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Guest Experience Engine: The Real ROI of Commission-Free Ordering (It’s Not the Commission)

You’ve probably done the maths already.

15–30% commission on every order adds up fast. If you’re doing £100,000 a month through third-party apps, you’re handing over serious money just to show up in someone else’s marketplace.

But here’s the bit that gets missed (often, conveniently):

Commission savings are nice. Experience is where the margin lives.

Food is commoditised. Experience is the competitive edge.

If you’re a mid-market or enterprise restaurant group, the goal isn’t just “pay less”. It’s to own the guest journey, unify your data, and use it to drive measurable outcomes: higher AOV, more repeat visits, and more direct revenue you can actually keep.

Definition: What is a Guest Experience Engine?

A Guest Experience Engine is a guest-first technology layer that sits above the POS.

Your POS is brilliant at what it’s meant to do: record transactions, keep the books tidy, and help the kitchen get tickets.

A Guest Experience Engine does the other job: it unifies the guest journey across every ordering channel, so you can recognise guests, personalise offers, run loyalty properly, and make ordering feel effortless.

In simple terms:

POS = “what was bought”
Guest Experience Engine = “who bought it, why, and how we get them to come back (and spend more)”

At storekit, that’s exactly how we’re built.

The Commission Problem (Yes, It’s Real — Just Not the Whole Story)

Third-party delivery apps charge anywhere from 15% to 35% per order. Some brands creep closer to 40% once you add “marketing” and “visibility” fees.

That’s real money.

But the bigger cost is quieter: you lose control of the relationship.

And you get… a bag on a scooter and a payout minus fees.

What You Lose When You Don’t Own the Guest Journey

Picture a regular who orders three times a week.

If those orders happen through a marketplace:

You don’t know their name
You can’t thank them
You can’t reward them
You can’t nudge them towards higher-margin items
You can’t bring them back when they lapse

Meanwhile, the platform learns their behaviour and uses it to sell them on your competitors.

You’re paying a commission to become a commodity.

Storekit's Core Idea: One Journey, Many Channels

Restaurant groups don’t have “a channel problem”. They have a fragmentation problem.

Guests bounce between:

Web ordering at home
App ordering on the train
QR ordering in-venue
Click & collect on the way back from work
Catering for the office
Direct delivery when they can’t be bothered to cook (fair)

When those channels don’t speak to each other, you get:

Duplicate profiles
Broken loyalty
Inconsistent menus and pricing
Random offers that feel… random
Zero insight into what’s actually driving revenue

Storekit is designed to fix that by unifying the journey above the POS.

The Modular Suite (Pick What You Need, Add More Later)

Storekit is modular by design. You don’t have to rip-and-replace everything. You can start with one channel and expand as you go.

The core suite includes:

Branded Web & Native Apps (iOS & Android) for direct ordering that actually feels like your brand
Dine-In QR Ordering & Pay at Table to reduce friction (and queue rage)
Click & Collect for fast, predictable pickup flows
Direct Delivery (via Uber Direct) for zero commission delivery you control
Catering Ordering for bigger baskets and planned orders (aka: the good stuff)

These modules connect into one joined-up system — not five disconnected tools taped together.

The Single Guest Identity Layer (The Bit That Makes It All Work)

This is the engine room.

Storekit's Single Guest Identity Layer creates one unified guest profile across every channel, so you can track behaviour like a grown-up business:

Guest orders on web Monday
Click & collect Wednesday
Scans a QR code Saturday
Places a catering order next week

Storekit knows it’s the same person.

That means:

Loyalty points don’t vanish into the void
Personalisation gets smarter over time
Reporting reflects real guest behaviour, not channel noise
Marketing can target people based on what they actually do

If you’re running multiple sites, this is where things get properly commercial. You stop managing “channels” and start managing guests.

Value Prop: The ROI Isn’t “Commission-Free”. It’s Revenue-Positive.

Yes, keeping margin matters.

But if the only win is “we saved 25% fees”, you’ve basically built a cheaper version of the same experience.

The better play is using direct channels to increase revenue per guest, by improving the experience:

1) Increase AOV with AI-driven personalisation (without being weird about it)

Storekit uses AI-driven personalisation & upsell to suggest relevant add-ons at the right moment.

Not “Would you like a side salad?” to someone ordering wings.

More like:

Extra dip for the guest who always adds dip
A bundle when it’s a group order
A higher-margin swap that fits their usual choices

Personalisation should feel like a helpful nudge, not a hard sell.

2) Capture unified guest data (and actually use it)

With a single identity layer, you get one view of:

visit frequency
typical basket size
channel preference
favourite items
lapsed guests worth reactivating

That data can feed your CRM, loyalty, and campaigns — and your ops team can use it for menu decisions and forecasting.

3) Turn experience into a measurable revenue driver

When the guest journey is unified, you can measure outcomes cleanly:

AOV lift from upsell
repeat rate changes after loyalty updates
conversion rate across web/app/QR
performance by site and by channel (without spreadsheets from hell)

That’s what “Guest Experience” means in practice: commercial performance, not vibes.

Commission Savings vs Experience ROI (A Quick Reality Check)

If you’re doing £80,000/month through marketplaces at ~25% commission, the commission line hurts.

But even a modest AOV lift is often bigger.

Here’s the simple way to think about it:

Commission savings = you stop leaking margin
Experience improvements = you create new margin

With unified data + personalisation + loyalty across web/app/QR/click & collect/direct delivery/catering, you’re building a system that makes guests choose direct — because it’s better.

And that’s the whole point.

Who storekit Is Built For

Storekit is built for restaurant founders and owners that care about:

brand experience (not just “another ordering link”)
retention and repeat spend
operational control across multiple sites
measurable performance improvements

If you’re trying to replace your POS, we’re not your guy.

If you want a guest-first layer above the POS that unifies ordering, loyalty, engagement, and data across channels — that’s us.

Practical Next Steps (Low Drama, High Impact)

If you’re assessing commission-free ordering platforms, don’t just ask “what does it cost?”

Ask these:

Can it unify web, app, QR, click & collect, direct delivery, and catering?
Is there a single guest identity across all channels?
How does it increase AOV (personalisation/upsell), not just reduce fees?
Do I own the guest data — and can I activate it in CRM/loyalty?
Does it sit above my POS cleanly without operational chaos?

If the answers are fuzzy, the ROI will be too.

Bottom line

Commission-free ordering is the entry ticket.

Owning the guest journey is the business model.

Food is commoditised. Experience is the competitive edge.

FAQ

What is a Guest Experience Engine in restaurants?
A Guest Experience Engine is a technology layer above the POS that unifies ordering, loyalty, guest data, and personalisation across channels (web, app, QR, click & collect, delivery, catering) to improve AOV and repeat visits.

Is commission-free ordering enough to grow revenue?
It helps you keep margin, but growth typically comes from improving the direct experience: AI-driven personalisation and upsell, better loyalty, and unified guest data that drives repeat behaviour.

How does storekit handle delivery without commission?
Storekit supports Direct Delivery via Uber Direct, so you can offer delivery from your own branded channels while controlling the guest experience and avoiding marketplace commission.

Why does a single guest identity layer matter?
Without it, behaviour is fragmented by channel and loyalty breaks. A single guest identity layer links web/app/QR/click & collect/delivery/catering into one profile, making personalisation and reporting accurate.

Who is storekit best for?
Multi-location restaurant groups that want to improve guest experience and commercial performance across multiple sites — without replacing their POS. But we work with restaurants of all shapes and sizes.