Flipdish launches StraightFrom.com in Ireland

Flipdish, Europe’s leading online ordering and digital experience platform for hospitality, has announced the official launch of the StraightFrom.com website. The site assists customers to discover local food businesses in their area and order directly from StraightFrom.com. It is open to all restaurants and takeaways free of charge regardless if they’re a Flipdish customer or not. This will act as an alternative to food marketplaces, which continue to charge high fees to those in the hospitality sector during these challenging times.

The announcement also comes on the back of independent analysis by foodservice sector expert Peter Backman which estimates that Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, have taken in an estimated €1bn in revenue in 2021 and an estimated €1.2bn since the pandemic began. Furthermore, since March 2020, aggregators have amassed a total of €270m in commissions in Ireland alone.

Speaking on today’s announcement, Flipdish CEO and co-founder, Conor McCarthy said, “We’re delighted to be launching this campaign today and I would encourage people to support their local food businesses. The hospitality industry in Ireland has been badly affected by the Covid pandemic since March 2020 and at Flipdish, we want to help support it whenever and wherever possible. We’re proud to work with businesses across the country in making sure they are directly connected to customers.”

McCarthy added, “This is why we are backing StraightFrom.com. We want to ensure that customers are aware of all the local food businesses in their area that they can order from. We believe this free platform will help those businesses who want to steer away from the high fees attached to listing their businesses on aggregator websites and connect directly with customers.”

Flipdish customer Nathan Bennett, owner of The Lab restaurant in Dublin also commented on the importance of StraightFrom.com, “The support of Flipdish for the hospitality industry in Ireland has been second to none. Their backing of StraightFrom.com just adds to this and goes to show the importance of customers ordering directly from their local businesses.

At The Lab, we’ve seen the benefits of being a Flipdish customer including building positive relationships with our valued customers, easy to use websites and mobile apps and overall taking back our brand, which in turn provides us the opportunity to strengthen our customer base and increase our orders.

“The problem with aggregators is that we have no control over the delivery experience. Since working with Flipdish, we’ve realised that we can still control the whole customer journey from start to finish without that fear that they’re going to get a bad experience from an aggregator. With the aggregators, it always feels like you’re working for them rather than working for yourself. Partnering with Flipdish, it’s just a no brainer financially.”

Ireland is not alone when it comes to the large amounts of money accumulated by aggregators over the course of the pandemic.Since March 2020, aggregators have taken in an estimated £2.5bn in commission in the UK, €1.1bn commission in France and €1bn commission in Spain. Flipdish’s mission is to help its customers thrive as we emerge from the pandemic and for that reason, this campaign stretches far beyond Ireland. StraightFrom.com is available in all markets where Flipdish operates. Flipdish is encouraging customers across Europe to support their local food businesses by ordering directly from their websites when possible.

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