A multi-outlet restaurant and cloud-kitchen brand relied on delivery apps and walk-ins. DXDasia built a direct-ordering and local-visibility engine that grew online orders 5.2× while cutting aggregator dependence.
5.2× Growth in Online Orders
High delivery-app commissions and inconsistent footfall left margins thin and demand unpredictable.
We captured hungry, high-intent local demand and pushed it toward higher-margin direct orders.
The brand grew orders while keeping more revenue in-house:
In F&B, the cheapest order is the one that skips the aggregator. Owning local search and driving direct orders gave the brand both more volume and healthier margins.
Aggregator dependence compounds over time — the more orders route through delivery apps, the harder it becomes to build a direct customer relationship — so the strategy prioritised local-search visibility and direct-ordering incentives to interrupt that cycle early rather than letting it continue to deepen. Location-specific campaigns were run per outlet rather than one blanket brand campaign, since demand patterns varied meaningfully by neighbourhood.
Delivery marketplaces solve a genuine problem: they bring hungry customers to a kitchen that nobody has heard of yet. The cost is the commission, and published figures vary widely. Older reporting is steeper: RICE Media put pre-pandemic fees at roughly 25-30% per delivered meal in April 2020. Commission is set by your own agreement, tier and delivery option, so check your contract for the current figure.
Ask what your tier and delivery option cost per order, and compare that with the cost of an order placed directly. Even then, the marketplace owns the customer relationship.
Google states that local results are ranked mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to appear, and that nobody can pay for a better local ranking. For a restaurant that means the free work matters: correct categories, hours, menu and ordering links, and a steady flow of reviews and replies.
Once a customer reaches your ordering page, checkout friction decides the sale. Baymard's compilation of 50 studies puts the average documented cart abandonment at 70.22%. Among shoppers who gave a reason, 40% cited extra costs such as fees, 18% a forced account creation and 17% a long or complicated checkout. Speed matters on phones too: a Deloitte study for Google of 37 brand sites found a 0.1-second mobile speed gain was linked to 8.4% higher retail conversion, measured in late 2019.
| Channel | What the sources report | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace listing | Pre-pandemic commissions were reported at roughly 25-30% per delivered meal (RICE Media, April 2020) | Reach and a delivery network, but the platform owns the customer relationship |
| Google Business Profile and local search | Ranked on relevance, distance, prominence; cannot be bought (Google) | Slow to build, no per-order fee |
| Own ordering page | Checkout abandonment averages 70.22% (Baymard) | You keep the data; conversion work is on you |
Channel cost and control, using the cited figures. Commission ranges vary by contract.
Keeping customers is also cheaper than finding them. Forrester credits Fred Reichheld of Bain with showing that a 5% rise in retention lifts profits by 25% to 95%, a widely quoted range rather than a guarantee for any single restaurant.
What this means in practice: the sources do not say direct ordering is always cheaper, because your own page still needs software, delivery and marketing spend. They do show that local visibility is free to earn, and that checkout design decides how many of your visitors become customers. Compare channels on margin per order after every cost.
Treat delivery apps as an acquisition channel and build a second route that keeps the relationship with the guest.
With online orders growing and aggregator dependence easing, the brand is reinvesting some of the margin saved on commission into loyalty offers exclusive to direct ordering, reinforcing the same behaviour shift going forward. The per-outlet campaign structure is also being extended to new locations as the brand expands.
It depends on the platform, your tier and the delivery option, and it is set in your agreement. Older reporting put pre-pandemic commissions at roughly 25-30% per delivered meal (RICE Media). Check your contract for the current figure and ask what each option costs per order.
For most restaurants, no. Apps remain useful for reaching new customers. A more practical aim is to shift repeat customers to your own channel gradually while keeping the marketplace for discovery, and to judge each channel on margin after commission.
Google says local ranking rests on relevance, distance and prominence, and that complete and accurate profiles are more likely to show. It cannot guarantee orders, but a complete profile with reviews and an ordering link costs nothing per order.
Baymard reports an average abandonment of 70.22%, with extra costs, forced account creation and long checkouts among the main reasons. Show total cost early, offer guest checkout and test on a mid-range phone.
Usually yes, because footfall and delivery demand differ by area. Our PPC management service structures local campaigns this way, and our inventory and order system case study shows how order data can be kept in one place.
