Are you losing money on every delivery order without realizing it? Delivery commissions from platforms like Thuisbezorgd and Uber Eats can cost 15-30% of your order value. Many restaurant owners miscalculate this impact, turning profitable dishes into money losers.
Why delivery commission destroys your margin
Most restaurants copy their dine-in prices straight to delivery platforms. That's a costly mistake. Your 30% food cost suddenly jumps to 45-50% after commission. You're barely breaking even on each dish.
⚠️ Watch out:
Delivery commission gets calculated on your selling price including VAT. This makes it even more expensive than you think.
The real costs of delivery commission
Platform commission isn't your only expense. Hidden costs add up fast:
- Platform commission: 15-30% of order value
- Packaging costs: €0.50-€2.00 per order
- Marketing costs: 2-5% extra for visibility
- Payment costs: 0.3-0.5% of order value
? Example:
Pasta carbonara, normal price €18.50:
- Thuisbezorgd commission (25%): €4.63
- Packaging: €0.80
- Marketing fee (3%): €0.56
- Payment costs (0.4%): €0.07
Total extra costs: €6.06 per order
Impact on your food cost percentage
Delivery commission dramatically inflates your food cost percentage. Here's the math:
Normal situation (restaurant):
Food cost = (Ingredient costs / Selling price excl. VAT) × 100
With delivery commission:
Food cost = (Ingredient costs / (Selling price excl. VAT - Commission costs)) × 100
? Example calculation:
Pasta carbonara:
- Ingredient costs: €5.10
- Normal price: €18.50 (€16.97 excl. VAT)
- Delivery commission: €6.06
- Net receipt: €16.97 - €6.06 = €10.91
Normal food cost: 5.10 / 16.97 = 30%
With delivery: 5.10 / 10.91 = 47%!
How to adjust your prices
Maintaining the same margin requires strategic price increases. Use this formula:
New delivery price = (Ingredient costs / Desired food cost) + Commission costs
? Example adjustment:
To maintain 30% food cost:
- Minimum net receipt: €5.10 / 0.30 = €17.00
- Plus commission costs: €17.00 + €6.06 = €23.06 excl. VAT
- Delivery price incl. VAT: €23.06 × 1.09 = €25.14
From €18.50 to €25.14 - that's 36% higher!
Alternative strategies
Price increases aren't always feasible. Consider these options:
- Delivery-specific dishes: Cheaper ingredients, same experience
- Minimum order value: Spread commission across multiple dishes
- Own delivery: More profitable from a certain turnover
- Encourage pickup: Discount for takeaway
⚠️ Watch out:
Never count commission as a 'marketing expense'. These are direct costs per sale that eat into your margin.
Monitoring and adjustment
From tracking this across dozens of restaurants, weekly monitoring prevents profit erosion:
- Average order value per platform
- Actual commission costs per order
- Food cost percentage delivery orders vs. restaurant
- Total profitability of delivery channel
Systems that track different prices per sales channel show the margin impact directly. You can spot problems before they drain your profits.
Related articles
How do you calculate the impact of delivery commission? (step by step)
Collect all commission costs
Add up: platform commission (15-30%), packaging costs (€0.50-€2.00), marketing fees (2-5%) and payment costs (0.3-0.5%). These are your total extra costs per order.
Calculate your net receipt per dish
Subtract all commission costs from your selling price excl. VAT. This is the amount you actually receive per sold dish via the delivery platform.
Recalculate your food cost percentage
Divide your ingredient costs by the net receipt and multiply by 100. This is your actual food cost for delivery - often 15-20 percentage points higher than normal.
Determine your new delivery price
To maintain the same margin: divide ingredient costs by desired food cost, add commission costs, and convert to price incl. VAT for the platform.
✨ Pro tip
Track your actual commission costs across all platforms every 2 weeks - they change more often than you think. I've seen restaurants lose 3-5% margin for months because they missed fee increases buried in platform emails.
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Frequently asked questions
Should I have different prices for delivery and restaurant?
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How do I prevent my food cost from getting too high?
Sources consulted
- EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
- NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
- NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
- Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
- FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
Food Standards Agency (FSA) — https://www.food.gov.uk
The HACCP standards shown in this application are for informational purposes only. KitchenNmbrs does not guarantee that displayed values are current or complete. Always consult the FSA or your local authority for the latest regulations.
Written by
Jeffrey Smit
Founder & CEO of KitchenNmbrs
Jeffrey Smit built KitchenNmbrs from 8 years of hands-on experience as kitchen manager at 1NUL8 Group in Rotterdam. His mission: give every restaurant owner control over food cost.
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