How to Reduce Restaurant Delivery Commission Fees
How much are you actually paying in delivery commission?
Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat take somewhere between 15% and 35% of every order. Most restaurants are on more than one of them, and each one has its own rate.
To get your real number, pull last month's order report from each platform and multiply the gross order value by the commission rate. Something like this:
| Platform | Monthly revenue | Commission rate | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uber Eats | £8,000 | 30% | £2,400 |
| Deliveroo | £5,000 | 28% | £1,400 |
| Just Eat | £4,000 | 14% | £560 |
| Total | £17,000 | £4,360/month |
Over a year, that's £52,320 in commission on £204,000 of delivery revenue. If you've never added it up across all your platforms, the total can be a shock.
Six ways to reduce delivery commission fees
1. Build a direct ordering channel
This one saves the most. A direct online ordering channel is your own branded website or app, and it doesn't take a cut of each order.
Flipdish gives restaurants that channel for a flat monthly fee, with no commission on orders. Direct orders go to your kitchen through the same system as your in-venue orders. The customer data is yours, so you can market to those people yourself.
Every order that moves from a marketplace to your own channel saves the whole commission. At 30% on a £25 order, that's £7.50. Do that 500 times a month and it's £3,750.
2. Negotiate your commission rates
If you do decent volume, your rate is negotiable. Been on a platform for more than a year and your orders have grown? Ask for a rate review.
- Uber Eats and Deliveroo give larger partners an account manager who can sign off on a lower rate
- Just Eat's commission is tiered, and in some cases it moves with volume
- Quotes from the other platforms give you something to push with
3. Charge more on the marketplaces
Plenty of restaurants price their marketplace menus 10-15% above their direct menu to claw back some of the commission. Most platform agreements allow it, but check yours.
Take a £25 order and list it at £28 on Uber Eats. The platform takes £8.40, but £3 of that came from the markup, so you're really giving up £5.40. That's about 19% instead of 30%. The risk is that some customers spot the price gap and order from someone else.
4. Keep promotions for your direct channel
Put your discounts, loyalty points and deals only on your direct ordering website or app. Customers get a reason to switch, and nobody is forced to.
A QR code in your marketplace packaging with a first-order discount for ordering direct works well. It's usually cheaper than paying to find new customers.
5. Use loyalty to keep direct customers
A customer who found you on Deliveroo and now orders direct is worth a lot more than one who stays on the platform forever. Every order from them is commission you keep. Flipdish AI marketing runs re-engagement campaigns that move delivery customers over to your direct channel and keep them ordering there.
6. Check what else marketplace orders are costing you
If you're covering driver tip top-ups, premium packaging or temperature bags on marketplace orders, go through them one at a time and ask whether you need each one. Commission is the big number. Fulfilment on third-party orders often costs more than on direct orders too, so audit it separately.
What shifting 50% to direct looks like
Say you do 1,000 orders a month at £25 each, all through marketplaces at 28% commission. That's £25,000 gross, £7,000 paid in commission, and £18,000 left for you.
Now move half of them to direct. The 500 direct orders bring in £12,500 with nothing taken off. The 500 marketplace orders bring in £12,500 minus £3,500 commission, so £9,000. You keep £21,500.
That's £3,500 more a month, or £42,000 a year, from the same number of orders.
Should you leave the platforms entirely?
Not yet, for most restaurants.
Marketplaces are good at putting you in front of new customers. The restaurants that cut commission the most usually keep their listings and build a direct channel alongside them. Repeat customers order direct, and the platforms do the discovery.
For a delivery-focused restaurant, getting 40-60% of delivery orders through the direct channel within 12-18 months of launching it is a realistic target. Once you're there, paying full commission to stay on every marketplace looks like a much worse deal.
Choosing a direct ordering platform
| What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| No per-order commission | You save on every order you move over, and it adds up |
| Native POS integration | Orders go straight to the kitchen and nobody has to re-key them |
| Your own branding | Customers know they're ordering from you, not a marketplace |
| You own the customer data | You can market to your customers and reward them yourself |
| Built-in retention tools | One-off direct customers turn into regulars |
Flipdish online ordering does all five. Restaurants across the UK and Ireland use it to take orders direct and lean less on the marketplaces.