Third-party marketplace
Example: A Brooklyn pizzeria gets half its orders through a delivery marketplace that takes 25% and owns the customer list, so it prints a QR code on every box nudging those diners to reorder direct next time and slowly win the relationship back.
the aggregator stack, platforms
A platform that sits between you and your customer — DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Yelp, OpenTable, Google’s Find a Table. They route demand, take a fee (15–30% on delivery; per-cover or subscription on reservations), and own the customer relationship. The opposite of an owned channel.
Why it matters
Third-party marketplaces solve real problems — demand discovery, dispatch logistics, the no-show fee — and they aren’t inherently bad. The trap is structural dependency: when a marketplace becomes your primary channel, the platform sets your effective price, decides who sees you, and keeps the customer’s contact info. The honest math for any restaurant is: what share of revenue is on rails I don’t own, and what would the year look like if those rails were 30% more expensive next quarter?
Frequently asked
What is third-party marketplace?
Third-party marketplace is a platform that sits between you and your customer — DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Yelp, OpenTable, Google’s Find a Table. They route demand, take a fee (15–30% on delivery; per-cover or subscription on reservations), and own the customer relationship. The opposite of an owned channel.
Why does third-party marketplace matter for a restaurant?
Third-party marketplaces solve real problems — demand discovery, dispatch logistics, the no-show fee — and they aren’t inherently bad. The trap is structural dependency: when a marketplace becomes your primary channel, the platform sets your effective price, decides who sees you, and keeps the customer’s contact info. The honest math for any restaurant is: what share of revenue is on rails I don’t own, and what would the year look like if those rails were 30% more expensive next quarter?
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