Restaurant websites sit at the center of how many diners discover, evaluate, order from, and return to a restaurant. Recent U.S. surveys and restaurant-industry reports show strong demand for online menus, direct ordering, mobile-friendly experiences, reservations, and digital loyalty tools. The figures below identify the survey period, geography, and source for each finding so restaurant marketers can judge what applies to their own audience.
Contents
- Restaurant website adoption and pre-visit research
- Direct ordering and website conversion
- Mobile, payments, and speed
- Social media, email, and digital reputation
- Reservations and website discovery channels
- Website-linked revenue, loyalty, and technology
Restaurant website adoption and pre-visit research
The basic case for maintaining a restaurant website is supported by both operator and diner research. In a 2023 survey published in 2024, 72% of U.S. restaurant operators reported having a dedicated restaurant website. The same survey found that 94% said customers could view their restaurant website from the menu. These figures come from The State of Restaurants in 2024, so they describe surveyed operators rather than every restaurant in the country.
Diners also use websites before trying an unfamiliar restaurant. In a U.S. survey conducted September 12–21, 2023 and reported in 2024, 80% of diners said they look at a restaurant’s website before deciding to try a new restaurant. The same TouchBistro 2024 Diner Trends Report found that 85% look at a menu online before making that decision.
Search is another important part of the pre-visit journey. Sixty-four percent of U.S. diners in that survey conduct a Google search before visiting a restaurant. Among diners who search before a visit, 67% look for food quality and 54% look for a specific cuisine type. For restaurant websites, this makes menu clarity, cuisine descriptions, and evidence of food quality practical discovery assets.
The expectation is not limited to the United States. In a June 2024 German survey, 69% of respondents expected a café or restaurant to have an internet presence containing information such as food and venue photos. Among respondents aged 16–29, that figure was 80%. The Bitkom survey measures German respondents and should not be treated as a U.S. diner estimate.
Direct ordering and website conversion
Restaurant websites can support direct ordering, but diners use several channels. In a 2024 report, 84% of off-premises restaurant customers said they would likely place an order using a restaurant’s website. The Restaurant Technology Landscape Report 2024 also reported that 50% of surveyed U.S. consumers prefer using a restaurant’s app or website to place an order. By comparison, 23% prefer calling the restaurant to place an order, according to the November 2023 survey published in The 2024 Digital Commerce Index.
Direct ordering is especially relevant for takeout. In the September 2023 U.S. diner survey, 72% said they prefer ordering takeout directly from a restaurant instead of using a third-party app. Among U.S. diners who order directly, 29% usually order by phone, 24% usually use the restaurant’s website, and 19% usually use the restaurant’s own app. These percentages describe reported direct-ordering habits and are not a complete distribution of every ordering method.
Operator adoption is high for online ordering overall, but direct website ordering is less universal. In the 2023 operator survey published in 2024, 95% of surveyed restaurant operators reported using at least one online ordering platform, while 36% reported using direct online ordering from their restaurant website. That gap is useful when evaluating whether a restaurant has online ordering in general or owns the customer journey through its own website.
| Ordering or ordering preference measure | Result | Measurement period or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Off-premises customers likely to order through a restaurant website | 84% | 2024 report |
| U.S. consumers preferring an app or website | 50% | November 2023 survey, published 2024 |
| U.S. diners preferring direct takeout ordering | 72% | September 12–21, 2023 survey |
| Operators using at least one online ordering platform | 95% | 2023 survey, published 2024 |
| Operators using direct website ordering | 36% | 2023 survey, published 2024 |
Mobile, payments, and speed
Restaurant website performance must account for mobile behavior. In BentoBox’s 2024 restaurant dataset, 75% of restaurant website traffic came from mobile devices. The same dataset found that 20% of restaurant-website call-to-action clicks were clicks on the phone number. Together, these figures connect mobile design with both browsing and a high-intent contact action. They come from the 2024 Restaurant Trend Report, which is based on BentoBox’s dataset rather than a universal census of restaurant websites.
Payment preferences also point toward mobile-friendly experiences. In fall 2024, 39% of in-person restaurant card transactions used tap-to-pay technology, while mobile payments represented 14% of in-person restaurant card transactions during 2024. The BentoBox report also found that 79% of restaurant-technology consumers prefer contactless or mobile payments and 73% prefer digital-wallet payment options. These measures concern restaurant technology and payment behavior; they do not mean that the same share of website visitors will complete an online payment.
