How to Reduce Your Swiggy and Zomato Commission Costs Without Losing Orders

1. Calculate Your True Effective Cost Before Changing Anything

You cannot reduce a cost you have not measured properly. Start with your monthly settlement statement. For each platform, calculate: Gross food order value
minus:

• Commission or service fee

• Applicable taxes on platform services

• Restaurant-funded discounts

• Advertising spend

• Promotional charges

• Other platform deductions
  Then separately include restaurant-controlled fulfilment costs such as:

• Packaging

• Food cost

• Incremental labour where relevant
  Do not blindly treat every settlement deduction as permanent lost margin. Tax credits, TDS, TCS, or other tax treatment can depend on your specific accounting position, so your accountant should determine the correct treatment.
  What matters operationally is knowing:
  How much cash was deducted?
  and:
  How much was the true economic cost?
  Amello can help restaurants move beyond gross sales and understand the business signals around those orders.

2. Audit Every Settlement Line Instead of Looking Only at Commission

A restaurant may negotiate commission aggressively and still lose margin elsewhere.
Recent restaurant-industry complaints have focused not only on commissions but also on advertising fees, promotions, payment-related charges, and other payout deductions. Business Standard
Review your statement line by line.
Look for:

• Commission

• Taxes applied to commission

• Ad charges

• Promotions

• Restaurant-funded discounts

• Cancellation adjustments

• Refunds

• Complaint-related deductions

• Programme fees

• Other adjustments
  Then ask:
  Did we intentionally opt into this?
  Did it generate enough incremental orders?
  Is the amount consistent with our agreement?
  Is it happening repeatedly?
  Do not assume every deduction is wrong.
  But do not assume every deduction is economically worthwhile either.
  Zomato's merchant terms, for example, allow amounts due under applicable commercial terms to be deducted from settlements, while sponsored-listing fees can also be reduced from restaurant payouts under the relevant agreement. Zomato the goal is visibility. Amello can help restaurant owners turn that visibility into a broader decision about what deserves attention.

3. Renegotiate the Commercial Rate With Evidence

Restaurants often approach commission negotiation like this:
“Your commission is too high. Reduce it.”
That is not a particularly strong negotiation position.
Go in with data.
Show:

• Monthly order volume

• Growth rate

• Average order value

• Cancellation rate

• Customer rating

• Operational reliability

• Number of outlets

• Historical relationship

• Share of your online business

• Competitive offers where legitimate
  A restaurant doing meaningful volume with strong fulfilment performance may have more leverage than a new outlet with low order volume.
  Your negotiation might ask for:

• Lower base commission

• Reduced rate at higher order-volume thresholds

• Better terms for additional locations

• Temporary launch rates

• Reduced charges on specific programmes

• Advertising credits instead of pure commission reduction

• Clearer limits on additional paid services
  There is no guarantee the platform will agree.
  But negotiate based on the value your restaurant brings to the marketplace rather than simply saying the percentage feels unfair.
  Amello can help you understand restaurant performance before that negotiation so you walk in with evidence rather than intuition.

4. Cut Unprofitable Ads Before Cutting the Platform

Restaurants sometimes say:
“Swiggy costs us 30%.”
But when the numbers are broken down, part of that effective cost may come from optional advertising.
Sponsored visibility can be useful.
It can also become expensive when restaurants continue campaigns without checking whether the orders are incremental.
For each campaign, ask:

• How much did we spend?

• How many incremental orders did it create?

• What was the average order value?

• What was the contribution after commission and discount?

• Would some of these customers have ordered anyway?
  Do not optimize only for:
  ROAS
  if that return is calculated using gross order revenue.
  A ₹1,000 order is not worth ₹1,000 to the restaurant after platform economics and food cost.
  Instead evaluate:
  Contribution generated after ad cost.
  Amello helps restaurant teams connect marketing with actual restaurant performance rather than treating ad impressions and sales as separate worlds.

