Uber Eats, DoorDash, SkipTheDishes. These platforms take between 15% and 30% on every order they process. That percentage stays abstract — until you convert it into dollars.
What you hand over every month, by volume
Here is the raw math, unrounded.
$5,000 monthly volume
- At 15%: $750 in commissions
- At 25%: $1,250 in commissions
- At 30%: $1,500 in commissions
$10,000 monthly volume
- At 15%: $1,500 in commissions
- At 25%: $2,500 in commissions
- At 30%: $3,000 in commissions
$20,000 monthly volume
- At 15%: $3,000 in commissions
- At 25%: $5,000 in commissions
- At 30%: $6,000 in commissions
These add up. A restaurant doing $10,000 in platform orders hands over, on average, $24,000 to $36,000 a year in commissions alone.
What that money buys instead
Placed back into your daily operation, those amounts look like this:
With $1,500 a month, you cover:
- A part-time employee's monthly wage (15 hrs/week at minimum wage)
- Or an entry-level commercial convection oven
- Or three months of a full POS system
With $3,000 a month, you cover:
- A full-time employee's monthly wage at minimum wage
- Or a backup walk-in cooler
- Or your entire supplier invoice for some weeks
With $5,000 a month, that's:
- Two part-time employees
- Or a partial kitchen renovation spread over 12 months
- Or a full year of outsourced bookkeeping
This isn't a criticism of the platform model. It's simply what the numbers say once you put them in context.
What changes when you take those sales direct
A customer ordering through WhatsApp doesn't go through a platform. The order lands with you directly. So does the payment.
Here's a month at $10,000 in volume if you move 50% of your platform orders to a direct channel:
- Commissions saved at 15%: $750
- Commissions saved at 25%: $1,250
- Commissions saved at 30%: $1,500
That's not 100% of orders. It's half. And it already means $9,000 to $18,000 a year staying in your till.
Teza Solutions' WhatsApp agent requires no app download on the customer's side. The customer sends a message, the agent confirms the order, calculates the total and triggers payment through Stripe — Apple Pay, Google Pay and cards supported. You collect 100% of the amount.
For how it works in practice, read how to take WhatsApp orders without commission.
Platforms have value — but not forever
They bring traffic. That's real. But the traffic they send you doesn't have to stay on their network indefinitely. A customer who orders from you twice a week doesn't need a middleman to find you.
If you want to work out what this channel could mean for your restaurant specifically, get in touch with Teza Solutions. We'll run the numbers with you.