Online food delivery platforms: what they cost and what to do

Online food delivery platforms bring you customers and take a share of what those customers spend. Both halves are real, and most advice on the subject only argues one of them.

This guide covers how the charges are structured, the one place where the numbers were written into law so you can actually see them, and how to run your own ordering alongside the marketplaces rather than instead of them.

How the charges are structured

An online food ordering and delivery platform usually charges in more than one place, which is why the number in your head rarely matches the number on the remittance.

There is typically a commission on the order, a separate service or marketing fee, and a payment processing fee. Some plans charge more commission for delivery than for pickup. Some charge extra for a higher position in the listing.

The practical result is that a restaurant quoting "we pay 20 percent" is often describing one of three lines. Read an actual remittance, take the gross at the top and the net at the bottom, and divide. That is your real number and it is the only one worth comparing anything against.

The one place the numbers are public

Most of what you read about delivery fees is estimated. In New York City it was legislated, which makes it the clearest public evidence available.

In August 2021 the City Council voted to make its fee caps permanent. The rules cap commission at 15 percent per order for delivery, other fees at 5 percent, and transaction fees at 3 percent unless justified by pass-through card costs, and they require the platforms to hold a biennial license. Council Member Moya's stated reasoning during the debate was that average restaurant profit margins sit somewhere between 2 and 6 percent.

Two things follow for you, wherever you operate. If a legislature felt it had to cap those fees, the uncapped versions were higher. And if your margin really is in that range, the delivery share is not a marketing cost, it is most of the profit on those orders.

For broader industry figures, the National Restaurant Association publishes its research, which is a better source than a vendor's blog post.

What the marketplaces are genuinely good at

Be fair about this, because the answer decides your strategy.

They are good at reach. Somebody who has never heard of you can find you tonight. They are good at logistics if you have no drivers. And they are good at handling the customer service of a late delivery, which is a real cost you would otherwise carry.

What they are not good at is being your only channel. The customer belongs to the platform, the relationship is with the platform, and the price of every future order from that person is set by the platform.

"A marketplace is a good way to meet somebody and an expensive way to keep them. The mistake is not using them, it is having nowhere for the second order to go."

— Tanzeel ur Rehman, co-founder of Get Menu

Running your own channel beside them

The aim is not to leave the marketplaces. It is to have somewhere for the repeat customer to land, where you keep the margin and the relationship.

That is an ordering layer, and it needs no hardware:

• The card carries your logo and colours, chosen in the designer, and refreshes on the phone whenever a stamp is added.
• Upload the menu from a spreadsheet instead of typing it in line by line.
• Your name on the link and 12 page layouts behind it, so the menu reads right for a cafe, a grill or a cloud kitchen.
• Your menu, your edits, with options and add-ons that carry their own prices and required choices the kitchen can trust without a phone call.
• Orders that price themselves. Every line is priced from your live menu at checkout, so a page left open cannot sell at an old price.
• The order arrives and 3 messages leave in about 2 seconds: a confirmation to the customer the moment it lands, a ticket for the kitchen, a link for the rider with the pin dropped at checkout.
• Item and option stock that counts itself down as orders arrive, greying out whatever has run out before a customer can ask.
• Regulars earn stamps and move up tiers, each with an automatic discount, on a card that lives in the wallet through Google's loyalty card format.
• Tax invoices carrying your registration number, a PDF the customer downloads from the order page with no login.
• Table codes from a designer, so the QR looks like your restaurant, and a print pack that goes straight to the printer.
• Everyone orders separately, the group pays once: one bill, many phones.

There is no commission on those orders, so the hundredth in a week costs the same as the first.

The move that actually works

The restaurants that shift the balance do one thing consistently: they put a reason to reorder directly into the bag.

A code on the bag, going to your own page, with something small attached to using it. Not a discount war, just a reason. The customer already has your food in their hand and has already decided they like you, which is the cheapest moment you will ever get to move them across.

That is slow and it compounds. It is also the only version of this that does not involve paying somebody else for the same customer twice.

What we do not do

Payment is cash or your own card machine at the door. There are no online payments in our system.

That is a real limit and it matters most here, because a marketplace takes payment up front. Be honest with yourself about whether your delivery customers will pay at the door. In some markets that is completely normal and in others it is not. The benefit of the limit is that no card details are held in the system, and old order details are cleared automatically after 120 days.

Our pricing is on the pricing page rather than in this article, and the trial runs 15 days with no card.

Frequently asked questions

How much do online food delivery platforms charge?

It varies by platform and plan, and it arrives on more than one line. Take a real remittance, divide the net you received by the gross ordered, and use that number.

Should I leave the delivery apps?

Usually not, at least not first. They are good at reach. Build your own channel for the repeat customer, then decide with evidence rather than in one move.

Is Get Menu an online food ordering and delivery platform?

It is your own ordering page rather than a marketplace. It brings you no new customers and takes no commission from you. Those two facts go together.

How do customers pay?

Cash or your own card machine at the door. There are no online payments in the system.

What happens to my customer list?

It is yours, and you export it on any day. On a marketplace, the customer is theirs.