Direct ordering means a customer places an order with your restaurant through a channel you own, such as your WhatsApp number, your own store page or website, or a phone call, instead of through a food delivery app. You receive the order, you take the payment or the cash, you arrange delivery or pickup, and you keep the customer's name and number. No commission is deducted from the order value, though you may pay a subscription or a flat per-order fee to the software that runs the channel.
Why it matters
Direct orders are the highest-margin orders a food business gets. On a delivery app you give up 18 to 30 percent of order value plus GST and charges; on a direct order you give up only payment gateway charges and whatever your ordering software costs, usually a few rupees per order or a fixed monthly fee. You also own the customer relationship: you can message a repeat customer about a new menu, and nobody shows them a competitor's ad while they order from you. The pillar post on direct ordering as the highest-margin channel goes deeper on the economics and the trade-offs, including delivery.
Example
A biryani outlet in Lucknow does 900 orders a month at an average of ₹450. If all of them come through a delivery app at 25 percent commission, about ₹1.01 lakh a month goes in commission before GST on it. If 300 of those orders move to direct ordering on WhatsApp, commission on those falls to zero. What replaces it is the delivery cost, say ₹40 per order with a hyperlocal courier partner or your own rider, and the software fee. On 300 orders that is ₹12,000 of delivery and a few thousand rupees of software, against ₹33,750 of commission saved. The gap widens as more orders move, and those 300 customers are now in your own list.
How to tell customers about the switch is covered in order-direct campaigns.
Tezzu is built for direct ordering: customers order on your own WhatsApp number or your free store page, you pay a flat ₹10 per order, and there is no commission.