Do you know how much you paid in marketplace commission last month? Many owners don't. The sale lands, the commission goes out, and it gets lost in everything else. It is worth looking at calmly, not to avoid it at all costs, but to decide where paying it makes sense.
What it is and what it pays for
Delivery marketplaces charge a commission on every order, typically between 15% and 30% depending on the contract and the services included. In return you get visibility, new customers, payments and often delivery. It is a real service with a real price.
The sum
Take three numbers you already have:
- Monthly sales through marketplaces. Say €15,000.
- The average commission you pay. Say 20%.
- Multiply. €15,000 x 20% = €3,000 a month, or €36,000 a year.
That money buys customers who did not know you, visibility and logistics. The useful question is whether, for each kind of customer, it is the best way to spend it.
One order, two outcomes
Take the same €20 dish with €12 of costs (60%). On a marketplace charging 30% (the top of the usual range) the commission is €6 and you keep €2. On your own channel, with no GetFoodies commission, you keep about €8, minus the payment processor's fee, which applies to any card payment and is small next to a marketplace commission.
At 15% commission a marketplace order would leave you €5. Either way, the commission comes out of your margin, which is the thin part of the pie.
When the commission is worth it
- New customers who don't know you yet. The marketplace brought them. Paying makes sense.
- Areas or hours you couldn't reach alone. Visibility has value.
- Delivery, when you have no drivers. You are paying for a service.
Where your own channel fits
Some orders need no marketplace at all: regulars who call or message you, people who find you on Google or Instagram, people who scan the QR code on the table, the counter or the window. For those orders a channel of your own gives you a predictable monthly fee instead of a percentage that grows with sales, and the data about your customers.
This is not a reason to leave the marketplaces: they remain a valuable source of new customers. It is a reason to have a channel of your own as well.
How GetFoodies helps
GetFoodies gives you an ordering website and app with your brand and no GetFoodies commission per order. You pay a monthly subscription and, on payments, only the processor's fees. We are working on showing marketplace orders in the same dashboard; that is not available yet.
Do the sum today
Write down two numbers: what you paid in commission last month, and how many orders came from your own customers who didn't need a marketplace to find you. That is where the decision starts.