Platform-Based Pricing: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How Kayana Helps You Stay in Control
You've probably noticed it yourself. That burger you love costs £8.99 when you walk into the restaurant, but £11.99 when you order it through Uber Eats. Your first thought might be: "Are they just trying to squeeze more money out of me?" Here's the truth: they're using platform-based pricing to stay in business.
When a customer orders through a delivery platform, the restaurant pays a commission of 15% to 35%. Add in packaging costs, platform service fees, and payment processing charges, and suddenly that £8.99 burger is barely profitable at all.
Platform-based pricing enables restaurants to set different prices for the same item based on where it's sold, ensuring they can cover their costs and maintain profitability across all sales channels.
So why should restaurants keep their prices the same across all channels when their costs differ so much?
The short answer is: they shouldn't. And increasingly, they don't.
This is where understanding platform-based pricing becomes critical, and this is exactly where Kayana comes in. With the right tools, mastering multi-channel pricing could be the difference between thriving and just surviving in today's competitive food service landscape.
What Is Platform-Based Pricing?
Platform-based pricing is a straightforward concept: you set different prices for the same menu item depending on where it's being sold.
Instead of charging £5.99 for a fish and chips everywhere, you can price it strategically across every sales channel you operate:
- Your in-store EPOS system
- A self-service kiosk
- Your own branded website or app
- Third-party delivery platforms like Deliveroo
- Other platforms like Uber Eats or Just Eat
Here's what this might look like in practice with Kayana's platform-based pricing:
- Self-service kiosk: £4.99 (lowest cost to serve)
- In-store EPOS: £5.49 (includes staff service)
- Your own website: £5.99 (small payment processing fee)
- Deliveroo: £7.49 (covers high commission)
- Uber Eats: £6.99 (covers slightly lower commission)
Notice something? The price rises as the cost to fulfil that order increases. This isn't about overcharging customers. It's about pricing intelligently based on the real costs of doing business on each platform.
With Kayana, you can set all these prices from a single central location in the Kayana Partner Admin, without logging into multiple platforms or managing complicated spreadsheets. Your menu stays consistent, but your pricing adapts automatically to each channel.
Ready to Take Control of Your Pricing?
See how Kayana lets you manage platform-based pricing across all your channels from one powerful dashboard. Set different prices, update instantly, and protect your margins.
Customers already understand this intuitively. They know ordering through an app costs more than picking something up themselves. What they expect is value for convenience, not identical pricing everywhere.
Why One-Size-Fits-All Pricing No Longer Works
Ten years ago, most restaurants had a single menu with a single set of prices. Life was simpler. But the market has fundamentally changed, and your pricing strategy needs to change with it.
Today, you're not just running a restaurant. You're managing multiple sales channels, each with its own cost structure:
- Delivery platforms take a hefty cut. Commission rates from aggregators typically range from 20% to 35%. On a £10 order, you might only see £6.50 to £8.00 after fees.
- Online orders have hidden costs. Packaging, platform fees, payment processing, customer service inquiries, refunds and adjustments all add up quickly.
- In-store orders are your most profitable. When someone orders at the counter or through your kiosk, you avoid third-party commissions entirely. The only costs are your standard overheads.
- Different platforms have different fee structures. Deliveroo might charge 30%, while Uber Eats charges 25%. Your own website might only cost you 2-3% in payment processing.
If your costs vary this dramatically by channel, why would your pricing stay the same? A flat price across all platforms means you're either losing money on delivery orders or overcharging in-store customers. Neither is sustainable.
This is exactly the problem Kayana solves! Instead of treating all channels the same, Kayana empowers you to customise pricing on different platforms based on your actual costs, protecting your margins while staying competitive.
The simple truth: if your costs change by platform, your pricing should too.
Why Platform-Based Pricing Matters for Your Business
Beyond covering costs, platform-based pricing offers strategic advantages that can transform your business model. And when you manage it through Kayana, these benefits become immediately accessible.
