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brewery online ordering

brewery ยท Online ordering

Brewery online ordering systems

A brewery is three businesses sharing one tap wall: a taproom that pours pints and serves food, a bottle shop that sells crowlers, 4-packs, and cases to go, and a merch counter moving glassware, hats, and gift cards. Online ordering has to serve all three at once, which is why the food-delivery playbook most vendors sell does not quite fit. Nearly three-quarters of restaurant traffic is now off-premises, and for a brewery the off-premises order is often a case of beer, not a burger. The third-party marketplaces that dominate restaurant delivery were built for prepared food: they charge 15% / 25% / 30% in commission, and once refunds and processing are folded in the effective cost reaches 30%-40% of revenue, a punishing rate to attach to an $18 four-pack or a $60 case.

The strategic answer for most breweries is to own the channel. First-party ordering guests attach to loyalty programs at 41% vs 3%, and a brewery runs on exactly that behavior: the mug club, the beer club, the members-only release drop. When a case sale goes through your own checkout you keep the margin and the guest record; when it goes through a marketplace you keep neither. Operators moving delivery in-house through platforms like Owner.com report $31,000 fees saved in avoided third-party fees, and for a brewery those fees are heaviest exactly where the margin is best, on packaged beer to go.

Build your restaurant Online ordering buyer guide

By the numbers

The economics for a brewery.

30%-40% of revenue
Once marketing, refunds, and processing are included, the effective cost of a third-party delivery order ends up closer to 30% to 40% of revenue, roughly one-third of each order

Source: Rezku

15% / 25% / 30%
DoorDash restaurants typically choose from Basic (15%), Plus (25%), and Premier (30%) delivery commission plans, plus a 6% commission on pickup orders

Source: Sauce (getsauce.com)

41% vs 3%
First-party ordering guests attach to restaurant loyalty programs at 41%, versus just 3% for guests acquired through third-party marketplaces

Source: Paytronix

$31,000 fees saved
Restaurants moving delivery to first-party ordering via Owner.com report avoided third-party fees, such as $31,000 in third-party fee savings for one operator, and one brand reaching over $7M in direct online sales

Source: Owner.com

~75%
Nearly 75% of all restaurant traffic now happens off-premises (takeout, drive-thru, and delivery)

Source: National Restaurant Association

What a brewery needs from online ordering

The core requirement is a catalog that thinks in retail SKUs, not just a food menu. A brewery sells the same beer as a pour, a crowler, a 4-pack, and a case, often with a purchase cap per customer on a limited release, and the ordering system has to model all of that cleanly. On top of that sits alcohol compliance: an age gate at checkout and an ID check at pickup are not optional, and delivery has to be switchable by jurisdiction because the rules on shipping and delivering beer vary widely. Get those two things right and the taproom food, the merch, and the gift cards are the easy part.

  • A retail catalog, not just a menu: the same beer sold as a crowler, a 4-pack, a 6-pack, or a case, with per-customer caps for limited releases
  • Alcohol compliance built in: an age gate at checkout, an ID prompt at pickup, and delivery you can switch off where local law requires
  • Scheduled pickup and curbside windows so a case order does not clog the taproom line at 6pm on a Friday
  • Taproom food and to-go beer on one cart, so a guest checks out a burger and a 4-pack together
  • Merch and gift cards as first-class products, not a bolt-on, since they carry margin and extend average order value

Where third-party fees hit a brewery hardest

Every restaurant complains about delivery commissions, but a brewery has an unusual exposure: its highest-margin line, packaged beer to go, is also the line marketplaces tax the most. A percentage commission that is merely annoying on a burger becomes brutal on a $60 case, and once the effective cost climbs to 30%-40% of revenue with refunds and processing, a to-go order can cost more to fulfill through an app than it earns. Worse, most third-party apps handle alcohol, ID checks, and case quantities poorly, so they route the guest to a channel that is both more expensive and worse at the job. The quiet damage is to the relationship: on a marketplace the buyer belongs to the app, which severs the repeat-purchase loops (the beer club, the release presale) that independent breweries live on.