5. Stop Funding Discounts During Periods When Customers Would Order Anyway

Discounting during a weak Tuesday may help create incremental demand.
Discounting during a Saturday evening when the restaurant already receives strong demand may simply give away margin.
This is one of the easiest areas to investigate.
Separate your performance by:

• Day

• Hour

• Outlet

• Customer type

• Menu category
  Then ask:
  Which discounts actually changed customer behaviour?
  For example:
  If Friday dinner generates strong order volume without a promotion, a restaurant-funded 20% discount may be unnecessary.
  If Monday lunch is weak, a targeted promotion might make more sense.
  Zomato's published online-promotion terms for certain services explicitly state that participating restaurant promotions can be completely restaurant-funded, which is why merchants need to understand who is paying for each offer rather than assuming the platform is funding it. Zomato
  With Amello, restaurant owners can identify weak periods and create targeted actions rather than defaulting to blanket discounts.

6. Replace Bigger Discounts With Better Bundles

One of the strongest ways to protect margin is to create value without simply reducing food prices.
Instead of:
20% off pizza
try:
Pizza + garlic bread + beverage
Instead of:
₹300 off family orders
try:
Family meal + dessert
Bundles can:

• Increase average order value

• Move high-margin add-ons

• Simplify customer decisions

• Protect perceived value

• Reduce dependence on deep discounting
  The economics still need to work.
  Do not build a combo simply because it looks attractive.
  Use items with sensible contribution.
  Amello can help restaurants identify bestsellers, slow movers, and item trends that can inform smarter bundles.

7. Increase Average Order Value to Dilute Fixed Per-Order Costs

Suppose some operational costs are incurred on every order regardless of order value.
Packaging is one obvious example.
If packaging costs ₹30:
On a ₹300 order, that is:
10% of food value
On a ₹1,000 order:
3% Higher AOV does not magically reduce percentage-based commission.
But it can improve the economics of fixed or semi-fixed per-order costs.
Ways to increase AOV include:

• Relevant add-ons

• Larger meal bundles

• Family packs

• Beverages

• Desserts

• Premium variations

• Side dishes
  Use Amello to understand which items customers already order together rather than inventing random upsells.
  The objective should be:
  better order economics
  not:
  forcing every customer to spend more.

8. Remove Low-Margin Items From Aggressive Promotions

Your bestselling dish is not automatically your best item to advertise.
Imagine:

H3 — Dish A

Selling price: ₹400
Food cost: ₹190
Heavy packaging requirement
Frequently discounted

H3 — Dish B

Selling price: ₹400
Food cost: ₹100
Simple packaging
Strong customer rating
Both generate ₹400 of gross sales.
Their economics are completely different.
Restaurants should evaluate:

• Selling price

• Food cost

• Platform deductions

• Discount participation

• Packaging

• Refund or complaint risk

• AOV contribution

• Customer demand
  Then decide which dishes deserve paid visibility.
  Amello can help restaurants understand menu performance, bestsellers, and slow movers so platform promotion does not automatically focus on the wrong products.

9. Build a Delivery-Specific Menu

Your dine-in menu and delivery menu do not always need to behave identically operationally.
Some dishes:

• Travel badly

• Require expensive packaging

• Have low margins

• Generate complaints after delivery

• Lose quality quickly

• Create kitchen bottlenecks
  Others:

• Travel well

• Have healthy contribution

• Produce fewer complaints

• Pair naturally with add-ons
  Your delivery assortment should reflect that.
  This does not mean misrepresenting products or violating contractual pricing or assortment requirements.
  It means designing a delivery operation around items that genuinely work for the channel.
  Use Amello to track item-level trends so you can identify which dishes deserve stronger delivery visibility.

10. Review Online Pricing Carefully—But Check Your Current Contract First

A common response to high commission is: “Increase our Swiggy and Zomato menu prices.” That may improve unit economics. It can also reduce conversion or conflict with commercial terms. The legal and contractual environment around price parity has been changing. In July 2026, Business Standard reported that restaurant groups were challenging price-parity restrictions and that Zomato said it had removed such requirements from its standard agreements earlier in 2026. The wider competition matter was still under scrutiny, so merchants should not assume every individual historical or current contract is identical. Business Standard
Before using differential pricing:

1. Read your current Swiggy agreement.

2. Read your current Zomato agreement.

3. Confirm any parity or promotion requirements.

4. Model customer conversion impact.

5. Compare competitor pricing.

6. Check whether the margin improvement is worth potential order loss.
   Do not blindly add 25% because your commission is 25%.
   That is not strategy.
   It is arithmetic without demand context.
   Amello can help restaurant owners think about sales and menu performance before making pricing decisions.

