In 2017, the annual sales for the restaurant industry in the US was $799 billion. With the rise of mobile delivery apps, more people are eating out without even having to leave home.
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You might not have thought that a lot of restaurants have an affiliate program, and you’re partly right. Most of the time, restaurants will be independently owned and there’s no real incentive to hire out affiliates in a small town or city. However, the restaurant business is not limited to the “typical” dining experience you imaging.
There are many great services related to restaurants like meal planning, discounts, and food delivery. If you get creative, there are plenty of opportunities to promote restaurants on a food blog, and here are 10 great restaurant affiliate programs to help you get started.
Restaurant Affiliate Programs
- Restaurant.com
- LocalFlavor
- Tundra Restaurant Supply
- TouchBistro
- Way
- Groupon
- Entertainment
- Grubhub
- Darden Restaurants
- Kerekes Kitchen And Restaurant Supplies
Special Feature: Upserve
- URL: Upserve Affiliate Program
- Commission: $100-$300 per demo and $1,000 – $2,500 when the customer goes live (depending on tier)
- Cookie: 120 Days
I’ve just connected with an affiliate manager at Upserve, and am excited to feature this very unique affiliate program. Upserve caters to a wide variety of restaurant-related products and services, including Point-of-Sale tracking, intelligent menu creation, inventory management, server report cards, and bookkeeping tools.
I don’t run a restaurant myself, but it seems to be pretty comprehensive.
There are many ways to partner up with Upserve, so if your niche website is even tangentially related to the restaurant industry, UpServe is worth considering. They seem pretty proactive about promoting their products and reaching quality affiliates, so I recommend scheduling a call with them if you’re serious about promoting what they offer.
Here are four other benefits of partnering with Upserve:
- Offer your restaurant clients a complete, end-to-end solution.
- Gain access to tools and training resources to help in your success.
- Become a trusted and valued business partner.
- Build your book of business and make more $$$!
Restaurant.com
- URL: Restaurant.com Affiliate Program
- Commission: 15% for gift certificates, 3% for Special deals
- Cookie: 45 days
Restaurant.com offers the best deals on restaurants all over the country with just a few clicks. They offer more than 500,000 deals every day with thousands of new restaurants added every month. Their certificates never expire, cost a fraction of face value, and may be exchanged at any time.
They use Commission Junction to manage their affiliate program. Restaurant.com gives their affiliates access to text links, banner ads, emails, their product catalog, and detailed reporting tools. They also run frequent promotions and special offers.
Why Should You Promote Restaurant.com: Best restaurant deals, certificates never expire, very high commission rates
Affiliates earn 15% commissions on restaurant certificates and 3% on Specials such as dining, travel, and entertainment deals.
LocalFlavor
- URL: LocalFlavor Affiliate Program
- Commission: 12%
- Cookie: 30 days
LocalFlavor is the local deals and discounts website for Clipper Magazine. They help people experience the best services and experiences for less. They offer money-saving deals on local dining as well as entertainment, salon/spa, retail, services, and more.
Their affiliate program is powered by Commission Junction. LocalFlavor provides their affiliates with a great selection of marketing materials and reporting tools. Affiliates can promote links or ads on their website or email campaigns.
Why Should You Promote LocalFlavor: Money-saving discounts, part of Clipper Magazine, commissions on all sales
Affiliates earn commissions from both new and existing users.
Tundra Restaurant Supply
- URL: Tundra Restaurant Supply Affiliate Program
- Commission: 7%
- Cookie: 30 days
Tundra Restaurant Supply is one of the largest retailers of restaurant supplies, cooking equipment, and parts online. They offer over 50,000 products all at competitive prices. Their customer base includes restaurants as well as home chefs and foodies.
Their average order size is over $150. Tundra Restaurant Supply uses Rakuten Marketing to manage their affiliate program. They provide professionally designed banners, exclusive offers, and access to their full product data feed.
Why Should You Promote Tundra Restaurant Supply: Top online kitchen supplies and cooking equipment, competitive prices, exclusive offers
Affiliates earn more with their multiple shopping events including seasonal sales, free shipping, promotions, and more.
TouchBistro
- URL: TouchBistro Affiliate Program
- Commission: $50 per form fill, $300 per customer activation
- Cookie: 120 days
TouchBistro is the top iPad Point of Sale (POS) solution for restaurants. Their software was designed by restaurant people to meet the unique needs of the foodservice industry. They are used by over 12,000 restaurants around the world. They help restaurants who are looking to streamline and simplify their business operations.
They use ShareASale to run their affiliate program. Their large selection of assets like dynamic visuals, links, and landing pages was designed to help boost your earnings. Affiliates can promote TouchBistro on their website, blog, newsletters, social media pages, and more.
Why Should You Promote TouchBistro: #1 restaurant POS solution, very high flat commission fees, optimized marketing materials
Top performing affiliates can unlock special VIP bonus commission offers.
Way
- URL: Way Affiliate Program
- Commission: 7%
- Cookie: 30 days
Way is an all in one service online marketplace. Users have access to exclusive deals on dining, movies, events, activities, parking, and more. They have deals from more than 20,000 vendors in all major cities in the USA as well as Canada.
Transactions range from $50-300. To sign up affiliates can sign up via ShareASale. Affiliates have access to all the marketing materials and tools they need to start promoting right away.
Why Should You Promote Way: All in one service marketplace, over 20,000 vendors, lowest prices guaranteed
Affiliates are encouraged to use specific keywords in their search engine optimization which includes their trademark name and domain name.
