What it means
A restaurant can be busy with orders yet depend heavily on a single app. Aggregator share puts a number on that channel mix.
It is a concentration measure, not a direct measure of profit. Start by choosing the scope and the unit.
If the denominator is all restaurant sales, the result reflects the entire business, while a denominator of online orders only gives a share of online activity that will often be higher. Revenue share weights large baskets more heavily, whereas order share counts every order equally, so a catering business may have a low revenue share but many small app orders.
Tag each order by channel and reconcile the tagged totals to the accounting period before quoting a percentage. Keep the numerator and denominator on the same basis, since mixing a net numerator, after commission, with gross total sales understates platform dependence, so report platform fees on their own line.
Remove refunded and cancelled transactions the same way in both figures, and check how tax, tips and delivery charges enter each channel's sales. A high share brings real exposure to a platform's search ranking, fee changes or service interruptions, along with less access to the customer relationship than direct ordering gives.
The size of that risk depends on contract terms and the alternatives available. Platforms also provide discovery, payment and logistics, and a direct channel carries its own marketing, payment, software, support and delivery costs, so treat those benefits as real rather than assuming every fee is waste.
A falling share is not automatically progress, since it can fall because marketplace sales collapsed while dine-in stayed flat. Review absolute sales, repeat business and customer satisfaction alongside the percentage.
Break out each aggregator too, recording gross sales, fees and contribution per channel in a simple monthly table, because a 40% total spread across four services is a different concentration from 40% through one service. Margin can differ by basket and channel, because packaging, delivery, promotions and kitchen labour change with the order type.
Compare contribution after variable channel costs rather than assuming direct sales always earn more. The practical aim is a resilient channel mix with worthwhile order economics, and the share shows where demand comes from without telling the owner which channel to close.
In practice
Real-world examples.
Example
A cafe records $800,000 of gross delivered-app sales and $2,000,000 of total gross sales in the same twelve months. Its aggregator revenue share is therefore 40%. The owner tags each order by source, so the figure can be reproduced from the till data at month end.
Example
A restaurant group earns 30% of its sales through apps, but one branch earns 65% that way. The group average hides that branch's much greater exposure to app downtime and fee changes. The regional manager reviews site-level shares alongside the group total before approving any new delivery contract. The branch's manager has since agreed a lower-fee plan with its busiest platform.
Example
A restaurant reduces its app share from 50% to 42%, yet app sales fall and direct sales do not grow. The lower share looks like progress on a dashboard but represents less total revenue. The owner checks overall contribution before calling the lower share an improvement.
Formula
Calculation
Aggregator revenue share = eligible third-party marketplace sales / eligible total sales x 100. Example: 800,000 / 2,000,000 x 100 = 40%. Use the same period, gross-or-net convention, tax treatment and cancellation rules in both figures. Order share is a separate calculation using order counts.Case study
Seen in the real world.
This entirely fictional case follows Meadow Kitchen, an invented restaurant group. App orders accounted for 58% of gross sales, but management had never separated fees and packaging by channel. It considered moving every customer to its own site. The team instead tagged orders by source, measured contribution after variable costs and improved direct collection for regular customers. App orders remained useful for discovery, and direct orders from loyal diners grew as a share of the mix.
The group tracked absolute profit and repeat orders as well as channel share, and its figures and outcomes are invented. The group also began a quarterly review of commission rates by platform, comparing each fee with the contribution its orders actually produced. Meadow Kitchen then renegotiated one platform's commission on its busiest sites, which lifted contribution from app orders without any loss of volume. The review became a standing agenda item for the operations team.
Watch out
Common mistakes.
- Dividing net app remittances after commission by gross sales from every other channel.
- Assuming that a lower share means more profit without checking absolute sales and channel costs.
- Using a group average without checking dependence on one platform at individual sites.
Questions
People also ask.
Is aggregator share measured by sales or orders?
Either can be useful, but label them separately. Sales share weights basket values; order share counts transactions.
Does a high share always mean bad economics?
No. A platform may bring profitable new demand. Check fees, contribution and the value of that customer relationship.
What should a restaurant review alongside the share?
Absolute sales, variable channel costs, repeat orders and exposure to each individual marketplace.
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