The Love-Hate Relationship with Delivery Apps
If you run a restaurant in Brisbane—whether it’s a burger joint in Fortitude Valley or a family Italian spot in Carindale—you’ve felt the squeeze.
You open your tablet at the end of a busy Friday night. You’ve sent out fifty orders. Your kitchen staff is exhausted. Your bins are full of packaging. But when you look at the payout from UberEats or DoorDash after they take their 30% or 35% cut, you realize you barely made enough to cover the cost of the ingredients and the electricity.
I’ve sat down with dozens of local owners who are frustrated. They feel like they’re working for Uber, not themselves. But then, they worry that if they turn the tablet off, the shop will go quiet and the competition down the road will steal all their customers.
In this guide, I’m going to be blunt. Most of what you hear about these apps is rubbish. I’m going to show you how to figure out if these platforms are actually making you money, when you should ditch them, and how to take back control of your own customer list.
The Real Cost of "Convenience"
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the commission. Most platforms charge between 25% and 35%.
For a $40 order, Uber takes $14. You’re left with $26. Out of that $26, you have to pay for the meat, the veggies, the container, the bag, the napkins, the chef’s wages, and the rent. In many cases, you are actually losing money on every delivery order just for the privilege of being on the app.
The "Marketing" Myth
UberEats will tell you that the 35% isn't just a delivery fee—it’s a "marketing fee." They claim they are bringing you customers you wouldn't otherwise have.
Here’s the reality: If someone is searching for "Pizza near me" and they see your shop, yes, Uber found you a customer. But if a regular customer who lives two blocks away orders through the app because it’s easy, Uber didn't "find" you that customer. They just hijacked a sale you already had and took a massive cut of it.
To make these apps work, you have to treat them like a tool, not a partner. They aren't your friends. They want to own your customers so you become dependent on them.
Approach 1: The "App-Only" Strategy (The Easy Path)
Many new businesses start here. You plug in the tablet, and the orders start coming in.
The Pros: Instant Volume: You don't need to worry about how to get more customers initially; the app sends them to you. No Drivers Needed: You don't have to worry about insurance, petrol, or teenagers crashing delivery scooters. Low Barrier to Entry: You can start tomorrow.
The Cons: Zero Profit Margins: Unless you've priced your menu specifically for delivery (which we'll discuss), you're likely working for free. No Customer Data: You don't get the customer's phone number or email. You can't invite them back. If Uber shuts your account tomorrow, your business dies. Brand Damage: If a driver takes 40 minutes to deliver a cold burger, the customer blames you, not the driver.
Approach 2: The Hybrid Model (The Smart Way)
This is what I recommend for most Brisbane restaurants. You use the apps for "discovery" but you fight like hell to move those customers to your own ordering system for their second and third orders.
How to make the Hybrid Model work:
1. Mark Up Your Prices: If you aren't charging 20-30% more on the apps than you do in-store, you are throwing money away. Customers expect to pay more for delivery. If your parmy is $25 in the shop, it should be $32 on UberEats. 2. The "Bounce Back" Flyer: Every single bag that leaves your shop via a delivery driver must have a physical flyer inside. This flyer should say: "Next time, order directly through our website and get 10% off plus a free garlic bread." 3. Trim the Menu: Don't put your whole menu on the apps. Only list items that travel well and have high profit margins. If a dish is expensive to make and goes soggy in 10 minutes, keep it for dine-in only.
Approach 3: The "Go It Alone" Strategy (The High-Profit Path)
This is where you set up your own online ordering system on your website and hire your own drivers or use a flat-fee delivery service.
The Pros: You Keep the Profit: Instead of 35%, you might pay 2-3% in credit card fees. You Own the Data: You get the email addresses. You can send a text message on a rainy Tuesday to 500 locals and pack your tables when things are quiet. Quality Control: Your drivers represent your business.
The Cons: Marketing is on You: If you don't have a plan to get people to your website, the phone won't ring. Operational Headache: Managing drivers can be a nightmare if you aren't organized.
How to Know if You’re Getting Ripped Off
I want you to do a simple exercise this week. Take your total sales from delivery apps and subtract the commission. Then, subtract your "COGS" (Cost of Goods Sold)—the actual cost of the food and packaging.
If what’s left doesn't comfortably cover the labor it took to cook that food plus a bit of rent, you are losing money.
I’ve seen a cafe in Paddington that was doing $5,000 a week in UberEats sales but was actually losing $200 a week once they accounted for the extra staff member they had to hire just to handle the tablets. They were busier, but they were poorer. That is a trap you must avoid.
The Importance of Direct Control
If you want to pack your restaurant on your own terms, you need a way to talk to your customers without a middleman.
When someone orders through Uber, they are Uber's customer. When someone orders through your website, they are your customer.
Imagine it’s a slow Wednesday in Brisbane. It’s raining, and nobody wants to go out. If you have a list of 1,000 local people who have ordered from you before, you can send one message: "Rainy Day Special: Free delivery and a free dessert for the next 20 orders."
Within 15 minutes, your kitchen is humming. You can't do that with UberEats. They won't let you.
Making the Transition: A Step-by-Step Plan
If you’re currently addicted to the apps but hate the fees, here is what I’d tell a mate to do:
1. Fix your website: Make sure people can actually order food on their phones easily. If they have to download a PDF menu and call you, they will just go back to Uber. 2. Update your in-store signage: Every person who walks in the door should know they get a better deal by ordering direct. 3. Run a "Direct-Only" Special: Create a meal deal that is only available through your website. Make it so good that it’s worth the extra 30 seconds it takes for the customer to type in their credit card details. 4. Watch the numbers: As your direct orders go up, you can start turning off the apps during peak times (Friday and Saturday nights). Save those precious kitchen slots for the customers who actually make you a profit.
What’s a Waste of Money?
Don't pay for "Sponsored Listings" inside the UberEats or DoorDash apps. It’s a race to the bottom. You’re already giving them 35%; don't give them another $50 or $100 a week just to show up at the top of the list.
Instead, take that same $100 and spend it on local Facebook or Instagram ads that point directly to your own ordering page. You’ll get the customer, the data, and the full profit.
The Verdict
Are delivery apps worth it?
Only if you use them as a lead-generation tool. If they are your entire business model, you don't own a restaurant—you own a kitchen that works for a tech giant in Silicon Valley.
Use them to get your food into new mouths. Then, use every trick in the book to make sure those people never use the app to find you again. Give them a reason to come to your shop, use your website, and become a loyal fan.
Running a hospitality business in Brisbane is hard enough with rising power bills and wage costs. Don't let a 35% commission be the reason you have to close your doors.
Ready to take back control of your orders?
At Local Marketing Group, we help Brisbane business owners stop relying on expensive third parties and start generating their own leads and sales. If you want a website that actually works on phones and brings in direct bookings and orders, let’s chat.