11. Reduce Packaging Cost Without Damaging the Food

Packaging is not platform commission.
But if the objective is reducing the cost of marketplace orders, it belongs in the conversation.
Do a packaging audit.
For each item, ask:

• Do we need this container?

• Are we using oversized packaging?

• Can multiple components safely share packaging?

• Are expensive custom packages producing measurable value?

• Does cheaper packaging increase leakage or complaints?
  The goal is not to find the cheapest box.
  Poor packaging can create:

• Refunds

• Bad reviews

• Customer churn

• Damaged food

• Higher effective costs
  Find the lowest-cost packaging that still protects the product experience.
  Amello can help restaurants see repeated customer feedback patterns, making it easier to avoid “cost savings” that create a larger customer-experience problem.

12. Reduce Cancellations, Refunds, and Order Errors

Commission is only one source of delivery leakage.
An incorrect order can cost:

• Food

• Packaging

• Labour

• Refund

• Customer trust
  A cancelled order after preparation can create similar waste.
  Review:

• Cancellation reasons

• Missing-item complaints

• Wrong-order complaints

• Packaging failures

• Delayed preparation

• Item availability errors

• Menu availability accuracy
  Restaurant bodies have specifically raised concerns about deductions linked to complaints and cancellations, making reconciliation particularly important. Business Standard Before negotiating another two percentage points of commission, check whether operational mistakes are quietly costing just as much. Amello can help surface restaurant performance patterns so owners know whether the problem is marketing, menu, customer behaviour, or operations.

13. Protect Peak-Hour Kitchen Capacity

A delivery order can be profitable in isolation and still hurt the restaurant if it overloads the kitchen during peak dine-in periods.
Suppose:
7:30 PM–9:30 PM is full.
Your kitchen is operating at capacity.
Delivery orders arrive aggressively because of a promotion.
Now:

• Dine-in service slows

• Delivery preparation times increase

• Ratings fall

• Errors increase

• Staff becomes overwhelmed
  The promotion created orders.
  It may not have created healthy growth.
  Look at platform economics by time of day.
  During weak periods, aggregator demand can use spare capacity.
  During peak periods, lower-contribution delivery demand may compete with higher-value orders.
  Use Amello to understand sales patterns by period so delivery strategy reflects actual restaurant capacity.

14. Build Repeat Demand Instead of Reacquiring Every Order

A major reason marketplace economics feel expensive is that restaurants repeatedly pay to access customer demand.
You may not control the relationship with every platform customer, and you should never violate platform rules by improperly soliciting or extracting customer information.
Instead, build legitimate customer relationships through your own touchpoints:

• Dine-in guests

• Direct website orders

• Reservations

• Google Business Profile

• WhatsApp opt-ins

• Loyalty programmes

• Social media

• Events

• QR-based owned experiences
  Then use those channels to increase repeat visits and direct demand.
  Amello helps restaurants understand customer cohorts including repeat, frequent, valuable, and inactive customers so retention becomes part of the growth strategy.

15. Improve Google Business Profile Visibility

If every new order has to originate inside Swiggy or Zomato, the restaurant becomes heavily dependent on marketplace discovery.
Google provides another discovery path.
Customers search:
“pizza near me”
“best biryani nearby”
“Chinese restaurant open now”
A strong Google Business Profile can help customers discover:

• Restaurant location

• Phone number

• Website

• Menu

• Directions

• Reservation options

• Ordering links where available
  This does not mean every Google customer will order directly.
  It means the restaurant creates another discovery surface.
  Amello helps restaurants identify Google Business Profile gaps, local search opportunities, nearby competitors, and website improvements so aggregator demand is not the only source of discovery.

16. Strengthen Your Own Website and Ordering Journey

Direct demand only works if the direct experience is good.
If your website is:

• Slow

• Confusing

• Difficult on mobile

• Missing menu information

• Missing ordering links

• Poorly designed
  customers may simply return to Swiggy or Zomato.
  Ask:
  Can someone go from Google search to completed order quickly?
  The goal is not to force customers away from aggregators.
  It is to make your owned channels genuinely competitive where customers choose to use them. Amello helps restaurants identify website and local-discovery opportunities as part of the same growth system.

