GrabFood, Foodpanda & ShopeeFood: How to Actually Make Money on Delivery Platforms
Delivery platforms can make or break your restaurant. Here's how Southeast Asian food businesses maximise delivery profits while managing 25-35% commissions.
Let me start with a hard truth: delivery platforms are not your friend. They're a business tool — powerful when used correctly, devastating when used carelessly.
In Southeast Asia, food delivery is massive. GrabFood, foodpanda, ShopeeFood, and GoFood collectively process millions of orders daily across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. If you're running a food business in the region, you're almost certainly on at least one platform.
But here's the problem I see over and over: restaurant owners sign up, list their full dine-in menu at the same prices, and then wonder why they're losing money on every delivery order.
The platforms take 25-35% commission. If your food cost is 30% and your delivery commission is 30%, you've just given away 60% of the order value before paying rent, staff, packaging, and everything else.
So how do successful operators make delivery work? Let me break it down.
Understanding the Commission Structures
First, let's be clear about what each platform charges:
GrabFood
- Commission: 25-30% (varies by country and merchant tier)
- Marketing/advertising fee: 2-5% additional (if you opt into promotions)
- Payment processing: Included in commission
- Presence: Dominant in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam
foodpanda
- Commission: 25-32% (varies by country and package)
- Marketing fee: 2-3% additional (for featured listings)
- Payment processing: Included
- Presence: Strong in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore; growing in others
ShopeeFood
- Commission: 15-25% (generally lower to attract merchants)
- Marketing fee: 2-3% for promotions
- Payment processing: 1-2% additional
- Presence: Indonesia (strongest), Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam
GoFood (via Gojek)
- Commission: 15-25% (varies by partner level)
- Marketing fee: 1-3%
- Payment processing: Included
- Presence: Indonesia (dominant), Singapore
> Notice the pattern? GrabFood and foodpanda charge more (25-32%) because they have higher market share and better logistics. ShopeeFood and GoFood charge less (15-25%) because they're competing aggressively for merchants. This is your leverage.
Strategy 1: Create a Delivery-Specific Menu
This is the single most important thing you can do. Do not put your entire dine-in menu on delivery platforms.
Why?
- Some dishes don't travel well (crispy items get soggy, soups spill)
- Complex dishes with many components increase kitchen time and error rates
- Low-margin dishes become money-losers after commission
What to Include
- High-margin hero dishes that travel well
- Bundle meals (main + side + drink) that increase average order value
- Delivery exclusives that create a reason to order through the platform
- Items with low food cost — anything under 25% food cost is ideal for delivery
What to Exclude
- Anything that degrades in 20+ minutes (tempura, fries, ice cream)
- Labour-intensive dishes with thin margins
- Items requiring special presentation that gets ruined in a bag
Strategy 2: Price Delivery Higher Than Dine-In
All major platforms allow you to set different pricing for delivery vs dine-in. Use this.
A 15-20% markup on delivery items compensates for the commission while keeping your prices competitive.
Example:
- Dine-in chicken rice: S$5.50
- Delivery chicken rice: S$6.50 (18% markup)
- Platform takes 30%: S$1.95
- Your net revenue: S$4.55 — close to your dine-in revenue
Without the markup:
- Platform takes 30% of S$5.50: S$1.65
- Your net revenue: S$3.85 — a significant hit
Customers expect delivery prices to be slightly higher. The platform itself charges them a delivery fee. A 15-20% difference is within the acceptable range.
Strategy 3: Optimise Packaging Costs
Packaging is often an overlooked cost that adds up fast.
Typical Packaging Costs Per Order
- Basic containers + bag: S$0.50–0.80 / RM1.50–3.00 / ฿10–25 / Rp 3,000–8,000
- Premium containers (tamper-evident, compartmented): 2-3x basic
How to Save
Strategy 4: Use Platform Marketing Wisely
Paid Promotions
All platforms offer paid advertising:
- Sponsored listings: Pay to appear at the top of search results (CPC model)
- Flash deals: Time-limited discounts that the platform promotes
- Free delivery promotions: You subsidise the delivery fee
Free Marketing That Actually Works
Strategy 5: Drive Direct Orders
The ultimate goal is to use platforms for discovery and then convert customers to direct orders where you keep 100% of the revenue.
How to Convert Platform Customers
The Math That Makes This Worth It
If you convert just 20% of your platform customers to direct orders:
- 100 orders/day at S$15 average
- 80 via platform (30% commission): S$840 net
- 20 direct orders: S$300 net
- Total: S$1,140 vs S$1,050 all-platform — that's S$90/day or S$2,700/month in saved commissions
Strategy 6: Multi-Platform, Don't Put All Eggs in One Basket
Being on multiple platforms:
- Increases your visibility
- Gives you negotiation leverage
- Protects you if one platform changes terms or goes down
Use our [Delivery Profitability Tracker](/dashboard/operations/delivery-profitability) to compare platform performance side by side.
Country-Specific Tips
Singapore 🇸🇬
- GrabFood dominates, but foodpanda is strong in certain areas
- Customers are price-sensitive on delivery fees but less sensitive on food prices
- Peak hours: 11:30am-1:30pm and 6-8pm
Malaysia 🇲🇾
- GrabFood #1, foodpanda #2, ShopeeFood growing fast
- WhatsApp ordering is huge — many successful operators run dual systems
- Peak hours: 12-2pm and 7-9pm
Thailand 🇹🇭
- GrabFood and LINE MAN are the big two
- foodpanda and ShopeeFood are strong second-tier
- Thai customers heavily use promotions — time your deals around platform-wide campaigns
Indonesia 🇮🇩
- GoFood (via Gojek) and GrabFood dominate
- ShopeeFood is growing aggressively with lower commissions
- Indonesia has the highest delivery order volume in the region
- GoPay and OVO wallet integrations are essential
Track Your Delivery Numbers
You can't improve what you don't measure. Use our [Delivery Profitability Tracker](/dashboard/operations/delivery-profitability) to:
- Compare revenue and margins across all platforms
- See your true profit per order after all fees
- Track packaging costs and refund rates
- Get AI-powered recommendations to improve your delivery business
The tracker now includes presets for GrabFood, foodpanda, ShopeeFood, and GoFood with typical commission structures for easy setup.
Delivery isn't going away. The operators who treat it as a serious, data-driven channel — not just "extra orders" — are the ones who make it work. 📦
