Posted by u/shrinking_margin_pizza
Is DoorDash worth it at 30% commission?
Answered by Ask a Shop Owner ·
Third-party delivery is 22% of revenue now. Making almost no money on those orders. Cut it?
u/askashopowner Owner-operator advisor
Top answer
Not necessarily cut, but reprice. Third-party menus should be priced 15% to 25% higher than dine-in to offset commission. Every winning restaurant on the apps runs two menus. Guests do not notice.
Then attack the mix. Push your highest-margin items in the app photos and top-of-menu. Remove low-margin loss leaders from the delivery menu entirely.
Long-term, build direct online ordering (Toast, Square, ChowNow) and use the third-party apps only to acquire customers you then push to direct via receipt inserts and offers. Direct orders have 20+ points of extra margin.
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