An Istanbul restaurant owner asked a simple question in January 2026: "Yemeksepeti charges me 25% commission on every order. Why should my $5 dish on the table cost the same online?" Three months later he raised online prices by 15%. The results surprised even him.
The commission stack: what you actually lose
Marketplaces aren't shy about their cut. DoorDash 30%, Uber Eats 28%, Grubhub 25% in the US; Yemeksepeti 25%, Getir 22%, Trendyol Yemek 20% in Turkey. Layer on VAT/sales tax, card processing 1.5%, and packaging cost — your net on a $20 order shrinks to about $10.60. The same dish served on a table nets you $15.60.
Treating delivery as "side income" without pricing in this gap is a slow bleed. You have two honest options: accept the gap as a customer acquisition cost, or price differently per channel. A third option — pretending the gap doesn't exist — destroys margin.
The Üsküdar case: what 90 days of data showed
The restaurant lifted menu prices 15% on Yemeksepeti and Getir, 12% on Trendyol Yemek in February 2026. January's average Yemeksepeti basket was 165₺ versus 142₺ on the table. Order count dipped 8% in week one, normalized by week three, and ran 3% above pre-increase by week five.
The bigger surprise: online basket average climbed to 189₺ post-increase. The Yemeksepeti customer is already in "I'm paying for couch comfort" mode — price sensitivity sits roughly 30% below dine-in customers. Industry surveys back this up: convenience-buyers are inelastic within a 10-20% band.
Handling the objection at the table
The dreaded moment: a customer pulls out their phone mid-meal, sees a 15% gap, and asks. The fix is transparency. The Üsküdar restaurant added a single line on page one of the printed menu: "Delivery platforms charge our restaurant 20-25% commission. Our dine-in prices don't reflect that markup."
Month one: 4 objections. Month two: 1. Month three onward: zero. Some guests actually said "you're right, eating in is the better deal" and started visiting more often — an unexpected cross-channel win.
FAQ
Should I upload a separate menu to delivery apps? Yes. Every major platform supports per-channel pricing. Sharing one file is the most common reason restaurants under-price online.
How do I calculate the markup? Start with: (commission + tax + packaging) / (1 - commission). For 25% commission, the break-even markup is roughly 15-18%.
What about QR-menu pricing? No markup needed. QR menus are table service with zero platform fee. Delivery customers don't see your QR code anyway — they're two different worlds.
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