Stop paying delivery app commissions
Every order that comes through a delivery app costs you twice. Once in the commission taken off the top. Again in the customer you never get to keep. You make the food, you box it, you hand it off. The app keeps the customer's name, number, and order history.
The answer is not quitting the apps. They put your menu in front of people who have never heard of you, and that has value. The answer is structural: build an ordering channel you own, treat the apps as a discovery tool, and move your regulars to direct.
This is the exact system ClickMingo runs for restaurants — a direct ordering site wired into Clover POS, a customer database the restaurant owns, and text and email campaigns that shift repeat orders off the apps. At Gigi's New York Style Pizza in Long Branch, the ordering and the customer list run on this system today; the Sea Bright location has its own separate site and database.
Why delivery app orders bleed margin
Delivery apps charge a commission on every order that moves through their marketplace. Not once — on every order, forever. A regular who orders from you every week through an app pays that toll every week, and so do you. Your food cost, labor, and rent stay the same. The commission comes straight out of whatever margin is left.
The second cost is quieter. The customer who ordered belongs to the app, not to you. You do not get their phone number or their email. You cannot invite them back, tell them about a special, or reach out when they go quiet. The app keeps that relationship — and its marketplace puts your competitors one scroll away.
Own the ordering channel
The fix starts with a direct ordering channel: your own website, your own menu, your own checkout. For Clover restaurants, we wire online orders straight into the Clover POS. An order placed on your site shows up in the same flow as a phone order or a walk-in. No extra tablet. No re-keying tickets during a rush.
Direct orders carry no marketplace commission. You still pay standard card processing, the same as any counter transaction — but nobody takes a percentage of the order for delivering a customer you already had. ClickMingo takes no commission either. Not on any order, ever. You pay a flat monthly rate and the orders are yours.
Keep the apps for discovery only
Delivery apps do one thing well: they put your menu in front of strangers. Treat them like paid advertising, because that is what the commission really is — an acquisition cost. Paying it once to meet a new customer can be a fair trade. Paying it on every order from a regular you already won is not.
The play is simple. Let the apps bring in first-time customers. Then make sure the second order happens on your channel. A menu insert in the bag, a sign at the counter, a first-order offer on your own site — every touchpoint points to direct ordering. The apps stay on. They just stop owning your regulars.
Capture every customer into a list you own
Every direct order captures a name, a phone number, an email, and an order history — into a customer database the restaurant owns outright. Not rented from a platform. Not held by a marketplace. If you ever leave ClickMingo, the list leaves with you. That list is the asset the apps will never hand over.
Sign-ups do not stop at checkout. A missed-call text-back turns the calls you could not answer into captured contacts. In-store sign-up offers do the same for walk-ins. The goal is blunt: every person who eats your food should end up in your database, whatever door they came through.
Shift regulars to direct with text and email
A list only makes money when you work it. Automated text campaigns push promos to the people most likely to act on them — a Tuesday special, a game-day deal, a new menu item — with a link that lands on your ordering page, not an app. Automated email does the slower work: menus, news, reasons to come back.
Win-back campaigns handle the customers who go quiet. When someone has not ordered in a while, the system reaches out automatically with a reason to return. On a marketplace app, that lapsed customer just gets shown someone else's pizza. On your list, they get a message from you.
Live at Gigi's in Long Branch and Sea Bright
Gigi's New York Style Pizza in Long Branch runs on this system: a custom website with commission-free online ordering wired into their Clover POS, and a customer list the restaurant owns. Orders placed on the site land in the same POS workflow the counter uses. No middleman between the customer and the kitchen.
When Gigi's opened a second location in Sea Bright, we built it a separate site with its own database — two stores, two sites, both owned. In the same town, Sea Bright Bagels takes direct orders through its own site and captures customer sign-ups the same way. These are working restaurants running on channels they own, today.
What it costs and what you own
Restaurant ordering is part of our standard five-engine system — website, CRM, SEO, text messaging, and email — with Clover integration added for restaurants. See our restaurant system page for the full breakdown. Monthly plans carry a 12-month agreement.
Ownership is not fine print. You own the domain, the website, and the customer list outright. We never take a commission on your orders — that is the entire point of the system. The only recurring cost is a flat monthly rate you can see coming.
- Growth: $1,995 setup + $399/mo
- Full System: $3,500 setup + $599/mo
- Custom: talk to us
Questions
Straight answers
No. Direct ordering runs alongside the apps, not instead of them. The apps stay on as a discovery channel where new customers find you. The direct channel — your own website wired into your POS — is where repeat orders go. The logic is simple: an app can introduce a customer once, but the second order should land commission-free on the restaurant's own site.
ClickMingo builds the restaurant's website with online ordering wired directly into Clover. When a customer orders on the site, the order flows into the same Clover workflow the counter uses — no separate tablet, no manual re-entry. The restaurant keeps one system for walk-ins, phone orders, and web orders. Gigi's New York Style Pizza runs this setup at its Long Branch location.
It means no percentage of any order goes to a marketplace or to ClickMingo. Delivery apps charge a commission on every order placed through their platform. On a direct ordering site, that charge does not exist — the restaurant pays standard card processing, the same as a counter sale, plus a flat monthly rate for the system. ClickMingo never takes a commission on client orders, on any plan.
The restaurant does, outright. With ClickMingo, the client owns the domain, the website, and the customer database — every name, phone number, and email captured through direct orders and sign-ups. That is the opposite of a delivery app, where the platform keeps the customer data and the restaurant never sees it. If a client ever leaves, the site and the list go with them.
By capturing contacts and giving people a reason to switch. Every direct order and sign-up adds a customer to the restaurant's own database. Automated text messages push promos with a link to the restaurant's ordering page. Automated emails do the same over a longer arc, and win-back campaigns reach out when a customer goes quiet. In-store signs and bag inserts point app customers to the direct channel for their next order.
Two standard tiers. Growth is $1,995 setup plus $399 a month. Full System is $3,500 setup plus $599 a month. Custom builds are priced by conversation. Monthly plans carry a 12-month agreement, and no plan ever includes a commission on orders. To talk through which tier fits your restaurant, call or text 908-317-3227 or email jorgeramirez76@gmail.com.
Keep the margin on your own orders
Call or text 908-317-3227 or email jorgeramirez76@gmail.com. Tell us your POS and your current app mix, and we'll tell you exactly what direct ordering takes.