Where Most Chains Start
Before its digital programme, Sunset Boulevard sold digitally “through own web shop and take-away portals”. Together they made up 2% of revenue. The other 98% of orders were taken by hand, at the till and the drive-in.
Sunset was not unusual. Sprinting Retail's post on digital food ordering notes that most web shop food sales run through large food ordering platforms. So the question is rarely whether to have an own channel or a platform listing. It is which one to build the business on.
Commission: the Cost of Someone Else's Channel
The same post names the cost directly:
“Most web shop food sales are driven by large food ordering platforms … The main issue … is the high commission.”
Commission is charged on every order, including orders from guests who already knew your brand and would have found you anyway. The rates are set by the platform and agreed per contract, so we do not quote one here. Check your own invoices: the number that matters is what you paid last month on orders from guests who were already yours.
An order in your own web shop, app or kiosk carries no platform commission. Sprinting Retail's FoodShop page lists “higher contribution margin and earnings” among the results for the chain.
Guest Data: Who Knows the Guest
In your own channel, the guest's details come to you. On the live Sunset shop, a guest can check out without an account, and the shop still asks for name, email and phone. The same checkout offers to enrol the guest in the free points programme and shows exactly what this order would earn: “Optjen 120 SunsetPoints på denne ordre”, earn 120 SunsetPoints on this order.
That is the moment a one-off guest becomes a member you can reach again. When the order is placed on a third-party platform, checkout happens in the platform's app, and that moment belongs to the platform.
Owning the channel also means owning the flow. Sprinting Retail's post asks a web shop for search visibility, deep links to products, analytics, and “the right upsales at the right point of time in the ordering process”. On your own shop you decide all four. We show what the upsell flow looks like on a live shop in Why Digital Orders Are Bigger.
Loyalty: Points, and a Subscription
A loyalty programme only works where the guest orders. Sprinting Retail's post makes the link: loyalty features are what get guests to use the app, and the app is where impulse purchases happen. “A missed sale will never come back.”
Sunset Boulevard runs two programmes side by side, both inside its own shop:
- SunsetPoint, a free points programme, offered at checkout with the points each order earns.
- SunsetPLUS, a paid subscription. On the live shop in October 2026 it has three tiers: Basic at 59 kr a month for 30% off purchases up to 150 kr a day, Premium at 149 kr for 40% off up to 600 kr a day, and Exclusive at 299 kr for 50% off up to 600 kr a day. Members can use it in all restaurants, at the self-service kiosks and in the drive-in.
“A ground-breaking innovation in the Danish fast-food restaurant market.”
Carl's Jr. Denmark, a Salling Group franchise with around 20 restaurants, uses punch cards in its app. Its preorder and pay app, “integrated with our POS system”, was delivered in 3.5 months, and the case lists a new revenue channel for the restaurants among the results.
A subscription with a daily discount, points per order, a free meal on sign-up: each needs the order to happen in a channel the chain controls.
Why Many Chains Run Both
Sunset ran its own web shop and take-away portals side by side before its digital programme. The reason chains keep both is a division of labour. The platforms are where many guests already look for food, so they bring reach. Your own channel is where the margin, the guest relationship and the loyalty programme live.
The practical aim, then, is not to leave the platforms. It is to make your own channel the easiest place for a returning guest to order, in the restaurant and on the way. At Sunset Boulevard, as reported in the case, 85% of orders inside the restaurant (excluding drive-in) are self-service, by kiosk or app, and digital orders overall went from 2% to almost 80%.
“The investment in Sprinting FoodShop has given us excellent returns.”
The full story is in the Sunset Boulevard case study.
A Checklist for Your Channel Mix
- Total last month's platform commission, and how much of it came from returning guests.
- Make sure your own shop asks for contact details and offers loyalty at checkout.
- Give members a reason to order in your app: points, punch cards or a subscription.
- Put kiosks in the restaurant, so guests learn your channel on site.
- Keep the platforms for reach, and point returning guests to your own channel.
Facts and quotes about Sunset Boulevard and Carl's Jr. are from the published Sunset Boulevard and Carl's Jr. customer stories by Sprinting Retail, the company that develops FoodShop, and refer to the period the cases describe. SunsetPLUS prices and the checkout prompt were read from the live Sunset Boulevard shop in October 2026. The quotes on commission and loyalty are from Sprinting Retail's post How to Fuel Food Sales with a Powerful Digital Food Ordering System. The reasoning on running both channels is general practice.