list of all the restaurants, or they can filter the list by cuisine, popular dishes, service format, or hours. If you combine the integration with maps, the user can also find the nearest restaurants, view their specials, and plan a route. This works well for both aggregators and large retailers.
Mobile app for beverage and snacks saler
A story about the development of a mobile app for a large chain of 189 draught beer stores. It started as a simple renovation of the loyalty program. But in the end client got a proper communication channel that allowed them to gather information about their customers, increase average check amount and be better customer oriented.
Booking a table
Next, the reservation request goes to the restaurant's admin panel, and the guest receives a notification with confirmation. If plans change, the reservation can be canceled. Administrators do not need to waste time on phone calls as all details are displayed in the restaurant terminal and in the application. The restaurant table reservation software also helps to avoid conflict situations. For example, if a guest arrives but the reservation is not found, you can quickly check the application.
Placing an order
We have implemented the main interaction with the functionality in this part through QR code scanning. Due to its simplicity and flexibility, this solution is still in trend for automating processes in restaurants and retail.
Making a purchase
After scanning the QR code, the menu opens, where the guest selects dishes and adds them to the cart. They can specify the composition, temperature, and serving method. Once the order is placed, it is automatically sent to the restaurant's terminal, then to the kitchen and bar. The waiter only has to serve the food and drinks. If the restaurant offers takeout, the customer chooses a time to pick up their order.
Calling a waiter
Guests no longer have to search for waiters in the hall and try to get their attention. All they have to do is press a button in the app, and the staff will know to come to their table.
Reviews and suggestions
Any user can share their experience of an establishment and give it a rating. If the service or the food was not to your liking, the management will quickly find out the negative and clarify how to correct the situation. To avoid spam, it is important that reviews are verified – customers can only leave reviews after they've finished their order.
Payment and tips
When registering in the aggregator system, the user binds a card to pay for orders contactlessly, directly in the application, and the guest can also transfer a cashless tip to the waiter. The order payment logic can be implemented:
- Inside the aggregator interface;
- By scanning a QR code or RFID tag;
- Automatically after the user leaves the establishment, through integration with iBeacons sensors.
Read more about the different payment methods in our article.
Food delivery & booking service
From a technical point of view, the development of a platform for ordering from restaurants, which included a website, an administration panel for all orders, mobile applications for customers and mobile applications for restaurants. As a result, we did not have to integrate with anything, but simply build our own large system.
Why is now the right time to launch an aggregator?
The foodtech market continues to evolve rapidly and restaurants can no longer ignore the digitalization trends. Aggregators are becoming key tools for attracting customers, automating processes and increasing profits. Restaurants now face two major challenges:
- High competition – it is important for the guest not only to order food, but also to receive convenient and fast service;
- Growing demand for digital solutions – customers expect online booking, personalized offers, fast payment and contactless tipping.
By connecting to an aggregator, restaurants can attract new customers and optimize processes without incurring unnecessary costs. As a result, the foodtech market remains one of the most promising areas for start-ups.
The aggregator format itself also offers flexible monetisation models, including commissions, paid subscriptions and advertising opportunities, which can attract potential investors.
The context in which the market is developing today has also changed, with trends including:
- Increased demand for digital services – restaurants are moving to online table reservation software and payment solutions;
- Open APIs of restaurant systems – integration with POS systems and payment services has become easier;
- Low barrier to entry for users – diners are willing to use convenient apps to select restaurants and place orders.
Ready to start your own aggregator? Leave a request for a consultation with our team
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