The Real Cost of a 30% Commission: What Delivery Apps Actually Take From a £40 Order

A £40 order is not £40 of revenue

A delivery app order can feel like a win: the kitchen is busy and the order value looks healthy. But owners should follow the money all the way through. On an illustrative £40 order, a 30% commission removes £12 before food cost, labour, packaging, payment processing, refunds or overheads are considered. That does not make delivery apps bad. It makes the true margin impossible to ignore.

The same order, two different outcomes

Direct ordering still has costs. You will pay for card processing, fulfilment and the service that helps you acquire repeat guests. The difference is that those costs are more controllable and the restaurant keeps the relationship. A direct order can be the start of another visit; a marketplace order can remain a rented transaction unless you give the guest a reason to return directly.

Use a hybrid margin strategy

Delivery apps can bring discovery, especially for a restaurant without a mature online presence. Keep them in the mix, but actively move repeat guests toward direct ordering. Put a clear direct-order link on your social profiles. Include a simple message on receipts or packaging. Reward direct ordering with loyalty benefits that protect margin rather than endless blanket discounts.

Growtality’s direct online ordering gives restaurants a practical way to run that hybrid approach: use marketplaces for discovery, then build a direct channel that keeps more control with the restaurant.

Try Growtality free for 14 days and see what a healthier delivery mix could look like.

How to protect margin without leaving discovery behind

Margin improvement does not require a dramatic decision to delist tomorrow. It begins with knowing which orders are genuinely profitable and which only look busy. Review a representative week, not a single good night. Include menu discounts funded by the restaurant, refunds, delivery-related remakes and any extra labour created during peak periods. The resulting number is more useful than the headline commission because it reflects the actual cost of winning that order.

Once the calculation is visible, segment the decision. A first-time customer from a marketplace may be worth a higher acquisition cost than a repeat customer who already knows the restaurant. The second customer should have a clear reason to use your direct channel: reliable service, an easy checkout, loyalty recognition or a small value-add that does not damage the menu price. That is how discovery becomes an owned repeat relationship.

Be careful with blanket discounts. A five-pound voucher can feel easy, but it may train existing direct guests to wait for a deal. Better incentives protect the experience: early access to a new menu, a loyalty reward after a threshold, or a small complimentary item that encourages another purchase. The offer should make ordering direct feel better, not make the restaurant feel cheaper.

Make this a monthly management conversation. Compare direct and marketplace contribution by order size, daypart and customer type. If a channel delivers discovery, keep measuring how effectively it converts into a second direct order. If it delivers only repeat orders at a high cost, it is a prompt to improve the direct route, not a reason to guess.

Practical next steps

• Calculate contribution after every delivery-related cost.

• Separate first-time marketplace orders from repeats.

• Make direct ordering visible on receipts and packaging.

• Use loyalty benefits that protect price integrity.

• Review channel mix monthly, not only when cash is tight.

The point is not to declare one channel good and another bad. Restaurants need demand, and new guests often discover a venue through a marketplace. The smarter question is whether the business has a deliberate path from discovery to repeat ordering. When that path is visible, the cost of acquisition is easier to justify and the margin from the next order has a better chance of staying with the restaurant.

The 30% commission reality in numbers

On a £40 order, a 30% commission is £12. On 100 similar orders per month, that is £1,200 before food cost, labour, packaging and overheads. The right operational question is not whether to stop using delivery apps; it is how many repeat orders can move into a lower-cost direct channel without sacrificing discovery.