How a Restaurant Stopped Paying Delivery Commissions by Implementing Its Own Ordering System
A home-style restaurant with dine-in and delivery stopped losing nearly a third of every order to third-party app commissions after implementing its own WhatsApp-based ordering system. Within three months it migrated a portion of recurring orders to the direct channel, without reducing its presence on the delivery platforms it already used.
The starting point: how the business operated before
The following scenario is representative of the situation faced by restaurants with delivery operations in the US. The data reflects real sector averages. A restaurant with dine-in and delivery — twelve people on the team between kitchen, dining room, and in-house delivery — was generating a significant portion of its monthly sales through two third-party delivery apps. Every order that came in through those platforms paid a commission before reaching the restaurant. The team had no way to directly contact customers who ordered every week: the name, phone number, and order history stayed on the app's side, not the restaurant's. The owner knew exactly how much was going to commissions each month because he saw it in the settlement, but he had no direct channel where those same customers could order without going through the app. The math was simple and painful: a large share of the work of cooking, delivering, and building loyalty ended up paying for access to a storefront that wasn't his.
Why the problem hadn't been solved before
The problem wasn't new. The restaurant had been absorbing the commission for over two years without looking for an alternative, mainly for two reasons. The first was fear of the transition: the belief that if they stopped appearing as a featured option on the app, they would lose orders from customers who already had the habit of ordering there. The second was the idea that setting up a direct channel required a complex online store with technical development and maintenance the team didn't have time or knowledge to sustain. The signal that made it clear it was time to act was a month when one of the apps raised its commission without prior notice: the settlement for that month was noticeably lower than the previous one with the same order volume. It became clear they were dependent on conditions they didn't control.
What was implemented and how
The starting point was not replacing the delivery apps, but adding a direct WhatsApp ordering channel with an online catalog — designed to capture first the customers who were already arriving through Instagram and word of mouth, and who currently had no way to order directly. The team loaded the menu once into the catalog, with photos and prices, and that same catalog became available as a shareable link on social media and in the restaurant. The setup required no technical knowledge: someone from the front of house could update prices and items without depending on a developer. Integration with what the restaurant already had was straightforward, because the direct channel ran in parallel with the delivery apps, not as a replacement: orders coming in through WhatsApp were added to the existing kitchen workflow, without duplicating processes. From start to seeing the first orders come in through the direct channel took two to three weeks, with most of the time spent spreading the word about the new channel among regular customers, not on system configuration.
The concrete results
In the first few weeks, recurring customer orders started splitting between the direct channel and the delivery apps. The team stopped writing down phone orders by hand to enter into the app: the online catalog organized them directly in the same format already used in the kitchen, with fewer transcription errors.
Between the second and third months, roughly a quarter of the orders that had previously come exclusively through third-party apps started arriving through the direct channel. On that migrated portion, the restaurant stopped paying the per-order commission, which translated into recovered margin month after month without reducing total delivery sales volume.
What the team didn't expect was that many of the customers who migrated to the direct channel never ordered through the delivery apps again: once they had a direct, simpler channel, they stopped using the intermediary by their own choice — not because the restaurant asked them to.
What the business learned along the way
Companies that go through this process frequently discover that the biggest obstacle wasn't technical but conceptual: they feared having to choose between the marketplace and the direct channel, when in reality they could operate both simultaneously. Another common finding is that most customers who migrate don't do so because of a discount or promotion, but simply because ordering through WhatsApp from someone they already know feels more direct than opening an app shared with dozens of restaurants. The recommendation for similar businesses is not to wait for commissions to rise before acting: the sooner the direct channel exists, the sooner the habit starts building with recurring customers. At Zefell we implement this type of direct channel for food businesses that want to start recovering margin without stopping operations on the platforms they already use.
Is your business in a similar situation?
This process is relevant for restaurants with active delivery on at least one third-party platform, with enough recurring order volume to notice the commission in the monthly settlement, and with regular customers who currently have no way to order directly. It also applies to businesses that already receive orders through Instagram or word of mouth but manage them manually and without structure. If you recognize your business in this situation, at the Zefell restaurant ordering team we can evaluate how a direct ordering channel would apply to your specific case.
Want to apply this in your business?
Tell us about your case and we’ll tell you what we would do. If we don’t see a clear opportunity, we’ll tell you that too.
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Frequently asked questions
The questions that come up before taking the next step.
No. The direct channel runs in parallel with delivery apps, not as a replacement. The idea is to capture first the orders from customers who already find you through Instagram or word of mouth and currently have no way to order directly, while third-party platforms keep operating exactly as before.
Setting up the catalog and WhatsApp ordering channel requires no technical knowledge and can be done in a few days. What usually takes more time is spreading the word about the new channel among regular customers — not the implementation itself.
It's known as an ordering system, ticket system, or restaurant order software, depending on whether the focus is on table orders, kitchen flow, or delivery. When the order is taken directly from the customer without intermediaries, it's also called a direct ordering channel.
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