A Toronto restaurant group was paying delivery-app commission on every online order — even from regulars picking up around the corner. We gave them a second door: direct ordering under their own brand, wired straight into the kitchen.
The group runs busy locations in Toronto with strong walk-in trade and a growing online business. The catch: every online order ran through third-party delivery apps. That meant 15–30% commission per order depending on plan tier — before promotions, processing and refunds — on food margins that were already thin.
It wasn't only the money. Orders arrived on a row of tablets that staff had to re-key or shepherd during the rush. The menu had to be edited separately in every app dashboard, so prices and sold-out items drifted out of sync. And the apps kept the customer: the group couldn't see who their regulars were, let alone reach them with an offer — even pickup customers standing in the store had ordered through a 30% toll booth.
They didn't want to quit the apps — the discovery is real. They wanted what we'd call a second door: a direct channel they own, for the orders that never needed a marketplace in the first place.
Their menu, their brand, their domain — a fast mobile checkout for pickup and delivery, paying only standard card processing instead of commission.
Direct orders land on a live kitchen display in the same flow as everything else — no extra tablet to babysit, statuses updated as food moves from ticket to ready.
Prices, items and 86s edited once. The storefront and kitchen stay in sync automatically instead of being re-typed per platform.
Customers see their order move from received to preparing to ready — fewer "is it done yet?" calls to the counter during the rush.
Every direct order builds a customer record the group owns — the raw material for loyalty offers and win-back campaigns the apps would never hand over.
Table cards and receipts point regulars and pickup customers at the direct page — so the apps stay a discovery channel, not the only checkout.
The economics changed on day one, because they're arithmetic, not a projection: a direct order costs the group roughly 3% in card processing instead of 15–30% in commission. On a $40 pickup order, that's the difference between giving up about a dollar and giving up as much as $12.
Operationally, direct orders now arrive in the same kitchen flow as everything else — no re-keying, no orphan tablet. The menu is maintained once. Pickup customers who used to route through the apps have an obvious, faster way to order direct, and every one of those orders adds to a customer list the group can actually use.
What we won't claim: we're not publishing the group's revenue or order-mix numbers — those are theirs, and this write-up is anonymized at their request. What we can say is structural: every order that shifts from an app to the direct channel keeps the commission in the till, and the customer on their list, permanently.
Book a free 15-minute strategy call. We'll map what direct ordering would look like for your restaurant — and we'll tell you honestly if the apps are still your best bet.