External delivery platforms bring customers to your door, but take up to 30% commission per order. More and more Belgian hospitality businesses are looking for a way out. What are your options?
Why are hospitality businesses considering leaving delivery platforms?
Takeaway.com and Deliveroo are useful for visibility, but that visibility comes at a price. The commission charged by platforms can reach 30% per order. On an average order of €25, that means €7.50 that goes to the platform — not to your business.
Add to that the fact that you have no access to customer data, no control over your branding, and full dependence on the platform's pricing and algorithm. Many business owners who joined years ago are now paying significantly more commission than they originally expected.
What are your alternatives?
The most popular choice for hospitality businesses that want to protect their margins. With your own ordering website, customers order directly from you. You set the prices, you know your customers, you keep 100% of your revenue.
Costs are limited to a fixed monthly subscription — no variable commission per order. For a business with 20 orders per day, the savings can quickly exceed €1,000 per month.
What you need: - An online ordering page in your own brand style - Integrated payment (Bancontact, Visa, Apple Pay) - A connection with your POS system or kitchen printer - Optional: your own delivery zone and shipping rates
Unipage offers a complete hospitality webshop that meets all these requirements and connects directly with your POS and kitchen printer.
Not all business owners want to leave the platforms entirely — the visibility does have real value, especially for new customers. A middle ground is to stay present on platforms for new customers, while actively directing regulars to your own ordering website.
In practice: include a card in the packaging with a QR code to your ordering website. Add the message: "Order directly from us and save on delivery costs." Many customers willingly take the direct route once they know it exists.
For businesses that only offer click & collect without delivery, a QR code ordering flow is a fast solution. Customers scan a QR code, order and pay via their smartphone, and collect when it's ready. No app required, no commission, no queue at the counter.
Businesses with high walk-in traffic — chip shops, lunch bars, snack bars — can also benefit from a self-order kiosk. Customers order themselves, pay on the spot, and the order goes directly to the kitchen. No staff needed at the counter, no commission paid to external platforms.
What is the right choice for your business?
It depends on your situation:
- **Click & collect only, few online orders**: start with your own ordering website or QR code flow - **High walk-in traffic**: consider a self-order kiosk - **Mix of click & collect and delivery**: own webshop as the main channel, platform as supplementary visibility - **Franchise or multiple locations**: one system that centralises everything
The biggest difference is not in the technology, but in ownership: with your own ordering solution, you build a relationship with your customers. With a platform, you build a relationship for the platform.
Commission rates on major delivery platforms typically range from 15% to 30% per order, depending on the contract, visibility packages and region. Check your own contract for the exact rates applicable to your business.
Yes. The most effective method is a card in the packaging with a QR code to your own ordering website, optionally with a small discount as an incentive. After a few orders, most customers naturally start ordering directly from you.
You need an online ordering page with integrated payment, a connection to your kitchen or POS, and a way to manage orders. Unipage offers all of this as one integrated package, including webshop, POS and kitchen printer.
Possibly a small portion of new customers initially. But regulars — who already know your business — order just as easily via your own website as via a platform. Most choose whichever option is most convenient and most clearly communicated by you.
In the short term, you pay a fixed monthly subscription rather than a commission per order. For a business with 15 to 20 orders per day, your own ordering website becomes cheaper than platform commission within one to two months.
Wij contacteren u binnen de 24u voor een demo