The Marketplace Tax

In practice

Restaurant marketplaces and delivery aggregators charge a commission on every order placed through their platform, deducted before the restaurant receives payment. Unlike a fixed monthly fee, this commission scales with revenue: it is calculated as a percentage of each order's value, so it grows in step with sales rather than staying flat. Commission rates commonly range from roughly 15% to 30% or higher, depending on the service tier (pickup typically carries a lower rate than delivery) and whether the restaurant has opted into additional marketing or promotional placement. Because the commission is taken off gross order value — sometimes including delivery or packaging fees passed through the platform — it can consume a large share of an order's contribution margin before food cost, packaging, and labor are even considered.

Formula

Net receipt = Order value × (1 − commission rate)

For an order worth €20 at a 30% commission rate: commission = €20 × 0.30 = €6.00. Net receipt = €20 − €6.00 = €14.00. Food cost, packaging, and any delivery-related variable costs still have to come out of that €14.00.

Example

A restaurant processes €12,000 of monthly sales through a marketplace. At a 28% delivery commission, the platform retains €12,000 × 0.28 = €3,360, leaving the restaurant €12,000 − €3,360 = €8,640. If the same €12,000 in sales instead ran through a 15% pickup commission tier, the platform would retain €12,000 × 0.15 = €1,800, leaving €12,000 − €1,800 = €10,200. The gap between the two tiers — €10,200 − €8,640 = €1,560 — is money the restaurant keeps or loses on identical sales, purely as a function of which commission tier the order falls into.

How to use it

The commission rate should be built into menu pricing and channel decisions before orders start flowing, not discovered afterward. Practical applications include: calculating net receipt per order type before deciding whether an item is viable at marketplace prices; comparing delivery and pickup commission tiers when configuring listings; and treating commission as a variable cost when computing contribution margin per channel, so that channel profitability — not just channel volume — drives where marketing effort goes.

What affects it

• Service tier: pickup commissions are typically lower than delivery commissions on the same platform.
• Average order value: a fixed commission percentage produces a larger absolute deduction as order size grows.
• Promotional or premium placement: opting into visibility boosts often raises the commission rate.
• Negotiated volume terms: higher-volume accounts can sometimes secure reduced rates.
• Add-on fees: payment processing or marketing fees stacked on top of the base commission increase the total deduction.
• Menu pricing strategy: markups applied specifically to marketplace listings can offset part of the commission's impact on margin.