Nasr Khan

09 Channels

Marketplace vs direct calculator

What do we save by moving repeat customers off the marketplace, and how big a direct discount can we afford?

For CEOs and CFOs of restaurants, hotels and brands that sell through marketplaces. Takes about three minutes.

Your numbers

1Your business

Choosing one fills in its typical commission and channel numbers. Order values fill in only for US dollars. Change any of them.

$

2Your direct channel
$

$

Ordering or booking software, marketing to past customers, staff time.

3The shift

Direct customers share their contact details, so you can bring them back. Leave at 0 if unsure.

The answer

$0

More kept a year, after channel costs

0%

Largest direct discount you can offer

Extra kept a year, by share of repeat orders moved

Take the result with you

A PDF report with your inputs, results, charts and method. Or the same as plain text for an email.

How this tool works

What it does

It compares what you keep from one order on a marketplace with the same order taken direct. Then it scales that to the repeat customers you could move, after the cost of running your own channel.

Marketplaces earn their commission when they bring you a customer you'd never have found. Repeat customers already know you. Those are the orders this tool looks at.

What you enter

  • Your business. Orders per month through the marketplace, average order value and the commission you pay.
  • Your direct channel. Card and software fees, any flat fee per order, and the monthly cost to run it.
  • The shift. The share of marketplace orders from repeat customers, how many of those you can move, the discount you'd offer, and any extra orders from being able to contact them.

What you get

  • Two receipts: the same order on the marketplace and direct, and what you keep from each.
  • Extra kept a year at your chosen shift, after the direct channel's running cost.
  • The largest discount before a direct order earns less than a marketplace order.
  • The chart: how the annual gain grows as you move more repeat orders, and where it starts covering the running cost.

The maths, assumptions and sources

Kept on the marketplace = order value × (1 − commission). Kept direct = order value × (1 − discount) × (1 − fees) − flat fee. Largest discount = 1 − (marketplace kept + flat fee) ÷ (order value × (1 − fees)). "Kept" means revenue after channel costs, before the cost of the food or the room. Extra orders from direct contact are counted at the direct amount kept. The tool doesn't model marketplace ranking changes or delivery costs you may take on when you go direct.

  • Delivery commissions: DoorDash plans at 15%, 25% and 30% (April 2021).
  • Hotel booking sites: Rauch, R. (September 2026). What OTAs Actually Cost in 2026. Hotel Online. Commissions run 15 to 25% of the room rate. A direct booking costs about $3 to $7 per room night after card fees and loyalty perks.
  • The restaurant example uses a $1 flat fee per order, as charged by one ordering service that places orders from inside an AI assistant (reported by The Verge, October 2026).
See answer