How to reduce food delivery aggregator commissions
To reduce aggregator commissions on Glovo, Bolt Food, Wolt and Uber Eats, treat each platform as a paid acquisition channel rather than a default sales engine: price menus per platform to protect margin, convert marketplace customers into repeat direct orders through loyalty and your own app, move delivery to your own fleet where it is cheaper, optimise your menu and average order value for marketplace economics, and renegotiate your tier once volume justifies it. Commissions on the major European aggregators typically land somewhere in the 15-35% range depending on market, contract and whether the platform also handles delivery — so the goal is not to abandon them, but to stop overpaying on orders you could have won directly.
Aggregators are excellent at one thing: discovery. They put you in front of hungry strangers. The mistake most operators make is letting that rented audience stay rented — paying a discovery fee on the tenth order from a customer the platform introduced eighteen months ago. The strategies below are about keeping the discovery value while clawing back margin on everything that follows.
1. Understand what you actually pay for
Before cutting anything, read your contract line by line. A single "commission" figure usually bundles several distinct charges, and each has a different lever attached to it.
- Marketplace / listing fee — the core percentage for being discoverable and processed. This is the hardest to move without volume.
- Delivery fee — charged when the platform's couriers deliver. If you can deliver some zones yourself, this portion is negotiable or removable.
- Payment processing — card and transaction costs, sometimes folded into the headline rate.
- Promotions and sponsored placement — discounts and ad spend that operators often treat as fixed but are entirely optional.
Different plan tiers (marketplace-only vs. platform-delivered, self-delivery options, lite listings) carry very different effective rates. Many operators are on a default tier that no longer matches their volume or their ability to self-deliver. Mapping the components is the prerequisite for every tactic that follows.
2. Set per-platform pricing to protect margin
The single fastest margin fix is to stop charging the same price everywhere. If your dine-in pizza is €9 and a marketplace takes 30%, selling it for €9 on that channel hands away nearly a third of the ticket. Most aggregators allow (and many expect) a marketplace price that bakes in the commission, so the platform — not your kitchen — effectively funds the convenience.
The discipline this requires is managing several price lists at once without errors creeping in. A unified menu and pricing layer matters here: Toster lets you maintain one master menu and apply per-platform price uplifts, so a Bolt Food price and a Wolt price and your own-site price all flow from one source of truth instead of four spreadsheets that drift apart. Price up to cover the fee, keep your direct channel the cheapest, and let customers feel the difference.
3. Convert discovery into direct repeat orders
This is where the real money is. Paying 25-30% to acquire a customer can be rational; paying it again on every reorder for years is not. The plan is to capture them once and bring them home.
- Packaging inserts — a QR card in every aggregator order pointing to your own site, ideally with a first-direct-order incentive.
- Loyalty that only works direct — cashback and points redeemable on your channel give a concrete reason to switch. See our guide to building a food delivery loyalty program.
- Your own branded app and website — a frictionless direct-order experience with saved addresses and one-tap reorder. A branded ordering channel plus CRM is exactly the toolkit for shifting volume off marketplaces; we cover the trade-offs in own channel vs. aggregators.
- Better, faster service — accurate orders and reliable timing are what make someone choose you again, on any channel.
Even shifting 20-30% of repeat volume to a direct channel can transform blended margin, because those orders carry no marketplace commission at all.
4. Use your own fleet where it is cheaper
When the platform delivers, you pay for that delivery inside the commission. In dense urban zones with steady volume, running your own couriers often beats the platform's delivery component — and it gives you control over timing, packaging handling and the customer experience at the door. The catch is dispatch complexity, which is why operators historically defaulted to the platform's logistics.
A built-in dispatch and tracking layer changes that calculus. With own courier management, you can self-deliver the zones and dayparts where it pays and lean on platform delivery only where your fleet would sit idle. Run the numbers per zone — the dark kitchen unit economics breakdown shows how delivery cost per order swings the whole P&L.
5. Optimise the menu and average order value
Marketplace economics reward higher tickets, because most fixed costs (the courier trip, the packaging, the customer-service overhead) don't scale with order size. Levers that work:
- Bundles and combos sized for the marketplace shopper — meal-for-two, family boxes — lift AOV against a flat delivery cost.
- Drop low-margin, high-effort items that look fine at counter prices but bleed money once the commission is applied.
- Upsells and add-ons (sides, drinks, dips) that raise the ticket with minimal kitchen load.
- Channel-specific menus — hide items that simply don't survive the marketplace math.
6. Negotiate tiers — and prune selectively
Once you have real volume and clean data, you have leverage. Aggregators would rather keep a high-volume merchant at a slightly lower rate than lose them. Come to the table with your order counts, your acceptance and on-time rates, and a credible willingness to self-deliver or de-prioritise the platform.
Then prune. Not every platform earns its keep in every city. If Uber Eats drives strong discovery in one market but Bolt Food is marginal in another, weight your effort and promotions accordingly — or drop the laggard there. A unified order board that shows every aggregator and your direct channel side by side makes this honest: you can compare true contribution per platform instead of guessing. For a structured approach to running several marketplaces at once, see managing Glovo, Bolt and Wolt.
Be honest with yourself about the trade-off: aggregators still own the discovery layer and the first-time customer. The winning posture is hybrid — keep them for reach, relentlessly convert to direct for loyalty, and never pay full marketplace rate on an order you could have served yourself. Ready to model your own numbers? Request a demo and we'll map your channel mix.
Frequently asked questions
What is a typical food delivery aggregator commission?
It varies by market, contract and service level, but commissions on major European platforms commonly fall in the 15-35% range. Marketplace-only (you deliver) tiers sit lower; platform-delivered orders sit higher because the courier cost is bundled in. Always confirm your exact rate and its components in your own contract.
Can I charge higher prices on Glovo, Bolt Food or Wolt than in-store?
Generally yes — most platforms allow a separate marketplace price, and using a modest uplift to offset the commission is standard practice. Keep your direct channel the cheapest so customers have a reason to order from you next time, and manage the price lists from one system to avoid errors.
Is it worth running my own delivery fleet instead of the aggregator's?
In dense zones with consistent volume, self-delivery often costs less per order than the platform's bundled delivery fee and gives you control over timing and quality. In sparse or low-volume areas, platform logistics usually win. The right answer is per-zone, which is why a flexible dispatch layer beats an all-or-nothing choice.
Should I leave aggregators entirely to avoid commissions?
Rarely. Aggregators are still the best discovery engine for new customers, and leaving outright forfeits that reach. The higher-margin play is hybrid: use marketplaces to get found, then convert those customers to your own app, site and loyalty program where you pay no commission at all.