Most restaurants do not choose between delivery aggregators and their own ordering app. They use both, for different customers. The useful question is which orders belong on which channel, and the answer starts with what you keep from each order.
What an aggregator gives you, and what it takes
An aggregator puts your menu in front of people who have never heard of you. It handles the app, the payment and often the delivery. For a new restaurant, or a new branch in a new area, that reach is hard to get any other way.
In return it takes a commission on every order. The rate is in your contract, and it applies to the first order from a new customer and to the fiftieth order from a regular in the same way. The aggregator also keeps the relationship: in most cases you do not receive the customer's contact details, so you cannot send that regular an offer yourself.
What your own channel costs
Your own app and website replace the commission with costs you can see in advance:
- The platform. A fixed monthly cost for the ordering software, whatever the number of orders.
- Card payments. Your payment provider's fee on each online payment.
- Delivery. Your own riders, or no delivery cost at all on pickup and dine-in orders.
- Bringing customers in. Nobody finds your app by accident. You have to tell customers it exists.
The first three are easy to price. The fourth is the real work, and it is covered below.
Do the arithmetic with your own numbers
Take one order and follow the money on each channel.
| Order through an aggregator | Order on your own app | |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | A percentage of the order, set in your contract | None |
| Card payment | Check whether your contract includes it | Your payment provider's fee |
| Delivery | Depends on the plan you chose | Your riders, or pickup |
| Software | Included | A fixed monthly cost |
| Customer details | Stay with the aggregator | Stay with you |
Then work out the break-even point:
- Multiply your average order value by your commission rate. That is what one aggregator order costs you.
- Subtract what the same order would cost on your own app: the card fee, plus delivery if you deliver it yourself.
- Divide the monthly cost of your own platform by that difference.
The result is the number of direct orders a month at which your own channel pays for itself.
As an illustration only: if an aggregator order costs you 20 in commission and the same order costs you 5 on your own app, each direct order saves 15, and a platform that costs 300 a month is covered after 20 direct orders. These numbers are examples for the arithmetic. Use the ones in your own contracts.
Which orders belong where
- New customers: aggregators. The commission is the price of being found.
- Regulars: your own app. Paying a commission every week for a customer who already knows you is the cost worth removing.
- Pickup and dine-in: your own app and QR menu. There is no delivery to hand over, so there is little reason to pay for it.
A restaurant with one branch and few regulars may not reach the break-even point yet, and staying on aggregators alone is a reasonable decision. A restaurant with a loyal base, several branches or a strong pickup business is much more likely to reach it.
Moving regulars to your own app
The move does not happen by itself. What works is simple and repeated:
- Put a QR code for your app on every bag, receipt and table.
- Give a reason to switch: a first-order coupon, then loyalty points on each order.
- Show the app on the screens in your branches. If you use digital menu boards, a slot in the playlist costs nothing.
- Keep your menu and prices consistent, so the customer is never surprised.
Read your aggregator contract before printing anything. Some contracts set rules on what you may put inside their orders.
What to ask a software vendor
Before you sign for an ordering system, ask to see these working, not described:
- An order placed in the customer app arriving in the branch and in the kitchen.
- A menu or price change made once and applied to every branch you choose.
- Pickup, delivery and table orders in the same system.
- Coupons and loyalty points, since they are how you bring regulars across.
- Who owns the customer data, and how you export it.
FidaFood is our platform for this: a customer app and website under your brand, a panel for each branch, a built-in POS, a kitchen display, and waiter and delivery apps. It is built to run alongside the aggregators you already use, not to replace them on the first day. FidaScreen, our digital signage platform, reads menus and prices from FidaFood, so the boards in your branches follow the same menu.