Restaurant Lexicon

Average Order Value is the average value of an order, calculated as revenue divided by the number of orders.

Cart abandonment happens when a guest adds items to a cart but leaves the ordering process before payment.

Contribution margin is the amount left from an order after variable costs, which then contributes to covering fixed costs.

Controlled Capacity means accepting and managing orders according to the real capacity of the kitchen and delivery operation, so promises can still be kept at peak times.

A direct guest relationship exists when a restaurant enables orders and repeat orders through its own channel, rather than giving the connection to a marketplace.

The Direct-Channel Principle means making a restaurant’s own ordering page the preferred route for known guests, where the order, margin and communication remain with the restaurant.

A frictionless checkout is an order completion with no unnecessary steps, waiting or distractions — the less friction, the higher the conversion.

Margin Reclamation is the deliberate recovery of contribution margin lost to delivery marketplaces, back onto your own direct channels.

The order conversion rate is the share of visits to an ordering page that end in a completed order — the clearest measure of how well your checkout converts.

The Marketplace Tax is the gap between a delivery marketplace's advertised commission and the true total cost of an order.

Variable costs are costs created by each individual order, such as food cost, packaging, payment fees or marketplace commissions.