Direct ordering versus the marketplaces

Pizza was ordered remotely long before delivery apps existed, which is why pizzerias tend to think about this more clearly than other formats. The apps did not create demand for pizza delivery; they inserted themselves into demand that already existed, and they charge for the position.

Commission on a new customer is not the same as on a regular

This is the distinction that makes the decision tractable. A marketplace order from someone who had never heard of you is customer acquisition, and paying for acquisition is normal. The same commission on the family who have ordered every Friday for three years is pure margin leaving the business, for a customer you already had.

So the goal is rarely to abandon the marketplaces. It is to stop paying acquisition rates on customers you have already acquired.

Moving a repeat customer to direct

• ✓Make direct ordering genuinely easier, not merely available. If your own channel is worse than the app, no amount of asking will move anybody.
• ✓Put something in the box. The moment a guest is holding your pizza is the only moment you have their attention for free.
• ✓Give a real reason to switch — a better price, a loyalty balance, something the app cannot match. Asking people to help your margins is not a reason.
• ✓Capture identity when they do order direct, so a repeat customer is recognisable rather than anonymous.

Do not fight the apps you still need

Delisting entirely is a real strategy and a risky one, because marketplace presence is discovery for people who have not chosen you yet. The common answer is to stay listed, accept the commission as an acquisition cost, and work hard on converting the second order rather than the first.

It is also worth being honest about menu pricing across channels. Charging more on the apps to offset commission is widespread; guests notice, and the platforms have their own rules about it. Decide it deliberately.

How this works in Opero

Web and QR ordering are on every Opero plan with no per-order fee on direct orders, so the direct channel does not carry a variable cost that competes with the case you are making to move customers onto it. It shares one menu spine with the counter, so prices and anything 86'd are identical without maintaining a second menu.

Loyalty is points against a guest identified by phone, which is the mechanism for making direct worth choosing — and it works across counter, kiosk and web because they are one order spine. Two honest limits: there is no scheduled order-ahead for a chosen pickup time, and marketplace order ingestion is early access with coverage varying by provider, so confirm current status with us rather than assuming.