- It protects your profit margins. When you price appropriately for each channel through Kayana Partner Admin, you ensure every order contributes positively to your bottom line, not just your top-line revenue.
- It covers platform commissions without eating into quality. You won't need to cut corners on ingredients or portion sizes to stay profitable on delivery orders. Your food stays consistent while Kayana helps your pricing adapt.
- It encourages customers toward lower-cost channels. When you use Kayana to set lower kiosk prices compared to delivery platforms, price-conscious customers naturally choose the option that saves you the most money. Everyone wins.
One Dashboard. All Your Platforms. Complete Control.
Discover how Kayana transforms multi-channel pricing from a headache into your biggest competitive advantage.
- It gives you flexibility with promotions. Want to run a discount on your website to build your direct ordering base? With Kayana, you can do that without impacting your delivery platform pricing or in-store margins. Update one channel without touching the others.
- It helps you stay competitive without a race to the bottom. Instead of discounting everywhere to compete, Kayana lets you be strategic about where you offer the best value while maintaining profitability across all channels.
This isn't about charging more. It's about charging correctly based on the true cost of serving each customer through each channel, and Kayana makes that possible without the complexity.
The Kayana Advantage: Complete Pricing Control From One Dashboard
Here's where most businesses hit a wall. Platform-based pricing sounds great in theory, but managing different prices across five or six platforms seems like a logistical nightmare.
Logging into Deliveroo, then Uber Eats, then Just Eat, then your EPOS system, then your website admin, just to update the price of one item? No thanks.
This is exactly where Kayana transforms the game: the Kayana Partner Admin gives you complete control over all your pricing from one powerful dashboard.
Customise Pricing on Every Platform, From One Place
With Kayana, restaurant owners can customise pricing on different platforms without the headache of multiple logins. Need to adjust your Deliveroo pricing to account for a commission increase? Done in seconds. Want to lower your kiosk prices to drive more in-store orders? Updated instantly from the same dashboard.
You're not just managing prices. You're controlling your entire multi-channel strategy from one central hub.
Set Different Prices Per Platform Instantly
Kayana eliminates the old way of doing things. No more logging into each platform separately. No more copying and pasting prices into different systems. And no more wondering if you updated everything correctly.
Set different prices per platform from a single dashboard, and Kayana handles the rest. You decide the strategy, Kayana executes it flawlessly across every channel.
One Dashboard. All Your Platforms. Complete Control.
Discover how Kayana transforms multi-channel pricing from a headache into your biggest competitive advantage.
Update Prices in Real-Time, No Waiting
When you change a price in the Kayana Partner Admin, it updates instantly across all your selected platforms. No delays, no waiting for manual approvals, no duplicate data entry.
Need to respond to a competitor's price change? Do it in real-time. Want to adjust for ingredient cost increases? Update once, apply everywhere. Kayana gives you the agility modern restaurant businesses need.
Keep Menus Consistent While Prices Adapt Automatically
Here's the beauty of Kayana's approach: your menu items, descriptions, images, and availability stay perfectly consistent across all platforms. What changes is just the pricing, automatically adapted to each channel based on your strategy.
Customers see the same great menu everywhere. You see the right profit margins everywhere. That's the Kayana difference.
Scale Effortlessly as You Grow
Adding a new delivery platform? Opening a second location? Launching your own branded app? With Kayana, your platform-based pricing strategy scales effortlessly.
Set your pricing rules once in the Kayana Partner Admin, then apply them to new platforms or locations with a few clicks. As you grow, Kayana grows with you, maintaining the same level of control and simplicity no matter how complex your operations become.
No spreadsheets. No platform hopping. And no headaches! Just complete control.
How Kayana Users Can Leverage Platform-Based Pricing
Let's look at how smart operators use Kayana's platform-based pricing to drive specific business outcomes:
Driving In-Store Orders
A quick-service restaurant uses Kayana to set its self-service kiosk prices 15-20% lower than delivery platforms. Result? More customers are choosing to visit in person, reducing reliance on delivery and improving margins on their highest-volume items.
They manage the entire strategy from the Kayana Partner Admin without touching individual platform settings.
