Your own app or delivery apps? What changes for a multi-branch brand

Where most multi-branch brands sell online today

For most restaurant, sweets and retail chains, online orders arrive through two doors: the delivery apps and the call centre. Both work, up to a point. Both also carry costs that grow with every order.

What delivery apps cost you, beyond the commission

• A commission on every order. The more you sell through them, the more you pay.
• The customer belongs to the app. You rarely get the contact details or the order history, so you cannot reach that customer again directly.
• Your brand sits next to your competitors. The customer is one tap away from ordering somewhere else.
• Offers run on their terms. Visibility, discounts and campaigns are decided inside someone else’s platform.

And what the call centre costs

Every phone order needs staff, lines, space and training, and customers wait on hold at the busiest times. Orders are typed in by hand, so mistakes travel to the branch and to the customer.

What your own channel changes

An app and website in your brand’s name turn online ordering into something you own:

• Direct orders, with no commission on each one.
• Customer data that is yours: who buys, what they buy and when, so you can plan instead of guess.
• Loyalty that works everywhere: points on every purchase, in the app and in the branch, in one account per customer.
• Offers you control: coupons for occasions, for new customers and for customers who stopped ordering, plus targeted notifications.

It only works if it is connected

Many apps stall because one part is missing: a system that is not connected to the branches, branches that do not follow the orders, or an app with no offers to bring customers back. That is why we work on three things together.

• Technology. An app and website connected to online payment, delivery, ERP and POS, so orders arrive without errors and prices and stock are right in every branch.
• Operations. A dashboard for management and a screen for every branch to follow orders, drivers and customers.
• Marketing. Points, coupons and notifications, with reports that show who buys and what they buy.

What it looks like in practice

Etoile Egypt used to take a large share of its orders through the call centre. Today its own app has more than 520,000 users, in March 2025 it reached #2 in the Food & Drink chart on the App Store and Google Play in Egypt, and the app and website take 1,500 to 4,500 orders a day, connected to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and LS Central. Read the Etoile Egypt story.

Do you have to leave the delivery apps?

No. Delivery apps are useful for reach, especially in new areas. The point is balance: keep them as one channel, and build your own channel next to them, so every customer who finds you through a delivery app has a reason to order from you directly next time.

How to start

1. Map how orders flow today: the channels, the branches, the call centre and the systems behind them.
2. Decide what the first version must do: delivery zones, payment methods, loyalty, and the link to ERP and POS.
3. See it before it is built: a live prototype of the app before the final proposal.
4. Build and connect in stages, with a defined timeline and your approval at each stage.
5. Launch with your branch teams: testing, publishing on the App Store and Google Play, and staff training.

Planning your own app or online store? See how we build them on our mobile app and e‑commerce pages.