Stop renting your customers: how to take commission-free orders & bookings direct

You worked hard for that customer. The slow build of a regular who knows your specials, brings a mate, tips the bartender by name. Then they order through a delivery app, and the app owns their name, their address, their order history, and the right to email them about your competitor down the road. On top of that, it takes 25-35% of the bill. You're paying a fortune to rent back a customer you already earned.

Sources: Uber Eats / DoorDash AU merchant pricing (commission); Square AU pricing (online processing 2.2%); Reserve Bank of Australia (surcharging removal from 1 October 2026). Vendor pricing changes often, verify current rates before you commit.

The problem, briefly

We've broken down the full cost elsewhere (see what Uber Eats and DoorDash really cost Australian restaurants), so here's the short version. A marketplace order carries two costs, and most owners only count the first.

The visible cost is commission: somewhere in the range of 25-35% of each order for full marketplace delivery, less if you handle delivery yourself, plus card and service fees. (These rates move and vary by plan, so always check your current agreement.) On a $40 order that's $10-$14 gone before you've paid for food, gas, packaging or wages.

The invisible cost is the one that compounds: the platform owns the customer. You don't get their email. You can't text them when Tuesdays are quiet. You can't see that they order every Friday and nudge them on the rare Friday they don't. The app can, and it can just as easily push them a discount to try the venue next door. You're feeding someone else's asset instead of building your own.

Direct ordering and direct booking flip both problems at once. You cut the commission down to a small fee, and you keep the relationship. That's the whole game.

What "direct" actually means

"Going direct" isn't one thing. For an independent venue it's three habits that reinforce each other:

• Your own online ordering: a pickup and/or delivery order page that lives on your website or a platform you control, not inside a marketplace.
• Your own booking system: reservations taken through a tool you own, so a Saturday-night booking doesn't cost you a per-head fee and the diner's details land on your list.
• Capturing the customer either way: every direct order or booking is a chance to collect a name and an email or mobile (with consent) so you can bring that person back without paying anyone.

The third point is the one venues skip, and it's the most valuable. A direct order that doesn't capture the customer is just a cheaper transaction. A direct order that does is the start of a repeat-visit machine you own outright.

The options, with honest trade-offs

There's no single right answer. It depends on your order volume, whether you deliver, and how much setup time you have. Here's how the main paths compare. Treat tool names as fair examples of a category, not endorsements; pricing and terms change, so verify before you commit.

A note on booking commission

Reservations have their own version of the commission trap. Some platforms charge a flat monthly subscription and leave the customer relationship entirely with you. Others run a discovery network and charge a per-cover fee for diners they route to you, which can quietly become a meaningful cost on a busy weekend. Neither model is wrong, but know which one you're on. For most independents, a flat-fee reservation tool that drops customer details onto your own list is the cleaner long-term play.

The AU landscape in 2026: who's who

Two things changed recently that older guides get wrong, so start here: Menulog closed in Australia on 26 November 2025 (the marketplace is now an Uber Eats / DoorDash duopoly), and Mr Yum and me&u merged, the combined ordering company trades as me&u, so "Mr Yum" is no longer a separate product. With that straight, here's how the real options break down by commercial model. Vendor pricing shifts constantly and several gate exact venue fees behind a quote, so treat these as the shape of each deal and confirm before signing.

The pattern is clear: flat-fee tools (Square, Bopple, Now Book It, obee, SevenRooms) keep the diner yours; network models (OpenTable, TheFork) bring discovery but charge per cover and keep one foot on the relationship. A booking network isn't "bad", it's a paid acquisition channel, exactly like the delivery apps, but you should know which covers you're renting. A venue doing 200 network covers a month at a few dollars each is paying hundreds of dollars monthly for diners a flat-fee tool would have handed it outright.

What card processing actually costs in Australia

"Commission-free" still means "not fee-free". You'll pay to take a card, but it's a different universe to app commission. Current published AU rates:

• Square: 1.6% tap/insert in person, 2.2% online / card-not-present.
• Stripe: 1.7% + A$0.30 for domestic cards (3.5% + A$0.30 international).

So a $40 direct order costs you roughly $0.90 in processing, versus $12 in commission on a 30% marketplace order. Same food, same customer, a difference of about $11 you keep, every order.

Why October 2026 matters. From 1 October 2026 the RBA is removing the ability to surcharge eftpos, Mastercard and Visa (debit and credit). Australians currently pay around $1.2 billion a year in card surcharges, and once that lever's gone, processing fees you used to pass on get baked into menu prices instead. That makes the gap between a ~2% direct channel you absorb and a ~30% app commission you can never recover even starker. Building your direct channel now is how you get ahead of the change. (Surcharge rules are nuanced, confirm specifics with your payments provider and accountant.)