Offsetting Delivery Commissions
A casual dining chain uses Kayana to adjust delivery platform prices just enough to cover commission fees while staying competitive. They protect profitability without appearing overpriced compared to competitors, and they can adjust pricing instantly as commission rates change.
Building a Direct Ordering Base
A pizzeria leverages Kayana to offer the best prices on its website, 10% lower than those on third-party apps. Over six months, they shifted 40% of their online orders to direct channels, dramatically reducing commission payments. All pricing updates are available in Kayana's single dashboard.
Stop Losing Money on Every Delivery Order
Kayana makes platform-based pricing simple. Customize prices for each platform, sync changes in real-time, and boost profitability without the complexity.
Strategic Peak Pricing
During busy Friday and Saturday evenings, a burger restaurant uses Kayana to increase delivery platform prices by £1-2 per item, knowing demand is high, and customers are less price-sensitive. This maximises revenue during peak periods, and they can schedule these changes in advance through Kayana.
Targeted Promotions
A coffee shop runs kiosk-only promotions during slow morning hours to drive foot traffic, while maintaining standard pricing on delivery apps where demand remains consistent. Kayana makes it simple to apply promotions selectively without affecting other channels.
Each of these strategies would be nearly impossible to execute without Kayana's centralised pricing control.
Breaking Down the Common Myths
Despite the clear benefits, some businesses hesitate to adopt platform-based pricing. Let's address the most common concerns and show how Kayana solves them:
"Customers Will Get Confused"
Actually, they won't. Customers already expect to pay more for convenience. They know a taxi costs more than walking, that hotel rooms cost more on weekends, and that delivery has a premium. Different prices for different services are completely normal in daily life.
Kayana helps you implement this naturally by maintaining consistent menus and clear pricing on each platform. Customers see one price when they open Deliveroo and a different price when they use your kiosk, and they understand exactly why.
"Platform-Based Pricing Might Feel Unfair to Customers"
What's actually unfair is losing money on every delivery order until you're forced to close down or compromise on quality. Customers benefit when you stay in business and maintain standards. Transparent pricing based on real costs is honest, not unfair.
With Kayana, you're not hiding anything. You're simply ensuring that each sales channel is priced appropriately for the service level and costs involved.
"Platform-Based Pricing Sounds Too Complicated to Manage"
This is where Kayana completely changes the conversation. Yes, platform-based pricing would be complicated if you had to manually update prices across six different platforms, track changes in spreadsheets, and hope nothing falls through the cracks.
But with Kayana, it's actually simpler than traditional pricing management. One dashboard. One update. Instant synchronisation across all platforms. You spend less time managing prices and more time running your business.
Smart Pricing Is Modern Pricing, and Kayana Makes Platform-Based Pricing Effortless
Platform-based pricing isn't a trend or a temporary workaround. It's how modern, multi-channel businesses operate profitably in an increasingly complex marketplace.
Your customers aren't shopping in just one place anymore. They're ordering through apps, websites, kiosks, and traditional counters, often all in the same week. Each of these channels serves them differently and costs you differently.
Treating them all the same made sense when you only had one channel. Today, it's leaving money on the table or worse, losing it with every transaction.
The businesses that thrive in this environment are those that price intelligently, manage efficiently, and maintain control of their profitability across every platform they serve.
Platform-based pricing gives you that control. Kayana makes it effortless.
With Kayana, you get:
- Complete visibility into pricing across all channels
- Instant updates that sync in real-time
- The flexibility to test, adjust, and optimise your strategy
- The confidence that comes from having one source of truth
- The freedom to scale without adding complexity
Stop losing money to platform commissions.
Stop juggling multiple dashboards.
And stop treating all your sales channels the same when their costs differ significantly.
Start using Kayana to take control of your platform-based pricing strategy and protect your margins without sacrificing customer satisfaction or operational simplicity.
Want to see how platform-based pricing works in Kayana Partner Admin?
Discover how Kayana's smart pricing tools can transform your multi-channel business.