Why Having Your Own Restaurant App Is Your Secret Weapon

The food delivery market is booming, but for many restaurants, success feels bittersweet. Portals like Wolt, Lieferando, or Uber Eats generate orders but charge hefty commission fees of often 15% to 30% per order. In the end, there is hardly any profit margin left from the sales. Anyone who wants to be economically successful in the long term must free themselves from this dependency. The solution: **Your own restaurant app**.

The Invisible Costs of Third-Party Delivery Portals

Besides the pure commission fees, restaurants lose something even more valuable on large portals: **the direct relationship with their guests**. When a guest orders from you through a portal, the customer database belongs to the portal, not to you. You cannot contact this guest directly, send them offers, or track who your most loyal customers are. Worse still: right next to your restaurant on the portal, competitors are displayed to the customer with heavy discounts.

"Outsourcing your customers to third-party portals is like paying rent for your own loyal guests. Having your own app brings these customers back where they belong: to your business."

The Unbeatable Advantages of Having Your Own Restaurant App

Having your own app, set up for your restaurant using the Checktik system, changes the rules of the game fundamentally:

1. 0% Commission, 100% Profit

With Checktik, astronomical portal costs are a thing of the past. The system is completely free to set up, and there is only an extremely fair fee of just 1% per order. This means that almost the entire revenue from each delivery or pickup order remains directly in your cash register. Calculate that over a year – it is often a five-figure sum.

2. Push Notifications for Immediate Marketing

Are you experiencing low capacity on a rainy Tuesday afternoon? With your own app, you can send a push notification directly to your customers' smartphone screens: "Today only: Free drink with every burger!" Push notifications have an open rate of over 90%, making them ten times more effective than emails or social media posts.

3. Data Ownership and Target Actions

You find out exactly who is ordering from you, what your customers' favorite dishes are, and when they prefer to order. With this data, you can set up personalized discounts (e.g. a birthday gift) and reactivate customers who haven't ordered for a while with targeted promotions.

4. Strengthening Your Own Brand

An icon with your restaurant logo on your customers' smartphones is the best advertisement possible. It reminds customers of your brand daily. Your app offers a tailored, brand-loyal ordering experience that builds trust and stands out from the crowd.

How to Direct Guests into Your App

Transitioning guests from third-party portals to your own app is easier than you think. Successful restaurants use these tactics:

• Flyer Campaign: Add an attractive coupon to every delivery via third-party portals (e.g. "10% off your first order using our new app").
• QR Codes On-Site: Place signs on tables and at the checkout: "Order directly via our app and collect loyalty points."
• Exclusive Dishes: Offer certain specials or lunch deals exclusively in your own app.

Conclusion: Securing Your Independence

Delivery portals can serve as an entry point to reach new customers. However, the goal should always be to transfer these new customers to your own app. By doing so, you secure significantly higher margins and build a long-term, crisis-proof loyal customer base. Having your own app is no longer a thing of the future – with Checktik, it is affordable for every restaurant owner and can be realized in just a few steps.