Signing up to food delivery platforms is usually framed as a volume decision: more orders, more reach, more revenue. The harder question is what each of those orders is worth once everything is accounted for.
These six factors tend to decide whether the channel works for a given outlet.
1. What food delivery platforms actually cost you per order
Published commission figures vary widely between sources and are negotiated per merchant, so the only number worth planning around is the one in your own agreement. Read it alongside the setup fees, any device or platform charges, payment processing and GST.
Then work out contribution per order after food cost, packaging and the extra labour a delivery ticket creates during service. That figure, not the commission percentage, tells you whether the channel pays. Run it on your five best-selling items rather than an average, because the mix is what you will actually be sending.
2. Whether your menu prices hold across channels
Many operators price the same on and off platform, then absorb the commission. Others price delivery higher and risk a diner noticing. Neither is wrong, but the decision should be deliberate and reviewed, rather than inherited from whatever was set at sign-up.
3. Who holds the customer relationship
An order through a platform is generally the platform’s customer, not yours. You get the revenue and rarely the contact details, which means you cannot bring that diner back directly.
That is the real argument for also running your own ordering channel, even a modest one, alongside the platforms.
4. How the food survives the journey
Dishes that hold for twenty minutes in a box are a different menu from the one you serve at the pass. Operators who send everything, including the items that arrive soggy, end up paying commission for the orders that generate their worst reviews.
5. Who funds the promotions
Platform visibility is often tied to merchant-funded discounts, which come out of your margin rather than theirs. Before joining a campaign, run the contribution maths on the discounted order, not the full-price one, and set a limit on how long you will carry it.
6. What you will stop doing to serve it
Delivery volume competes with dine-in service for the same kitchen and the same staff during the same hours. If peak delivery overlaps your peak covers, something gives, and it is usually the experience of the diner sitting in front of you.
None of this argues against food delivery platforms. It argues for deciding what the channel is for, whether that is filling quiet hours, reaching a wider catchment, or simply being present where people already look, and then measuring it against that purpose rather than against total order count.
Four Media works on e-commerce solutions including online ordering, conversion rate optimisation and payment gateway integration, so the platform question and the own-channel question get looked at together rather than separately. It is one of the areas our F&B marketing work covers. If you are weighing up the mix, we are happy to talk it through.
