Guide · Delivery · UK
Delivery looks like free growth because the kitchen is already there. The commission, the cannibalisation and the true margin tell a more careful story.
Adding delivery to a dine-in restaurant looks like free growth: the kitchen is already there, so every delivery order seems like extra revenue at no extra cost. The reality is more complicated. Delivery carries its own economics, and a channel that fills the pass with tickets can still thin your profit if the numbers are not understood before you switch it on. Delivery can be a genuine addition to a restaurant, but only when it is treated as a distinct business line rather than a bolt-on to the dining room.
The headline issue is platform commission. The major marketplaces typically take somewhere between a quarter and a third of the order value, and that comes straight off the top of a dish that was already priced for a slim margin. Work it through on a single plate: a meal that leaves a healthy profit at the table can be reduced to a few pence once a third has gone to the platform, packaging has been paid for and the extra handling absorbed. Delivery is not free capacity; it is capacity sold at a much lower margin, and that has to be planned for rather than discovered at month end.
Incremental or cannibal
The decisive question is whether delivery brings genuinely new demand or simply shifts existing customers onto a lower-margin channel. If a diner who would have booked a table instead orders in, you have not grown; you have converted a full-margin cover into a commission-eroded one. Delivery only truly pays when it fills capacity you were not otherwise selling, the quiet midweek kitchen hours, or reaches customers who were never going to visit in person. Judged that way, delivery is an incremental-volume play, and the volume has to be genuinely additional to justify the margin you give away on it.
It also competes for kitchen resource. A rush of delivery tickets during a busy service can slow the dining room, dent the experience of paying dine-in guests and stretch a line that was staffed for covers, not couriers. Deciding how much delivery a kitchen can carry without hurting its core trade is part of the economics, not a detail; getting it wrong costs more than the commission does.
None of this means avoiding delivery; it means pricing and resourcing it deliberately. Many operators run a separate, adjusted delivery menu so the commission is built into the price rather than absorbed, and cap delivery volume so it never overwhelms the covers that pay the most.
Owning the channel
The smartest approach that has emerged is a deliberate split: use the big platforms for what they are good at, discovery and reach, while steering repeat customers toward a direct-ordering channel you control, where the commission and the customer data stay yours. Self-delivery tiers and direct websites can cut the effective fee substantially, and direct ordering now rivals the biggest apps in volume. To make any of it work, the kitchen has to be built for the extra throughput; understanding how to plan kitchen capacity for a growing delivery business keeps delivery from choking the dine-in operation it was meant to complement.
Knowing the real number
The single most important habit is to measure delivery on its own, not blended into the headline sales. Once commission, packaging and the extra labour are stripped out, the true profit on a delivery order is often far lower than dine-in, and a busy delivery week can flatter your takings while quietly thinning your margin. Keeping a clear view of the real margin on delivery platform orders is what tells you whether the channel is genuinely adding to the bottom line or simply adding to the workload. This is general guidance rather than financial advice, so run the figures for your own site, but the principle is firm: know the true margin before you scale the channel, not after.
Questions
It can be, but it is not free growth. Platform commissions of roughly a quarter to a third of order value, plus packaging and extra handling, mean a dish priced for a slim dine-in margin can leave only pennies on delivery. Delivery pays when it is priced and resourced deliberately, not treated as spare capacity.
The major marketplaces typically take somewhere between a quarter and a third of each order's value. Self-delivery tiers, where you provide the driver, can cut that substantially, and a direct-ordering channel of your own avoids marketplace commission altogether while keeping the customer relationship.
It can. If a guest who would have booked a table orders in instead, you have converted a full-margin cover into a commission-eroded one rather than growing. Delivery only truly pays when it adds genuinely new volume, such as filling quiet kitchen hours or reaching customers who would never visit in person.
The common approach is both: use the marketplaces for discovery and reach, then steer repeat customers to a direct-ordering channel you control, where the margin and the data stay yours. Direct ordering now rivals the biggest apps in volume, so building your own door is worth the effort.
Track it separately from dine-in. Strip out commission, packaging and extra labour to find the true profit per delivery order, which is often far lower than dine-in. A busy delivery week can flatter your headline sales while thinning your margin, so measure the real number before scaling the channel.
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