The zero-commission model and why it works

Every food delivery app takes 25–35%. We charge a flat monthly subscription and zero commission. Here's the math.

By Osama Khan

The commission tax

A typical restaurant order on FoodPanda or Cheetay looks like this: customer pays Rs. 1,000. Restaurant receives Rs. 650–750. That's a 25–35% tax on every order, forever.

Restaurants put up with it because they don't see an alternative. They think it's the cost of being online. It isn't.

Subscription vs commission — the breakeven

At Rs. 4,999/month, SmartRestro breaks even for a restaurant doing just 17 orders/month at an average order value of Rs. 1,000 (assuming a 30% aggregator commission).

Most restaurants doing online ordering are at 100+ orders/month. They're paying Rs. 30,000+/month to aggregators when they could pay Rs. 5,000 to us and keep the rest.

Why aggregators charge so much

They have to. Their unit economics need it: paying riders, paying for ads, supporting their own apps, marketing. The commission isn't greed — it's structural.

Our model is different. We don't run riders. We don't run ads for the restaurant. We just provide the software. So we can charge a small flat fee and still make a profit.

The trade-off

The honest one: aggregators bring you customers. We don't. You have to bring your own customers — via Instagram, walk-ins, word-of-mouth.

For new restaurants with zero brand: aggregators make sense in year one. For established restaurants with regulars: we save them tens of thousands a month.

Math on a real restaurant

A Karachi restaurant doing 200 orders/month at Rs. 1,200 AOV:

• Aggregator: Rs. 240,000 revenue × 30% = Rs. 72,000/month in commissions
• SmartRestro: Rs. 4,999/month subscription. Saves them **Rs. 67,000/month**.

That's the entire cost of one staff member. Or new equipment. Or rent for a second location.

Why we don't change this

Some advisors tell us to "add a small transaction fee — just 2–3%". We won't. The promise is the moat. The day we add a transaction fee is the day a competitor with zero commission eats our market share.