Why dine-in margin thinking misleads on delivery
Dine-in margin is usually just revenue minus cost of goods. Delivery has at least two more deductions that dine-in does not: platform commission and often extra packaging. Skip either one in your mental math and your real margin is thinner than what you believe it is.
A restaurant can be growing delivery sales month over month and still be making less profit than it looks like, because the growth in orders came with the same thin, under-counted margin on each one.
The full formula
Net profit per order = order value − cost of goods − commission − packaging − promotion cost (if any).
Margin percentage = net profit per order ÷ order value.
| Line item | Amount | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Order value | ฿250 | ฿250 |
| Cost of goods | -฿90 | ฿160 |
| Commission (22%) | -฿55 | ฿105 |
| Packaging | -฿8 | ฿97 |
| Net profit | ฿97 (38.8%) |
From 250 THB order to 97 THB profit
฿250
Order value
฿153
Total deducted (COGS, commission, packaging)
฿97
Net profit
38.8%
Margin
Get help tracking your real delivery margin
Worked example
An order is worth 250 THB. Cost of goods is 90 THB. Commission at 22% of 250 THB is 55 THB. Packaging is 8 THB. There is no active promotion on this order.
Net profit = 250 − 90 − 55 − 8 = 97 THB. Margin = 97 ÷ 250 = 38.8%.
Run this same calculation on an order where a discount promotion applied, and the margin often drops well below what it looks like on the sales report, because the promotion cost is easy to forget when eyeballing totals.