Moving diners off the apps and onto your channels

Setting up a direct channel is the easy part. Getting people to use it is the marketing. Here's the practical sequence we run for venues.

1. Put the direct link everywhere customers already look. Add an "Order direct" or "Book a table" action to your Google Business Profile, the top of your website, and your Instagram bio. Google in particular sends huge intent: someone searching your name is ready to act, so don't bounce them into a marketplace.
2. Use the room itself. Table talkers and QR codes on tables, on the counter, and on the receipt. A diner who's already in love with the food is your easiest direct-order convert.
3. Insert into every delivery bag. A small printed card in the packaging ("Order direct next time and get a free [side/drink]" with a QR code) reaches the exact customer the app is trying to keep from you. This is the single highest-converting tactic for clawing back app orders.
4. Offer a small, honest incentive to order direct. A free side, a complimentary drink, or a few dollars off the first direct order. It costs you far less than a third of every order forever, and it changes the habit.
5. Capture the contact, with consent. At checkout or booking, ask for an email or mobile and a clear opt-in to hear from you. Under the Spam Act 2003, marketing messages need consent, accurate sender details, and a working unsubscribe. Get that right and the list is a genuine asset.
6. Follow up. A simple welcome message, then a light, regular rhythm: a slow-Tuesday offer, a new dish, an event. This is how a one-off direct order becomes a regular who never touches the app again.

The maths that makes it worth it

Here's a deliberately simple, illustrative example. Say your average order is $40, and your food and packaging cost is about 35% ($14), leaving $26 before platform costs.

That's roughly $10 more in your pocket on a single $40 order, and you've turned a stranger into a contact you can bring back for free. Now compound it. A customer who orders direct twice a month is over $240 a year in recovered commission, plus the repeat orders you can prompt because you actually have their details. Multiply across your regulars and the direct channel isn't a nice-to-have; it's the difference between a busy venue and a profitable one. (Figures are illustrative. Plug in your own average order, food cost and platform terms.)

When to keep the apps on

Going direct doesn't mean going cold turkey on the marketplaces, and anyone who tells you to delete the apps tomorrow is selling something. The apps do one thing genuinely well: discovery. They put you in front of hungry people in your area who have never heard of you and would never have found you. That's real, incremental demand.

The honest position is a split strategy. Keep the apps on as a paid discovery channel and accept the commission as a customer-acquisition cost on genuinely new diners. Then run the direct playbook hard so that once someone has tried you, they have an easy, slightly-rewarding reason to come back through your own channel. Over time the mix shifts: the apps bring the new, your channels keep the loyal, and your blended commission cost falls without your volume doing the same.

Watch the numbers, not the ideology. If a marketplace is delivering profitable new customers, it's earning its keep. If it's mostly skimming a third off your existing regulars, that's exactly the spend the direct playbook is built to recover.

Frequently asked questions

What is commission-free online ordering?

It's a system you control (usually your own website or a flat-fee ordering platform) where customers order pickup or delivery directly from you. Instead of a marketplace taking 25-35% per order, you pay a small monthly fee or a low transaction fee, and you keep the customer's contact details for repeat business. Rates change, so always check current terms before signing.

How do I get customers to order from my website instead of Uber Eats?

Make the direct channel the easiest one to find and a little more rewarding. Add an "Order direct" button to your Google Business Profile, website and Instagram bio; put a QR code on tables and in delivery packaging; and offer a small incentive for ordering direct. Then capture an email or mobile with consent so you can bring them back yourself.

Do I have to leave the delivery apps completely?

No. The apps generate genuine incremental demand from people who'd never have found you. The smart move for most venues is to stay on them for discovery while steadily shifting your existing regulars onto channels you own, so you stop paying commission on customers who already love you.

What's the best booking system for a small restaurant in Australia?

There's no single best. It depends on cover volume and budget. Several reservation platforms used in Australia charge a flat monthly subscription with no per-cover fee, which suits independents better than networks that charge commission for diners they send you. Look for one that captures customer data into a list you own, integrates with your website and Google profile, and doesn't lock you in.

What does it actually cost to take a card directly?

Far less than app commission. Published Australian rates sit around 1.6% in person and ~2.2% online with Square, or 1.7% + 30c per domestic card with Stripe. On a $40 order that's under a dollar in processing, versus around $12 in commission on a 30% marketplace order. Note that from 1 October 2026 the RBA is removing card surcharging, so plan to absorb processing into your pricing rather than passing it on, and confirm the detail with your payments provider.

Is Mr Yum or Menulog still an option in 2026?

Neither in the form older articles describe. Menulog ceased Australian operations on 26 November 2025, so the delivery marketplaces are now just Uber Eats and DoorDash. And Mr Yum has merged with me&u, the combined ordering and QR company trades as me&u, so look for it under that name rather than Mr Yum.