Online ordering for pizza shops, built around sizes, toppings and Friday night

Pricing and delivery for pizza shops: notes from the maths

Pizza has thin margins per item and thick margins on volume, which is why the commission question matters more here than almost anywhere else. A few practical points.

The delivery charge should cover the trip, not fund the pizza

Work out what a run actually costs: the driver’s time for the round trip, fuel, and the share of the night’s wages that run represents. Then set the delivery charge near that figure. A charge well below cost means the pizza is subsidising the driver; a charge well above it means customers choose a marketplace instead because the total looked higher on your page. Where Porter operates, the trip fee Porter quotes for that distance is your delivery cost on those orders, and it is worth checking against what you charge.

Keep the area honest

The temptation is to deliver anywhere someone will pay. The result is a pizza that arrives at 9.40 instead of 9.05, and a review. Draw the area around what one driver can reach and return from in twenty minutes on a Friday, which is smaller than it looks on a map. The delivery and pickup guide has a sensible way to test an area before you commit to it.

Pickup is your highest-margin order

No driver, no rider fee, no bag sitting in a box on a bike. A pickup order through your own page has no commission and no delivery cost; it is the best order a pizza shop can take. Make it easy: a clear ready time, a counter that knows which box is whose, and the QR on the box so the next order starts from your page too. Charging less for pickup is not something the page does on its own today; if you want to, ask us first.

Set prep times you will hit at 8pm, not 6pm

The oven does not get faster when the orders stack up. When accepting an order during the rush, give the time that is true rather than the one that sounds good. A customer told 40 minutes who receives their pizza in 38 is happy. One told 25 who waits 40 is not, and will say so. The screen lets you set the time per order precisely so that the Friday number and the Tuesday number can be different.

Deals are items, not discounts

Most pizza promotions are bundles: two mediums and a side, a family deal, a lunch pizza and drink. Model each as a single item with its choices inside, priced as the bundle. This is cleaner for the kitchen (one ticket line) and it is what the menu builder supports. Percentage-off codes and automatic free sides are not available, so build the deal into the menu rather than planning around a coupon.

Use the box

Every pizza leaves in a box that stays in someone’s kitchen for an evening. A printed panel with the QR code and the web address is the most-seen piece of marketing a pizza shop has, and it costs nothing beyond the print. Put a single sentence with it: “Order direct at [your address]; same pizza, no app in between.”

Keep the marketplaces for discovery

A marketplace listing is how someone three streets away who has never heard of you finds a pizza at 9pm. That is worth the commission on the first order. The second and third orders from the same address are what the direct page is for. Run both and keep an eye on which addresses come back through your own page; that number tells you whether the box panel is working.