Delivery margin measures how much direct profit a delivery order leaves after deducting food cost, commissions, packaging, discounts, refunds and other operating costs linked to the channel.
Delivery margin in restaurants is the direct profit left on each delivery or collection order after deducting all the variable costs specific to that channel. It is a critical metric because delivery can greatly increase visible turnover while reducing real profit if it is not tightly controlled. A €22 order sold in the dining room and a €22 order sold through a platform do not have the same economics: delivery brings commissions, logistics fees, containers, bags, cutlery, discounts funded by the restaurant, refunds for problems, possible waste from food that does not travel well and, sometimes, more kitchen time at peak hours. That is why looking at gross sales or the number of orders is not enough.
Delivery margin answers a more useful question: of each delivery order, how much money is really left to cover fixed costs and generate profit? This margin can be calculated by order, product, family, channel, campaign, time slot or platform. It is also worth separating own delivery, takeaway and marketplaces, because each has different costs and levels of operational control. A restaurant may discover that certain dishes are excellent in the dining room but poor for delivery because they have a low margin, need expensive packaging, get returned or are promoted too heavily.
Other products, with a good ticket, that travel well and have a controlled cost, can be very profitable. Analysing delivery margin lets you design a channel-specific menu, set different prices, limit discounts, renegotiate commissions and stop the kitchen filling up with orders that turn over a lot but contribute little.
Delivery margin = Net order sale - Food cost - Commission - Packaging - Discounts - Refunds - Other variable costs
The most practical approach is to calculate the margin in euros per order and then express it as a percentage of net sales. Delivery margin % = (Delivery margin / Net sale) × 100. Net sales must exclude VAT and be adjusted for discounts. The costs included should reflect the real channel: ingredients and drinks, the platform's commission or the cost of your own delivery, containers, bags, labels, promotions, refunds and any variable cost directly linked to the order.
If an order sells for €24 excluding VAT, with €7.20 of food cost, €5.76 of commission, €0.90 of packaging and a €1.20 discount funded by the restaurant, the delivery margin is €8.94. As a percentage, 8.94 / 24 × 100 = 37.25%. That figure should be compared with the dine-in margin and with the minimum margin needed to cover overheads.
A casual dining restaurant sells a burger, chips and drink combo through an app for €18 excluding VAT. Ingredient cost is €5.10, the platform charges 25% (€4.50), packaging costs €0.75 and the restaurant funds an average promotion of €1. The delivery margin is 18 - 5.10 - 4.50 - 0.75 - 1 = €6.65, or 36.9%. In the dining room, the same combo without commission or packaging leaves €12.90 of direct margin.
The business does not need to drop delivery, but it does need to manage it: it raises the combo's app price to €19.50, removes weekend discounts, creates an exclusive product with a higher-margin drink and drops a dish that arrived in poor condition and triggered refunds. A month later orders are down 8%, but total channel margin is up because each sale makes a bigger real contribution.
Delivery margin matters because it stops you confusing growth with profitability. Many kitchens celebrate the orders that apps bring in, but those orders may be taking up production capacity, slowing down the dining room and eating into margin if commissions and promotions are too high. Measuring this margin helps you decide which dishes to sell for delivery, what prices to set by channel, when to run promotions, which platforms to keep and which time slots to limit. It also protects cash: a channel with high volume but low margin can increase purchasing, staffing and operational strain without improving the bottom line.
Cross-checked with average spend, food cost, take rate, variable cost and kitchen capacity, delivery margin lets you build a profitable channel rather than relying on apparent volume.
Zindra helps you control delivery margin by linking sales by channel, recipe costings, food cost, commissions, discounts, packaging, refunds and reporting. You can compare dine-in, terrace, takeaway and platforms, spot products that destroy margin, adjust prices by channel and make menu and promotion decisions with real data.
Tools and content to go deeper into this concept.
Food cost is the percentage of a dish's selling price that goes on the cost of its ingredients. It is the single most important indicator of how profitable your menu is.
Average spend (the average ticket) is the average amount each customer (or table) spends in your restaurant. It is a key indicator of commercial performance and of how well your menu works.
Contribution margin is the difference between a dish's selling price and its variable cost (mainly ingredients). It shows how much each dish contributes towards fixed costs and profit.
Sales mix is the actual breakdown of what a restaurant sells, by dish, category, channel or time of day. Analysing it shows not just how much you sell, but exactly what you sell and how it affects your margin.
A restaurant's variable costs are the expenses that change directly or proportionally with the level of sales or production, such as ingredients, drinks, delivery commissions or consumables used per service.
Kitchen production capacity measures how many portions, dishes or preparations a kitchen can produce in a given period with the resources available: staff, equipment, space, mise en place and ingredients.
Delivery take rate is the percentage of each order that the platform or sales channel keeps in the form of commission, service fees, logistics costs or marketing charges.
Cost per service measures how much it costs to open and run a specific restaurant shift, including staff, product consumed, utilities and other expenses directly linked to that service.
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