Delivery app commissions: compare marketplace and direct orders

Short answer: compare the actual contribution per order after all costs. Use the rate in your own aggregator agreement. Direct sales also have costs: payment processing, delivery, discounts, support, customer acquisition and app development.

Calculate marketplace costs from your contract

Terms vary by agreement and service model. Glovo's Kazakhstan page describes platform courier delivery, pickup and merchant delivery, but does not state one universal partner rate. Check your own offer and contract.

Commission expense = completed orders × average basket × contract rate. Promotions, merchant-funded discounts, refunds and delivery are separate line items.

Illustration only, not a platform rate: 1,000 orders × 5,000 ₸ average basket × an assumed 25% = 1,250,000 ₸ commission for the month. Replace 25% with your contract rate. This is not the net saving from switching to direct sales.

Compare direct orders fairly

Subtract each direct order's variable costs: payment fee, discount or reward, delivery, packaging, handling and acquisition. Multiply the remaining contribution by the orders that actually move to your channel, then subtract fixed app, maintenance and promotion costs.

Do not assume every marketplace customer will follow you; some demand may depend on its storefront or delivery service. Measure the transition rate in a limited test.

Break-even and payback

Break-even order count = fixed direct-channel costs for a period ÷ contribution from one additional direct order. To estimate app-development payback, include the one-time development budget and all recurring costs for the chosen period. If per-order contribution is not positive, more volume will not fix the economics.

This is a decision model, not a promise of savings or a payback date. Check it against several months of reports, including cancellations, refunds, repeat orders and delivery costs.

What data to collect

• contract rates and every deduction for each service;
• completed, cancelled and refunded orders;
• average basket and variable order cost;
• who pays for delivery, promotion and discounts;
• app, payment, support and direct-logistics costs.

Kaspi Pay lists mobile POS, QR, remote invoice and payment-link options. These are ways to accept payments; they do not by themselves provide delivery, customer acquisition or savings.