What Your Restaurant Online Ordering Tool Really Costs You

Online ordering is now part of how restaurants in the UK operate day to day. It is no longer an add-on or a temporary shift. For many businesses, it now represents a meaningful share of revenue, a core guest touchpoint, and increasingly, a complex cost centre.

Online ordering is full of promise. More convenience, a wider reach, and extra revenue coming in. But it also means new fees, new ways of working, and more pressure on margins that don't have much room to give. The bigger this channel gets, the more that tension becomes something you're managing every single day.

So the real question isn't whether online ordering is worth having. It's what it's really costing you when you factor everything in.

TL;DR: Online ordering can drive revenue, but it also introduces new costs across fees, operations, and control. As the channel grows, those costs scale with it, and profitability depends on how well your business is set up to absorb them.

The shift from revenue driver to cost structure

The growth of online ordering is well established. Off-premise dining is now embedded in how guests interact with restaurants, and operators are building around it rather than treating it as a side channel.

Recent UK data reflects how significant that shift has become. Deliveries alone accounted for 13.4p of every £1 spent with restaurants in late 2025, highlighting how meaningful the channel has become within the overall revenue mix.

In the UK, that shift is happening alongside sustained economic pressure. According to Toast’s Voice of the UK Restaurant Industry 2025 report, 80% of operators say inflation is a challenge, while 48% cite profitability as their biggest concern. At the same time, 69% expect to increase their technology spend over the next 12 months.

That combination matters. It means online ordering is expanding at the exact moment operators are under the most pressure to protect margins.

The result is a subtle but important reframing. Online ordering is no longer just about generating more sales. It is about how those sales behave once they enter your operation.

The visible costs are only the starting point

When operators think about the cost of online ordering, they tend to start with platform fees. This is the most obvious layer, and it is often the easiest to quantify.

Third-party marketplaces typically take a percentage of each order, often somewhere between 20 and 30% depending on how much visibility or support you opt into. When online ordering is a smaller part of your business, that cost can feel relatively contained. But as volume grows, so does the share of revenue leaving the business.

What’s less obvious is how those fees sit alongside everything else you’re already paying for. Labour, food costs, rent, and utilities don’t go away when an order comes in digitally. In many cases, they increase, whether that’s packaging, more complex prep, or added pressure during peak service.

This is where the dynamic shifts. A channel that looks like it’s driving growth can start to squeeze margins if it isn’t set up carefully. It’s often the point where you see revenue climbing, but the contribution to profit not keeping pace.

The operational cost behind the transaction

The second layer of cost is operational. This is where online ordering begins to affect how your restaurant runs, not just how it sells.

Every online order adds another moving part to the kitchen. Timing becomes harder to manage, especially when dine-in and off-premise demand peak at the same time. Packaging adds extra steps. And because orders are coming in digitally, the handoff between front and back of house needs to be tighter to avoid things slipping through.

You won’t always see this directly on a P&L, but you’ll feel it in service. Ticket times stretch, mistakes become more likely, and teams feel the pressure more during busy periods.

That pressure is even more noticeable when you’re already short-staffed, which many UK operators are. In that context, online ordering isn’t just bringing in more revenue. It’s adding another layer of demand that the operation has to carry.

Some teams simplify their menus. Others set up dedicated prep flows for off-premise orders. And many are investing in systems that reduce the back-and-forth and keep everything connected.

What becomes clear over time is this. The cost isn’t just the platform fee. It’s how much pressure your operation can absorb without slowing down.

The hidden cost of lost control

One of the less obvious costs of online ordering comes down to control.

When orders come through external platforms, parts of the guest relationship sit outside your direct view. Customer data, ordering habits, and repeat behaviour are often held within the platform rather than your own systems.

That creates a limitation over time. It becomes harder to build direct relationships, tailor communication, or bring guests back on your own terms without relying on the same channel that introduced them.

This is where growth starts to shift. New customers may still come in, but retention becomes more dependent on external platforms than your own operation.

For many operators, this is a trade-off rather than a problem. These platforms can expand reach and drive discovery, especially in competitive markets. The challenge is deciding how long that relationship stays there.

That’s why the conversation often turns to balance. Using external channels to bring guests in, while building stronger direct ordering pathways that bring them back.

The pricing tension operators are navigating

The cost of online ordering does not sit in isolation. It feeds directly into pricing decisions, which are already under pressure in the UK market.

Consumer sensitivity to price has increased. According to the Toast Consumer Preferences Survey 2025, 17% of UK consumers say price is the primary influence on their restaurant choice, with a further 46% saying it is quite influential. Only 10% say it has little or no bearing on where they eat.

At the same time, 87% of diners say they notice price changes on restaurant menus at least sometimes (23.5% say often and 63.5% say sometimes) indicating a heightened awareness of how menus are shifting.

This creates a clear tension. If online ordering introduces additional costs, those costs have to be absorbed somewhere. Increasing menu prices can protect margins, but it risks affecting demand.

Operators are responding in different ways. Some adjust pricing across channels, reflecting the cost structure of each. Others focus on menu engineering, prioritising items that travel well and maintain margin. Many are tightening cost control across the business to offset the impact.

What is consistent is that pricing is no longer a simple lever. It is part of a broader system that includes channel mix, operational efficiency, and guest expectations.

What the cost of online ordering really represents

The cost of online ordering isn't one simple number. It's financial, operational, and strategic, and those things all feed into each other.

For UK operators already dealing with inflation, labour pressures, and shifting guest expectations, those costs are getting harder to ignore.

The restaurants handling it best aren't stepping back from online ordering. They're rethinking how it fits into their business. Treating it as infrastructure rather than an add-on. Building operations that can handle demand without the friction. And making smarter, more deliberate decisions about where cost sits and what they get back for it.

Online ordering isn't going anywhere. The question is how much control you have over what it costs you.

FAQ

How much do third-party delivery platforms charge restaurants?

Most platforms charge a commission on each order, typically ranging from 20% to 30% depending on visibility and services. For example, Uber Eats uses a flexible commission model, allowing restaurants to choose lower fees for collection or self-delivery, or higher rates, up to around 30%, for full marketplace exposure and delivery support.

Is online ordering profitable for restaurants?

It can be, but profitability depends on how well costs are managed. If fees, operational complexity, and pricing aren’t aligned, increased order volume doesn’t always translate into higher profit.

How does online ordering impact restaurant operations?

Online orders add complexity to kitchen workflows, especially during peak periods. They require additional prep, packaging, and coordination, which can slow service and increase pressure on staff.

How can restaurants reduce the cost of online ordering?

Many operators focus on improving efficiency and shifting more orders to direct channels. This might include simplifying menus, refining workflows, or using systems that connect ordering directly to kitchen operations to reduce friction.