Delivery apps have brought many restaurants orders they never used to get. They also keep a slice of every one. As the business grows, the question comes up on its own: couldn’t customers just order from me directly?
This guide helps you answer it with numbers, without romanticising either option. At the end there’s a calculator to plug in your own.
What the platforms charge and what they give you
Ordering platforms mainly charge a commission on each order, a percentage of its value. How much depends on your plan, on whether their riders or yours do the delivery, and on the promotions you join. The exact figure is in your contract and on the invoice they send every month: that’s the one to use.
In return they give you things that are worth money:
- Visibility. People who didn’t know you find you by searching “pizza” or “sushi” in the app.
- Delivery. If you have no riders, they provide them.
- Payments and support. They take payment, handle problems and send the customer updates.
So the question isn’t “platform or no platform” but which orders make sense through the platform and which could come to you directly.
Customers who already know you don’t need the platform
Think about a week of orders. Some come from new people who found you in the app. Others come from regulars: the neighbour who orders every Friday, the office across the road, the people who’ve already eaten on your terrace.
That second group already knows you. Given an easy way to order from you directly, many would. And each of those orders is a commission you keep.
What your own ordering site needs
Your own ordering site works if it’s as easy as the app. If ordering takes more effort, customers go back to the platform. This is the minimum:
- A clear menu on mobile, with photos, prices and options (size, extras, how it’s cooked).
- Allergens on display. EU rules require allergen information to be available before the customer buys, including in distance selling.
- Time slots for pickup or delivery that close automatically when the kitchen is full.
- Online card payment, and payment on pickup if you want it.
- Order status updates: received, being prepared, ready.
- Orders that reach the kitchen without retyping: on a screen, a printer or your till.
- A dashboard for the manager to mark a dish as sold out or change a price instantly.
- Several languages, if you have international customers.
The easiest place to start is pickup orders: you don’t need riders and customers skip the wait. Your own delivery can come later, if it pays.
What having your own costs
Your own site charges no commission per order, but it isn’t free. Count on:
- Building or subscribing to it: an upfront payment or a monthly fee, depending on how you set it up.
- Card payments: the payment gateway charges a small fee per transaction, much lower than a delivery platform’s commission.
- Maintenance: keeping it running, updating it and fixing problems.
- Delivery, if you do it yourself.
- Getting the word out. Nobody will find it on their own: you need to bring your customers to it.
How to bring customers to your own channel
An ordering site is useless if nobody knows it exists. What works best:
- A card or sticker with a QR code in every order that goes out through the platform: “Next time, order here”.
- The link on your Google Business Profile and in your Instagram bio.
- A QR code at the bar and on the tables for takeaway.
- Something only available on your channel: a dish, a set menu or a small extra for people who order direct.
Check your platform contract first, in case it says anything about the prices you set on other channels.
When it pays off and when it doesn’t
It pays off when you have a fair number of orders a month, a good share of them are repeat customers, and you can offer pickup or have a way to deliver.
It doesn’t, or not yet, when you get few orders, almost all of them from new people discovering you in the app, or you have nobody to look after your own channel at peak times.
Most restaurants combine both: the platform to be discovered and your own site for the people who already know you.
Run your numbers
Below there’s a calculator. Enter how many orders you get a month through the platform, your average order value and your commission, and you’ll see what you pay a year in commission. Not all of that money comes back with your own site, but it shows you what’s at stake.
If you already take payment by phone in Spain, remember the receipt must come from a system that complies with VERI*FACTU. And for an example, the tool we’re testing with La Familia Gastro-Bar has pickup orders: the customer picks a time, pays and follows their order’s status on their phone.