--- title: "Just Eat Clone: Build a Food Marketplace" description: "Plan a Just Eat-style marketplace with collection, merchant delivery, dispatch, POS, menus, payments, build options, licensed scripts, and launch costs." canonical: https://www.ordering.co/blog/just-eat-clone-what-it-is-how-to-build-one/ --- # Just Eat clone: choose who fulfills the order Design an independent restaurant marketplace around collection, merchant delivery, coordinated couriers, and a dependable POS and kitchen handoff. 5 min read· Ordering.co· Guides ## The fulfillment contract shapes the marketplace A Just Eat clone is an independent restaurant marketplace inspired by its model. It does not give you Just Eat technology, partner accounts, customer records, or permission to copy the brand. Define the operating relationship you need before choosing screens or a script. The important distinction is who fulfills the order. A customer may collect it, the restaurant may use its own driver, or the marketplace may coordinate a delivery service. Those models create different preparation, dispatch, support, and cost responsibilities even if the menu looks identical. ## Design collection and delivery as explicit paths Just Eat's published [UK restaurant order-flow guide](https://partner.just-eat.co.uk/knowledge-centre/restaurant-order-flow/) distinguishes collection readiness and self-delivery progress, and points partners to separate Delivery Service guidance. It is an example of why fulfillment needs its own states; it is not a universal process or commercial agreement for every country. For your marketplace, define: - **Collection:** the restaurant accepts, prepares, marks ready, and hands over against the customer's reference. - **Merchant delivery:** the restaurant owns preparation and driver assignment, while the marketplace receives the agreed status updates and supports the customer. - **Marketplace-coordinated delivery:** preparation must connect to courier availability, collection, delivery, and the operator's intervention process. Show the selected service before checkout and keep it visible in the confirmation. Do not silently replace delivery with collection because a courier is unavailable. Give the customer a choice and reconcile any change in charge. ## Onboard a restaurant into a working order path Collect the restaurant's menu source, location, hours, service area, required options, extras, minimums where applicable, preparation process, and payment arrangements. Decide who can pause a store or an item and how quickly the customer channel sees that change. Use one dish with a required option and a paid extra. The selection should keep its meaning across customer checkout, merchant acceptance, kitchen ticket, and any delivery instructions. A text note is a poor substitute for a missing required choice. A restaurant is ready when its team can accept, prepare, hand over, and resolve a test order. Marketing the store before that point risks sending demand into a workflow no one owns. ## A POS connection is a separate integration The [Just Eat developer portal](https://developers.just-eat.com/) describes JET Connect as a POS integration for incoming orders. That is useful context for builders: a marketplace-to-POS path needs product mappings, supported events, and a restaurant account, rather than simply copying an ordering tablet. For your own platform, map item and modifier identifiers, totals, taxes, charges, payment references, collection or delivery, customer details, and preparation instructions. Choose where the menu is authoritative and which system accepts an order. Keep acknowledgement, payment, and preparation as distinct events. Test duplicate delivery of the same order, a disconnected POS, a price changed after browsing, and a canceled order already sent to kitchen. Define who sees the failure and how it is retried without producing another sale. Your Just Eat-inspired platform is not automatically entitled to use JET Connect, and a general API capability does not establish compatibility with a particular POS. ## Run a mixed-service evening as the pilot Imagine two participating restaurants: one offers collection and its own deliveries, while the other needs marketplace-coordinated couriers. Use the same customer address and requested meal time to expose the differences. 1. Place a collection order and confirm the location and handover reference. 2. Place a merchant-delivered order and check who updates departure and completion. 3. Place a courier-coordinated order and inspect readiness, assignment, and collection together. 4. Make one restaurant temporarily unavailable and confirm it cannot accept an invalid new order. 5. Cancel a prepaid order and reconcile its financial result independently from the food already prepared. Use the trial to decide what your support team can answer from the order record. It should be able to distinguish “not accepted,” “in preparation,” “ready,” and “delivery exception” without guessing from a payment receipt. ## Choose the implementation around those handoffs A custom build gives control over restaurant discovery and the operating model, but your team must maintain backend validation, payments, integrations, mobile releases, and support tools. Price that responsibility rather than only the customer app. A licensed script can be a starting point when its actual code and data model fit. Request the license, source inventory, dependency terms, database migrations, deployment instructions, maintenance terms, and a working export. Confirm what remains proprietary or subscription-dependent. A downloaded archive does not establish rights to Just Eat's code or access to its service. A configured ordering platform can supply the standard customer, merchant, and delivery foundation. A hybrid can add a custom frontend or POS connection while preserving one order system. Choose either only after demonstrating your collection, merchant-delivery, and courier-delivery paths. ## Model the cost by fulfillment method Separate software or development, restaurant setup, menu maintenance, POS integration, payment processing, messaging, customer acquisition, and support. Add the delivery cost to the model that actually incurs it: merchant delivery and marketplace-coordinated delivery do not carry identical responsibilities. Define your merchant charges, customer service and delivery charges, promotion funding, rejected-order treatment, and refunds. Use real provider quotes and agreements. Do not borrow Just Eat's commission or assume a merchant settlement timetable from the platform model. Compare implementation proposals using the same stores, menus, payment route, POS versions, and failure cases. App review, data preparation, integration access, and restaurant training affect the schedule; a generic clone price or fixed launch promise hides those dependencies. ## Build your ordering service on a defined foundation [Ordering.co marketplaces](https://www.ordering.co/solutions/marketplaces/) connect your customer channels, merchant tools, delivery operations, and configured payments. [POS integrations](https://www.ordering.co/integrations/pos/) have specific direct or middleware paths; confirm the exact system rather than inferring support from this guide. Frontend source is open source and included with each Ordering.co product. Backend and API are managed by default; backend source access requires a separate enterprise license and approval. That is a different operating arrangement from buying an unrestricted self-hosted backend script. [Explore the demos](https://www.ordering.co/demo/) with two restaurant fulfillment models and a failed handoff. Choose the foundation that lets the operator explain where each order is and who takes the next action. ## Keep reading. - ## [Dark store versus local delivery marketplace: choose who fulfills the basket](https://www.ordering.co/blog/dark-store-vs-local-delivery-marketplace/) Use DashMart's published model to compare a dedicated fulfillment location with merchant-store delivery, including inventory, picking, costs, and platform scope. - ## [AI for restaurants: choose a useful workflow and keep control](https://www.ordering.co/blog/ai-for-restaurants/) Evaluate restaurant AI by the job, data, operating boundary, cost, and measurable result, starting with connected ordering conversations. - ## [Restaurant website builders: compare the site and the order flow](https://www.ordering.co/blog/best-restaurant-website-builders/) Compare Ordering.co, Wix and Squarespace for restaurant websites, menus, domains, free or trial limits, payments and the work after checkout. ## See it running on your own menu. The shortest way to understand any of this is to watch an order go from a storefront to a store to a driver, on your locations. [Book a demo](https://www.ordering.co/contact/?meeting=demo#book)[See a live demo](https://www.ordering.co/demo/)