This New Food Delivery App Could Be the Antidote to Menu Markups
Olo is a new food delivery app launching in the US that aims to reduce costs for consumers by eliminating menu markups. Unlike major competitors, the app charges a flat 5 percent service fee and encourages restaurants to maintain in-store pricing.
Why it matters
It represents a potential shift in the gig-economy business model, challenging the high-commission structures of dominant players like Uber Eats and DoorDash.
I’m often hit with eye-popping menu costs and shifting fees when ordering through popular apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash. The major players charge restaurants commissions on each order, and those expenses often pass down to consumers, inflating the price of that chicken Caesar salad wrap.
Apps that initially felt like a convenient way to order food can now seem like a bad deal. But that’s what Olo, a new food-delivery app launching nationwide today on Android and iOS, is trying to avoid.
“Restaurants are paying 20 to 30 percent commissions to the marketplaces and are offsetting that by increasing the price,” says Noah Glass, Olo’s founder and CEO. The core selling point is that it doesn’t use this kind of menu markup.
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