Taking orders on your own website instead of a marketplace

A regular customer walks in and orders a coffee and a sandwich. If they order in person, you keep the money, minus the card fee. If they order through a marketplace app, you give up twenty or thirty percent of the sale.

This is the basic arithmetic of restaurant online ordering. A marketplace app is a marketing channel. You pay a commission because the app has an audience. The app brings you a customer who was browsing for food, and in return, the app takes a cut of the order.

That trade makes sense for a new customer. The marketplace found them for you. You are paying for acquisition. But the trade makes less sense for a customer who already knows you, who eats with you every week, or who is standing outside your shop.

The cost of convenience

Customers use marketplace apps because they are convenient. Their payment details are saved, and the interface is familiar. If a regular customer wants to order ahead, and the only way to do it is through a marketplace, they will use it.

When a regular uses a marketplace, you are paying a marketing fee for a customer you have already acquired. Over a month, the commission on those regular orders adds up. It is money that would otherwise be margin.

The alternative is commission free online ordering. This means taking orders directly, without a middleman.

Own website ordering

To take direct orders, you need a restaurant website that can handle transactions. When a customer orders on your own site, the money goes straight to your payment processor. You pay the standard card processing fee, but there is no marketplace commission.

The challenge is changing customer habits. A regular customer will only use your website if it is as easy as using the app they already have on their phone.

You have to tell them about it. Put a sign on the counter. Put a flyer in the bag. Tell them that ordering directly supports the business. Many regulars want to support their local spots, and if you give them a direct link, they will use it.

You also need a clear call to action on your site. If someone searches for you by name and finds your website, the first thing they should see is a button to order. If they have to hunt for it, they will go back to the marketplace app.

Balancing the channels

Taking orders directly does not mean you have to leave the marketplaces. Most places need both.

The marketplace apps are good at discovery. They put your menu in front of people who do not know you exist. You accept the commission on those orders because it is the cost of doing business on that platform.

Your own website is for retention. It is for the people who search for your name, who click the link in your social media profile, or who scan a QR code in your window.

By running both, you use the marketplaces for what they are good at, and you stop paying commission on the customers you have already earned.

How lokal handles online ordering

If you use lokal, a website with online ordering is included in the $99.99 monthly plan. The site is published at a lokal.business subdomain, or you can connect a domain you already own.

When a customer orders through your lokal site, the payment goes directly to your own Square account. You pay Square's normal processing rates. lokal takes 0% commission on those orders.

You can also put links to your marketplace delivery pages on your lokal site. lokal does not run deliveries, so if a customer wants delivery, they click the link and order through the marketplace. If they want to pick up, they order directly through your site, and you keep the margin.