Takeaways: balancing delivery apps, phone orders and walk-ins

Before changing anything, work out the net value of an order by channel. Take gross order value, subtract commission, subtract card fees, subtract packaging and delivery cost, and you have the real number. Most takeaway owners are surprised by how large the gap is between an app order and a direct one.

That number tells you how much a direct order is worth spending to acquire. If a direct order is worth £6 more than an app order, a leaflet drop, a loyalty scheme or a discount for direct ordering all become obviously worthwhile.

The reason customers use apps is not loyalty, it is friction. The app remembers their card and their address. A phone order that ends in 'pay when you collect' is more effort, and it is why some of those orders are never collected at all.

Payment links sent by text close that gap. The customer taps, pays, and the order is confirmed and paid before the fryer goes on. Uncollected orders effectively disappear, and you have the money before you have the cost.

Between six and nine on a Friday, a busy takeaway counter can process a transaction every thirty seconds. At that rate, a terminal that takes six seconds to authorise and occasionally needs to reconnect is consuming several minutes of counter time an hour and creating a visible queue in a small shop.

Fast authorisation and reliable connectivity are not luxuries at that tempo. Nor is a second terminal, which lets you take payment from waiting collections while the counter keeps taking new orders.

For your own delivery drivers, a small portable terminal removes cash from the vehicle entirely. That is a safety improvement as much as an accounting one, and it eliminates the nightly float reconciliation that eats an hour at closing.

It also removes the 'I've only got a fifty' conversation on the doorstep, which is a real source of failed deliveries and returned food.

Takeaway stock buying is weekly and inflexible. Teya settles card takings the next working day as standard, and qualifying businesses can choose everyday or Instant Settlement options, with conditions and in some cases an extra charge.

For bigger steps — a second shop, a new fryer bank, a delivery vehicle — turnover-linked funding repays as a share of card takings, which suits a business whose income varies with the weather, the football and the school holidays.