Why Canadian Restaurants Are Losing 30% of Online Orders to Third-Party Apps (And How to Fix It)

Canadian independent restaurants are losing nearly a third of every online order to third-party platforms like Uber Eats and DoorDash, where commission rates routinely climb to 20–30%—and up to 30% on premium tiers—before food, labour, or packaging costs are even counted . On a $40 order, that means the platform pockets roughly $12, leaving the restaurant with about $28 to cover ingredients, staff, rent, and taxes . The deeper loss, however, is not just margin: it is the customer relationship itself. When an order comes through an app, the restaurant often never sees the customer's name, email, or order history, making it impossible to bring them back directly . The fix is not to abandon the apps overnight—they still serve as a discovery channel for first-time customers—but to shift repeat business toward a direct ordering channel you control. That means putting your own ordering link front and centre on your website, Google Business Profile, and social media, and giving customers a tangible reason to use it: loyalty points, exclusive offers, or faster service that the apps cannot replicate . For Canadian operators, the margin pressure is acute enough that treating third-party platforms as a permanent primary channel is no longer sustainable; the restaurants that survive will be those that use the apps to acquire customers and then bring them home.