Online ordering for restaurants and cafés in Australia, without a per-order cut

Direct ordering for Australian venues: the parts worth thinking through

Australian cafés and takeaways run on volume and speed. A direct ordering site helps with both, provided you set it up around the orders you can actually fulfil. Here is the thinking behind each decision.

Pick up first

The cleanest direct order is a pick up. For a café that is a 7:45am flat white and toastie ordered from the tram; for a Thai or Indian takeaway it is the Friday night family order collected on the way home. No commission, no driver, a card fee of cents. The takeaway ordering page is about getting this right: lead times per category so the kitchen is not surprised, a ready status the customer can see, and order notes that make it to the ticket.

Delivery on your own site means your own driver, because Porter does not operate in Australia and Tuckly has no other local courier integration. That is a staffing decision, not a software one. Many venues keep marketplace delivery for the reach and run the direct site for pick up only. Others put a driver on for Friday and Saturday nights once the direct volume justifies it.

Card costs after 1 October 2026

The Reserve Bank’s March 2026 conclusions remove surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit cards on the designated eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks from 1 October 2026. For a direct ordering site that means the card fee is a cost of sale, not a line the customer pays. The practical response is to know your processor’s rate to the cent and price accordingly. On a direct order that fee is the only percentage; Tuckly does not add one, and the pricing page covers the subscription.

Allergens on the menu

Australia’s allergen labelling rules (PEAL) came into force on 25 February 2024. For unpackaged food sold at cafés and takeaways, allergen declarations must be displayed in connection with the food or provided to the purchaser on request. Online, the equivalent is dietary notes on each item that the customer can read before ordering. Keep them accurate when a supplier changes a sauce; the menu builder makes the edit a thirty-second job from a phone.

Dine-in QR for the people who stay

Venues with tables can put a QR on each one so guests order from their seat into the same order screen as the pick up orders. It is the same menu, the same allergen notes and the same no-commission arithmetic, and it takes the pressure off the counter at the exact moment the pick up queue peaks. Guests use the phone browser; there is nothing to install.

POS: a status, not a logo

Square for Restaurants is sold in Australia and Square’s developer APIs are open, with Australian payment processing supported. Lightspeed Restaurant is available in Australia with API access reserved for partners. Clover lists Australia among its markets and approves production developer accounts individually. The integrations directory states for each whether Tuckly pushes orders in, syncs the menu, or is still at the “talk to us” stage. If your POS is not listed, it is not integrated, and orders would be keyed in by hand, which is worth knowing before you count on saving that time.

Marketplaces stay on

None of this requires leaving Uber Eats, DoorDash or Menulog. They bring the tourist, the new resident and the office that has never heard of you. The direct site is for the people who have. Running both means two order screens for a while, which most venues already have; the direct one is the screen with the better margin on it.

The first fortnight

Put the link on Google Business Profile. Print a QR on the next run of bags or a counter card. Tell the regulars. Then compare the marketplace statement at the end of the month with the one before, and use the commission calculator with your real rate to see what a hundred orders moved is worth.