Talabat commission vs own ordering: the monthly JOD maths

What should you put into the commission calculation?

For Talabat commission in Jordan, 25 to 30 percent is a commonly quoted planning range. Your signed agreement determines your rate and the sales amount it applies to. To calculate the full channel cost, you also need the other deductions on your statement.

Start with the commissionable sales on your statement. Check how discounts, refunds and tax affect that base. Then separate commission from other deductions, including any restaurant-funded campaigns or advertising.

Reconcile the difference between gross sales and the bank deposit before assigning costs to each line.

Assume a branch handles 120 orders daily across all channels, including 60 through Talabat, and trades for 30 days. For this calculation, each Talabat order contributes 8 JOD to the commissionable sales base. That gives 1,800 Talabat orders and 14,400 JOD of monthly commissionable sales.

Food cost, wages and other deductions still have to come out of the last row. Account for taxes on fees separately, using the treatment shown on your actual invoices.

What does own ordering cost instead?

With own ordering, you arrange customer acquisition and delivery. Subtract the customer's delivery payment from the courier bill to find what the restaurant pays. Include payment processing, direct-channel promotions and the extra work of handling delivery problems. Calculate pickup separately because it has no delivery trip.

For the same example, suppose 600 monthly orders move from Talabat to direct ordering. That is 20 orders daily, with the branch's total volume unchanged. Keep the basket and food cost the same so the calculation isolates the difference in channel costs.

S means the extra monthly software cost you attribute to this change. Use your Nexara quote for that amount.

Replace the payment allowance with the average from your processor's charges and payment mix. Replace the delivery contribution with your courier costs after customer delivery payments.

This model assumes no new fixed driver shift or separate advertising budget. If either is needed, add it. For delivery staffing and courier choices, see own delivery vs aggregators.

Do 600 direct orders save money after delivery costs?

Those 600 orders represent 4,800 JOD of commissionable sales. Moving them avoids 1,200 JOD of commission at 25 percent, or 1,440 JOD at 30 percent. Subtract the 822 JOD of assumed direct operating costs before calling anything a saving.

This comparison holds total order volume, basket value and food cost constant. It also assumes the remaining Talabat orders keep the same contracted rate. Lost sales, changed menu prices or additional overhead would change the answer.

Delivery is the sensitive input. If the restaurant's net delivery contribution rises from 0.90 to 1.90 JOD per direct order, monthly costs increase by 600 JOD.

The result becomes negative 222 JOD minus S at 25 percent, or positive 18 JOD minus S at 30 percent. Commission-free ordering can still cost more.

Where does Talabat still earn its fee?

Discovery is the strongest reason to keep an aggregator. Talabat lets people browse restaurants and place orders in its marketplace. Your own ordering link mainly helps people who already know where to find you, unless you spend money or effort bringing new customers to it.

For an order won through marketplace discovery, ask whether that customer would have reached you directly. If the sale depends on the marketplace, assess its contribution after food and channel costs.

Promote your direct link through your own permitted channels, and respect your aggregator agreement and customer consent.

Where does Nexara still cost you money?

Budget for the Nexara plan your branch needs, plus courier charges and any payment processing fees. Nexara has a free plan plus paid plans per branch in JOD, with current rates on request. The free plan caps website plus QR orders at 30 monthly, so this example's 600 direct orders need a paid-plan quote for S.

For those 600 shifted orders, the Nexara commission line is zero: own website, browser-installed app and call-center orders carry no Nexara commission. The remaining calculation is the 822 JOD of assumed direct operating costs plus S. Call-center ordering requires Pro.

Nexara sits beside the till as the order and operations layer, so retain any existing till costs in your wider budget. Kitchen printing starts on Growth with 1 printer; Pro allows unlimited printers.

Keep the remaining 1,200 Talabat orders in the aggregator column of your spreadsheet. Their commission remains 2,400 or 2,880 JOD under the two scenarios, even when you handle them through Nexara. See Talabat and Careem order intake for how both channels reach the same branch order queue.

Nexara supports dispatch to Careem Express, TopDeliver and Nashmi. Growth allows 1 delivery provider, Pro allows unlimited providers, and Free and Starter include none. Courier charges are separate, so use your actual charges for the delivery line.

For the payment line, use your processing agreement if you enable HyperPay card checkout. The commission-free online ordering guide explains which costs remain with own ordering.

How do you calculate your own break-even point?

1. Take one complete month's statement and identify commissionable sales and commission separately.
2. Divide commission by the corresponding fulfilled orders to find the average commission cost per order.
3. Estimate direct costs per order, including net delivery cost and any acquisition spend. Keep pickup separate.
4. Subtract direct variable cost per order from commission per order. If the result is positive, divide added monthly fixed costs by it and round up to find break-even order volume.

In this example, each shifted order leaves 0.63 JOD to cover software at 25 percent commission, or 1.03 JOD at 30 percent. The formulas below assume software is the only added fixed cost.

If direct variable costs equal or exceed commission per order, shifting more orders cannot cover added fixed costs under those assumptions. Review delivery charges or calculate pickup separately before increasing direct-channel spending.

Contact Nexara (nexaratech.io) through WhatsApp below, in Arabic or English, with your commission rate and expected direct-order volume. Founder Issa Al-Dalu can give you the current per-branch plan cost to put into S.