Food delivery platforms have fundamentally changed the restaurant industry. They bring new customers, handle logistics, and provide visibility — but they charge commissions of 25 to 35% on every order, and they own the customer relationship. The customer who orders from you via a delivery app knows the app, not your restaurant. When they want to reorder, they open the app and your restaurant is one of dozens on a search results page.

The most resilient restaurant businesses are the ones building direct relationships with their customers alongside their delivery platform presence. Here is how to do it.

The Commission Maths Are Stark

On a €20 order, a 30% commission means €6 goes to the platform. If your food cost is 35%, that leaves you with €7 of gross margin on that order — a margin thin enough to make delivery a break-even or loss-making channel for many restaurants. The platform takes more than you do from the same transaction.

This does not mean leaving delivery platforms. For many restaurants they provide genuine incremental revenue. It means not building your business around them, and actively working to shift some of that customer relationship in-house.

Strategy 1: Use Delivery Orders to Drive Direct Re-Orders

Every customer who orders through a delivery platform is a potential direct customer. Include a small card in your delivery packaging — printed, simple, no more than a business card size — explaining that they can collect loyalty stamps by visiting your restaurant directly or ordering via your own channel. A QR code on the card that goes to your loyalty sign-up takes five seconds to scan.

Even a 10 or 15% conversion rate from delivery customers to loyalty members generates a meaningful direct order stream over time, at zero commission cost.

Strategy 2: Make Your Dine-In Experience Worth the Visit

Delivery platforms struggle to replicate the atmosphere, the service, and the personal relationship of a physical visit. Invest in those elements — not by spending money on fixtures, but by training your team to make regulars feel recognised, creating a ritual around your best dishes, and making your physical space a place people want to be in.

A customer who has a great dine-in experience and is enrolled in your loyalty programme has two strong reasons to come back in person rather than ordering via an app.

Strategy 3: Build a Loyalty Base That You Own

The fundamental difference between a delivery platform customer and a loyalty programme customer is ownership. The platform owns the delivery customer relationship — they have the email, the order history, the ability to push promotions. You own the loyalty customer relationship — you have their contact details, their visit history, and the ability to reach them directly.

A loyalty base of 200 customers you can contact directly is worth more in long-term revenue than 1,000 delivery platform orders, because the loyalty customers generate repeat visits that cost you nothing to acquire.

Strategy 4: Create Delivery Exclusives for Your Own Channel

If you have your own ordering channel — even a simple phone or WhatsApp order — you can create small exclusive offers that are only available through it. A free side with a direct order, a loyalty stamp that delivery platform orders do not earn, a discount for a next dine-in visit. These create tangible reasons to choose the direct channel over the platform.

Start building your direct customer base today at tavoloplus.com/restaurants — free to start, no hardware needed.

How to Compete with Food Delivery Platforms as an Independent Restaurant