17. Use WhatsApp for Retention, Not Spam

A legitimate opt-in customer list can reduce dependence on continuously reacquiring demand.
But WhatsApp only works when messages are relevant.
Do not send:
20% OFF! ORDER NOW!
to everyone every weekend.
Use behaviour.
For example:

Frequent Customers

Tell them about a new menu or experience.

Inactive Customers

Give them a reason to return.

High-Value Customers

Offer early access or relevant benefits.

Dish-Specific Customers

Tell them when a favourite or related product launches.
Amello helps restaurants segment customers so retention marketing becomes more targeted. The better the retention, the less pressure there is to purchase every future order through paid marketplace visibility.

18. Negotiate Platform Terms Per Outlet, Not Just Per Brand

A growing restaurant brand may have different economics at different locations.
One outlet might:

• Generate huge aggregator demand

• Have strong AOV

• Maintain high ratings
  Another may:

• Generate weak demand

• Require heavy discounts

• Spend aggressively on ads
  Do not assume the same commercial strategy works everywhere.
  Review:

• Commission

• Ad spend

• Promotions

• AOV

• Orders

• Menu mix

• Profitability
  by outlet.
  Then negotiate where the data supports it.
  Amello can help multi-outlet restaurant operators understand outlet performance and identify where different growth actions may be needed.

19. Test Alternative Demand Channels Without Switching Everything Off

Reducing platform dependence does not require an overnight migration.
Test.
For example:

• Improve Google visibility

• Improve your website

• Run CRM campaigns

• Strengthen dine-in retention

• Test legitimate alternate marketplaces where relevant

• Improve direct ordering

• Build local partnerships
  Then measure:
  Did these channels create incremental profitable demand?
  Competition in food delivery has also been evolving. Newer entrants have marketed lower-cost structures than the established platforms; for example, Rapido was reported in 2025 as testing fixed-fee restaurant economics equivalent to substantially lower effective commissions than traditional aggregator ranges. The Economic Times
  But lower commission is not automatically better.
  A marketplace charging 10% and generating 10 orders may be less valuable than one charging 22% and generating 500 profitable incremental orders.
  The metric is:
  profitable demand
  not:
  lowest commission percentage.

20. Do Not Sacrifice Order Volume Just to Win the Commission Argument

Imagine:

Scenario A

Commission: 18%
Orders: 1,000
Healthy contribution after all costs

Scenario B

Commission: 10%
Orders: 300
Lower total contribution
Scenario B has the lower commission.
Scenario A may still be the better business.
This is the most important counterpoint to the entire “reduce commission” conversation.
The goal should not be:
Minimise platform cost at any price.
The goal should be:
Maximise profitable restaurant growth.
Amello helps restaurants look at sales, customers, menu, visibility, and marketing together so a channel is judged by the business value it creates—not merely by its fee percentage.

Use Amello to Reduce Your Effective Swiggy and Zomato Cost

The biggest problem for restaurant owners is often fragmentation.
Platform settlements sit in one place.
POS data sits somewhere else.
Menu performance sits somewhere else.
Customers sit elsewhere.
Google and social media exist in entirely different systems.
Amello helps bring restaurant growth signals together.

Amello Helps You Understand Sales

Use Amello to understand how restaurant sales and orders are changing.

Amello Helps You Understand Menu Performance

Use Amello to identify bestsellers, slow movers, and item trends so platform marketing can focus on stronger opportunities.

Amello Helps You Understand Customers

Amello helps restaurants identify repeat, valuable, and inactive customer groups.

Amello Helps Improve Google Visibility

Use Amello to identify Google Business Profile and local-search opportunities that diversify discovery.

Amello Helps Improve Your Website

Amello can surface website opportunities that make direct discovery and conversion stronger.

Amello Helps You Prioritize

Instead of:
“Reduce Swiggy commission.”
Amello can help turn the problem into actions such as: Stop funding a promotion during already-strong weekend demand. Promote a stronger-margin bestseller. Reactivate inactive customers. Improve Google visibility for an important local search.
Create a bundle around frequently purchased items. That is a much more useful way to reduce effective marketplace dependence.

Build a Weekly Aggregator Cost Routine With Amello

Use Amello as part of a weekly channel review.

What Did Swiggy and Zomato Generate?

Review orders, sales, and AOV.

What Did They Cost?

Review commission, ads, discounts, and relevant deductions.

Which Menu Items Drove the Orders?

Identify healthy and weak menu economics.

