The formula
Saving per month = Shifted orders x Average order value x (Marketplace commission % – Direct cost %)
Why the formula works this way: nothing about the order changes when it moves. Same guest, same food, same box, same driver problem to solve. The only thing that changes is the toll on the way through, so the saving is exactly the gap between the two tolls, applied to the orders that move. That is also why the shift percentage is the honest limit on the whole calculation: a marketplace genuinely earns its commission on a first-time guest who found you in the app. It earns nothing extra on your regular’s fortieth order, and that is the order this calculator is about.
How to use it, with an example
- Take one full month of marketplace orders and use your effective commission rate: total deductions on the statement divided by total order value, not the advertised headline rate.
- Price your direct channel honestly. Processing plus any per-order fee, expressed as a percentage of the order value, is typically around 3% when there is no commission.
- Set the shift percentage to what you can actually move: regulars, repeat guests, and anyone who found you in person first. Twenty to fifty percent is the range most operators plan around.
- Read the saving per shifted order. That figure, multiplied by every regular you convert, is the budget you have to spend on the conversion effort: inserts, signage, a first-order incentive.
Worked example: A restaurant runs 800 marketplace orders a month at a $34 average value and pays an effective 28% commission, which is $7,616 a month. Shifting 40% of those orders, 320 orders, to its own channel at a 3% direct cost avoids $3,046.40 of commission and costs $326.40 instead, a saving of $2,720 a month, $32,640 a year, or $8.50 on every shifted order. Total channel cost falls from $7,616 to $4,896 a month. The calculator above is prefilled with these same numbers.
The shift only happens if ordering direct is as easy as ordering in the app, and if the guest record comes with the order. With Odoo for Restaurants, direct orders arrive through the restaurant’s own site on the Odoo eCommerce module and sit in the same kitchen and accounting flow as marketplace orders, so both channels can be run side by side while the mix moves, instead of a risky overnight switch.
Common mistakes
- Using the advertised commission rate. Statements include paid placement, promotion participation and processing on top of base commission. The effective rate is often several points higher, and it is the effective rate that decides the saving.
- Planning to shift 100% of orders. Marketplace discovery is real. First-time guests, tourists and anyone searching a cuisine rather than your name will keep arriving through the app. A plan built on shifting everything is a plan to be disappointed.
- Forgetting delivery itself. If your direct channel needs its own drivers or a delivery partner, that cost belongs in the direct percentage. A saving calculated on pickup economics does not survive contact with a delivery fleet.
- Spending the whole saving on discounts to convert guests. A first-order incentive is fine, but if you hand back 15% to win an order you were paying 28% on, you kept 13 points, not 25. The per-order saving line is your ceiling for incentives.
- Making direct ordering harder than the app. A slow page, a stale menu or a phone-only ordering process will defeat any fee advantage. Guests reorder where it is easiest, which is why the channel comparison in restaurant POS system cost thinking matters: total cost of the channel includes whether guests can actually use it.
- Losing the customer data anyway. If direct orders land in a separate inbox nobody reads, you paid for the channel and skipped the asset. The guest’s name, number and order history are half the point of the shift, as any honest account of what is restaurant POS software will tell you about where orders should end up.
FAQs
How much commission do delivery apps take?
Published delivery plans run from about 15% on basic tiers to 30% on premium tiers with marketing bundled in, with pickup orders typically around 6%. Extras such as paid placement and funded promotions raise the effective rate above the headline, which is why your statement rate is the one to use.
What does direct ordering actually cost?
Usually card processing, around 2.9% plus a small fixed fee per order on standard processors, plus any flat monthly platform fee. There is no percentage commission on most direct platforms, which is the entire basis of the saving: a percentage toll replaced by a processing cost.
What share of orders can a restaurant realistically shift?
Most operators plan on 20 to 50%, starting with regulars and repeat guests who order weekly or monthly. Those guests need no discovery help, they need a reason and an easy path: a card in the bag, a QR code on the box, and an ordering page that remembers them.
Is it worth it for a small number of orders?
The maths is per order, so it scales down as well as up. At $8 or $9 saved per shifted order, even fifty shifted orders a month is $400 to $450 kept. Whether the effort is worth it depends on how many of your marketplace orders are already regulars.
Do marketplaces object to restaurants promoting direct ordering?
Marketplaces restrict using their own channel to divert orders, such as inserts in marketplace bags on some platforms, but your own premises, your own packaging on direct orders, your website and your Google profile are yours. Promote direct ordering there, and check your marketplace agreement for its specific rules.
Should I leave the marketplaces entirely if the saving is large?
Almost never. Marketplaces are a discovery channel that genuinely brings first-time guests, and those guests are worth commission once. The strategy the numbers support is both channels: marketplace for discovery, direct for the repeat orders that follow.
