No driver. No courier fee. No aggregator commission. Click and collect has quietly become the most profitable channel most restaurants have — and many are still underusing it.
"Our collection orders convert at double the rate of delivery, at double the margin. We just weren't pushing the channel — so customers weren't using it."
When delivery exploded a few years ago, collection got forgotten. Every operator poured time into delivery apps, rider fleets and geo-fenced zones. Collection, meanwhile, kept its head down and kept working — and when the industry finally looked back at the numbers, many were surprised by what they saw.
Collection is structurally the cheapest channel a restaurant can run. The customer does the last-mile delivery. There's no driver cost, no courier fee, no aggregator cut. On a £20 order, that's routinely £3–£6 of margin that delivery can't match.
No driver, no aggregator, no courier. The order arrives on-site with its margin intact — and it takes a fraction of the operational overhead of a delivery.
Collection customers arrive when the food is ready. No rack time waiting for a driver. No cold-bag risk. Fresher food, happier customer.
Customers on-site see the counter, the deals, the drinks fridge. A collection order averages 8–15% higher value than a delivery order, every time.
If collection is so good, why isn't everyone nailing it? A few reasons.
Customers don't know it's an option. Many restaurant websites bury collection two clicks behind delivery. The fix is to put it on the hero — a toggle, not a tab.
Timing is vague. "Ready in 20 minutes" isn't a promise; it's a hope. Give the customer a specific minute — "ready for collection at 7:42" — and back it with a live countdown in the kitchen.
The pickup experience is awkward. A customer who walks in and can't find their order, or stands confused at a busy counter, probably won't come back. A simple collection shelf with named bags solves most of this.
The single most effective tool for growing collection is the smallest — a 10% discount for collection on the website. It pays for itself many times over in margin, it's a great differentiator vs aggregators, and most importantly it gives customers a reason to try the channel for the first time.
Once they've collected once and experienced the difference, many never go back to delivery.
Andromeda's website, app and kiosk make collection a first-class channel — with accurate ready times, named bags and discount controls baked in. Book a quick demo to see it.
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