Groupon
- URL: Groupon Affiliate Program
- Commission: 5% for existing customers, 10% for new
- Cookie: 3 days
Groupon is a global leader in local commerce. They make it easy for people to discover great businesses at discount prices. Their categories include food & drink, things to do, health, beauty, wellness, getaways, and goods. They have more than 425,000 active Groupon deals around the world. More than 105 million people have downloaded their mobile app.
Their affiliate program is managed in-house. Groupon provides their affiliates with an extensive creative library with deep links, widgets, and dynamic banners. They also run sales contests and promotions to allow their affiliate lots of opportunities to earn higher commissions.
Why Should You Promote Groupon: Global leader, unbeatable prices, lots of marketing materials
The cookie life for Getaways transactions increases to 7 days instead of 3 days.
Entertainment
- URL: Entertainment Affiliate Program
- Commission: 15%
- Cookie: 7 days
The Entertainment Coupon Book is considered the best coupon book on the market. Their books help people save money on groceries, restaurants, local attractions, hotels, travel, and more. They offer 77 local editions that cover every major city in North America. Their mobile app lets you get the same savings instantly right from your phone.
They use Commission Junction to manage their affiliate program. Entertainment provides their affiliates with creatives, current/new offers, and reporting tools. They run consistent promotions on their products throughout the year.
Why Should You Promote Entertainment: Top coupon book, 77 local editions, lots of promotions
Their coupon book has a wide customer appeal with a big return on investment for their customers.
Grubhub
- URL: Grubhub Affiliate Program
- Commission: $10 per mobile sign up
- Cookie: 30 days
Grubhub is an online food delivery website and mobile app. They started in 2004 and have grown into mobile and online food ordering and delivery industry leader. Users can order from more than 55,000 restaurants in over 1,200 cities in the US.
They use Impact Radius to run their affiliate program. Grubhub provides their affiliates with all the tools and materials they need to get started. Their program is managed by Rise Interactive who is available to help answer any questions.
Why Should You Promote Grubhub: Online food ordering leader, over 55,000 restaurants, great sign up commission fee.
Their easy to use website and app makes it simple to order takeout or delivery from local restaurants.
Darden Restaurants
- URL: Darden Restaurants Affiliate Program
- Commission: 2% on gift card purchases
- Cookie: 14 days
The Darden Restaurants family includes some of the most well known and successful brands in the full-service dining industry. Their brands include LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Yard House, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, and Bahama Breeze. Their wide variety of restaurants makes them the perfect gift card idea for almost anyone.
Affiliates can join by searching for them in the advertisers’ section on Commission Junction. They are working on improving their program and adding commissionable actions like online ordering and online reservations. Their dedicated affiliate team is available to help assist their affiliates with the setup process and tips on how to optimize campaigns.
Why Should You Promote Darden Restaurants: Top restaurant brands, adding new commissionable actions, gifts can be redeemed at all brands
Affiliates earn 2% commissions on all Darden.com restaurant gift card purchases that can be used at any Darden restaurant.
Kerekes Kitchen And Restaurant Supplies
- URL: Kerekes Kitchen And Restaurant Supplies Affiliate Program
- Commission: 5% to 8%
- Cookie: 30 days
Kerekes Kitchen and Restaurant Supplies is one of the leading online retailers of all types of equipment for restaurants or for residential kitchens. They offer over 25,000 products at wholesale prices. They focus on pastries and baking equipment for homes and businesses.
Kerekes Kitchen And Restaurant Supplies’ affiliates receive 5 to 8 percent commission for every referral. Performance bonuses and custom creatives are also available. The site conversion rate is 2.35% and the average order is about $175 – $210. Cookie duration is 30 days. ShareASale manages their affiliate program.
Why Should You Promote Kerekes Kitchen And Restaurant Supplies: Carries trusted brands, high order value, performance bonuses
They carry trusted brands like Tre Carlisle, Cambro, Kitchenaid, and more.
Affiliate Website Ideas
Now that you’ve discovered 10 great restaurant affiliate programs, it’s time to pick a niche to focus on. You could target food delivery services. Grubhub is an online food delivery website and mobile app that . Affiliates receive a commission of $10 per mobile signup.
Another niche idea is restaurant deals. These days, with inflation raging, everyone is looking for deals. Even with food getting so expensive, everyone still loves going to a restaurant, so there’s plenty of demand from people who want to eat out, eat nice, but eat cheap. Restaurant.com offers over 500,000 deals from restaurants all over the country. They offer their affiliates 15% commissions on gift certificates and 3% on special deals.
You could also leverage b2b services by focusing on restaurant supplies and equipment. Tundra Restaurant Supply is one of the top restaurant equipment retailers. Many entrepreneurs want to start their own restaurant but have no idea where to start. This is a great opportunity to help a “hungry” group of individuals and even promote some other things like self-help and entrepreneurship materials. Affiliates of Tundra Restaurant Supply earn 7% commissions with average orders of over $150.
Boost Your Affiliate Earnings
These 10 affiliate programs are just the beginning of what's possible. There are hundreds of ways to earn affiliate commissions with your website, including product reviews, top 10 lists, how-to guides, and more
But what about traffic and conversions? How do you make sure your affiliate links get clicked?
I used the affiliate training here to turn my brand new website into a six-figure income generator in less than two years. Build a business, not just a pocket-money side project!
Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!
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