Customers show willingness to use their phones and other digital interfaces inside restaurants. Sixty percent of full-service restaurant customers said they would likely use a table tablet to place an order, and 63% said they would be comfortable using a smartphone to place an order or pay the bill. Among limited-service restaurant customers, 70% indicated they would use smartphone apps to place orders. These findings are from the Restaurant Technology Landscape Report 2024.
For website teams, the data supports keeping menus, phone links, ordering buttons, payment paths, and reservation actions easy to use on a small screen. The statistics do not establish a particular page-speed target, conversion rate, or design layout, so those decisions require the restaurant’s own analytics and testing.
Social media, email, and digital reputation
Social channels can send visitors to restaurant websites. In BentoBox’s 2024 dataset, 22% of restaurant websites’ takeout-and-delivery traffic came from social media sites. That is a traffic-source estimate from the dataset, not a general share for all restaurants.
The 2023 operator survey published in 2024 found that 81% of surveyed restaurants used Facebook for promotion, 74% used Instagram, and 26% used TikTok. Social media was identified as the primary customer-communication method by 37% of surveyed restaurant operators. Email was the primary method for 26%.
Email activity was frequent among those operators. Forty percent said they emailed customers every few days, and 22% emailed customers daily. Sixty-four percent of surveyed restaurateurs sent personalized offers to customers. These results describe operator-reported practices; they do not quantify open rates, click-through rates, or incremental sales from those messages.
Online reputation is another digital decision factor. In the June 2024 German survey, 30% of respondents said online reviews were the most important criterion when choosing a new restaurant or café. The result is specific to German respondents and the survey’s wording. It nevertheless places review visibility alongside food, venue, menu, and contact information as part of the digital pre-visit experience.
Reservations and website discovery channels
Reservations remain a major website function. In the 2023 operator survey published in 2024, 75% of surveyed restaurants reported accepting reservations, and 62% reported using a reservations platform. Among restaurants without a reservations platform, 31% planned to implement one. The average restaurant no-show rate was 16% in 2023.
Third-party services are common in reservation management. Appointment Trader reported that 80% of its 100 most popular restaurants managed reservations with third-party services in its 2024 report. This is a measurement of that platform’s 100 most popular restaurants, not of all restaurants.
The TouchBistro survey also recorded how reservations arrived. Restaurants received 41% of reservations by phone on average, 19% from walk-ins, 15% through their own website, and 13% through third-party platforms. These averages describe the restaurants included in the 2023 survey and do not add up to a complete channel mix in the supplied report.
The comparison shows why a website reservation button can matter even when phone bookings remain larger:
| Reservation source | Average share |
|---|---|
| Phone | 41% |
| Walk-ins | 19% |
| Restaurant’s own website | 15% |
| Third-party platforms | 13% |
Website-linked revenue, loyalty, and technology
Digital ordering can be meaningful to restaurant revenue while also carrying platform costs. Surveyed restaurant operators paid an average 15% commission on each online order in the 2023 survey published in 2024. Twenty-four percent paid more than 20% commission on each online order. Online ordering platforms accounted for 23% of surveyed restaurants’ business on average.
Operators also reported a sales effect after adopting online ordering: an average 17% increase in overall sales volume. This is a reported average increase, not a controlled causal estimate. It should not be presented as a guaranteed result for a new website or ordering system.
Automation and loyalty were widespread in the same survey. Seventy-two percent of surveyed restaurant operators had automated online ordering. Sixty-seven percent of surveyed restaurants offered a loyalty program, rising to 85% among surveyed bistros and cafés. Operators estimated that about 50% of their customers engaged with their loyalty program regularly on average.
Gift cards provide another website-connected opportunity. Forty-eight percent of surveyed restaurants sold gift cards, and the average gift-card value was $56. The survey does not establish how many gift-card sales occurred through websites, so the figure should be used to describe restaurant gift-card activity rather than website revenue.
Finally, 89% of surveyed restaurant operators reported using some form of artificial intelligence in their restaurant. That figure indicates broad reported use, but it does not identify the specific tools, tasks, costs, or results. For restaurant marketing, the more defensible takeaway is that technology adoption is already part of the operating environment in which restaurant websites compete for attention, orders, reservations, and repeat visits.