Which Campaigns Were Incremental?

Stop paying for visibility that is not changing behaviour.

Which Customers Can We Retain?

Use legitimate owned customer relationships to generate repeat demand.

Where Can We Build Additional Discovery?

Review Google, website, social media, and local visibility in Amello.

What Should We Change This Week?

Choose one or two actions.
This creates an Amello restaurant growth loop:
Measure → Understand → Reduce Waste → Build Demand → Measure Again.

A Simple Swiggy and Zomato Cost-Reduction Checklist

Before trying to reduce orders from either platform, check:

• Current contracted commission rate

• Actual effective platform cost

• Restaurant-funded discounts

• Platform-funded discounts

• Advertising spend

• Sponsored placement spend

• Cancellation and refund deductions

• AOV

• Packaging cost

• Food cost by major item

• Contribution by menu item

• Performance by day and time

• Outlet-level differences

• Delivery-specific menu

• Potential bundles

• Repeat-customer strategy

• Google Business Profile visibility

• Website ordering experience

• CRM and WhatsApp retention

• Contract restrictions around pricing

• Alternative discovery channels

• Amello growth opportunities

What You Should Not Do

Do Not Switch Off a Major Platform Without Modelling Lost Demand

High commission does not automatically mean the channel is unprofitable.

Do Not Raise Online Prices Without Checking Your Agreement

Price-parity rules and contracts have changed over time, so check your current terms rather than relying on old internet advice. Business Standard

Do Not Run Discounts Just to Protect Ranking or Visibility

Understand whether the promotion generates profitable incremental orders.

Do Not Judge Ads Using Gross Revenue Alone

Look at contribution after platform costs.

Do Not Move Platform Customers Off-Platform in Ways That Violate Terms

Build direct customer demand through legitimate owned channels and relationships.

Do Not Chase the Lowest Commission

A lower-cost channel with no customers is not necessarily valuable.

The Best Way to Reduce Commission Costs Is to Reduce Dependence Intelligently

Swiggy and Zomato can remain valuable parts of a restaurant's growth strategy.
The mistake is treating them as the entire strategy.
The strongest restaurant operators build multiple sources of demand:
Aggregator discovery
Google
Website
Direct customers
Repeat customers
Social media
Local reputation
CRM
Then they understand which source produces healthy economics.
That changes the conversation.
Instead of asking:
“How do we get off Swiggy and Zomato?”
ask:
“How do we make Swiggy and Zomato profitable channels inside a more diversified growth system?”
That is where Amello fits.
Amello helps restaurants connect menu performance, customers, visibility, competition, content, and sales so aggregator costs can be reduced without blindly sacrificing orders.
The goal is not fewer orders. The goal is more profitable orders from a healthier mix of channels.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Restaurants Negotiate Swiggy and Zomato Commission Rates?

Commercial rates can vary by restaurant and agreement, so negotiation may be possible depending on factors such as volume, outlet count, performance, and commercial relationship. There is no guaranteed reduction, and merchants should negotiate from their own current contract and performance data.

What Commission Do Swiggy and Zomato Charge Restaurants?

There is no universal rate. Recent industry reporting has described broad base-commission ranges around 15%–30%, while restaurant associations say effective deductions can become higher after additional fees, promotions, advertising, and other costs. Business Standard

How Can I Reduce Swiggy and Zomato Costs Without Turning Them Off?

Audit settlement deductions, negotiate commercial terms where possible, reduce unprofitable ads and restaurant-funded discounts, improve AOV, optimize menu mix, reduce operational leakage, and build additional demand through Google, retention, and direct channels.

Should I Increase My Menu Prices on Swiggy and Zomato?

Only after checking your current merchant agreement and modelling the effect on conversion and profitability. The regulatory and contractual position around price-parity clauses has changed over time, so do not rely on outdated assumptions. Business Standard

Should Restaurants Stop Using Swiggy and Zomato?

Not automatically. A high-commission channel can still generate valuable incremental contribution. Judge the platform by total channel economics and the demand it generates rather than commission percentage alone.

How Can Amello Help Reduce Aggregator Dependence?

Amello helps restaurants understand sales, menu performance, customer cohorts, Google visibility, competitors, website opportunities, and marketing signals so owners can build a healthier mix of aggregator, direct, and repeat-customer demand.