  • Commissions of 15% / 25% / 30% land on packaged retail, where a fixed per-order cost can exceed the pour margin on a single case
  • Marketplaces mask the guest's identity, so you cannot invite a case buyer into a mug club or a members-only drop
  • First-party guests attach to loyalty at 41% vs 3%, the exact behavior a brewery's regulars provide
  • Owning the checkout lets you run allocation drops and member presales a marketplace cannot support
  • The $31,000 fees saved breweries report in avoided fees comes from moving to-go volume onto their own channel

How to choose

Buying online ordering systems for a brewery.

  • Sell retail, not just plates. Choose a system whose catalog models packaged beer by quantity (crowlers, 4-packs, cases) and enforces per-customer caps on limited releases, not one that can only publish a food menu.
  • Trace the alcohol compliance path end to end. Confirm there is an age gate at checkout, an ID check at pickup or delivery, and a switch to disable delivery by jurisdiction before you sign, because bolting compliance on later is painful.
  • Run the commission math on a case, not a burger. Compare a marketplace's 15% / 25% / 30% against a flat monthly first-party fee on a real $60 case order, where the percentage model does the most damage.
  • Own the guest record. Favor a platform that keeps the customer data and loyalty attaches at 41% vs 3%, so a one-time case buyer can become a beer-club member instead of an anonymous app order.

The tools

Which online ordering systems to shortlist for a brewery.

Vendor-neutral, best-first, with the honest note on where each one actually fits.

Owner.com

AI-native, commission-free first-party ordering that keeps the margin and guest data on to-go beer, the best default for an independent brewery escaping app fees.

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ChowNow

Flat-fee, commission-free ordering with your own branded app and site, which protects the margin on high-ticket case and 4-pack orders.

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BentoBox

Hospitality-first website plus ordering that merchandises merch and retail packs well, strong when the brewery cares about brand and its own store.

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UpMenu

Direct ordering with built-in loyalty and membership tools, a fit for breweries running mug clubs and beer clubs off their own site.

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Flipdish

Branded apps and sites with pickup and curbside support, a solid mid-market first-party option for a growing taproom.

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GloriaFood

Free to low-cost ordering widget, the right starting point for a small taproom testing to-go sales before committing to a platform.

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Menufy

Low-cost first-party online ordering, a budget way to own the checkout without a marketplace commission.

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Grubhub for Restaurants

A third-party marketplace that adds demand but takes a steep commission and handles alcohol and case orders poorly, best kept for kitchen food only.

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Deliverect

Middleware that syncs menus and orders across channels into your POS, useful only if the brewery is already juggling several delivery apps.

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Head-to-head

The comparisons worth reading first.

ChowNow vs Owner.com

Where TableMagic fits for a brewery

Describe the improvement you need and build it around your restaurant: a website, direct-ordering journey, booking flow, or guest follow-up. Review the result, then keep improving it in plain language. Use the free restaurant planner to choose the first job. Connect the accounts it needs and review supported integrations, costs, and public changes before going live.

Explore online ordering

Questions

What a brewery owner asks.

Can a brewery sell to-go beer online through DoorDash or Grubhub?
In some markets yes, but those marketplaces were built for prepared food and charge 15% / 25% / 30% in commission, with an effective cost near 30%-40% of revenue once refunds and processing are counted. They also handle age verification and case quantities poorly. Most breweries route packaged beer through a first-party channel and keep a marketplace like Grubhub for Restaurants only for kitchen food, if at all.
Do I need age verification for online beer orders?
Yes. Any online alcohol order needs an age gate at checkout and an ID check at pickup or delivery, and the rules on delivering or shipping beer vary by state and locality. Choose an ordering system that builds this in and lets you disable delivery where it is not permitted, rather than adding a manual workaround.
Is a simple ordering widget enough, or do I need a full platform?
It depends on volume and ambition. A small taproom testing to-go sales can start with a low-cost widget such as GloriaFood or Menufy. A brewery running beer clubs, merch, and limited-release drops wants a platform that owns the guest record and can merchandise retail SKUs, such as Owner.com, ChowNow, or BentoBox.

Keep going

Drill down, or across.

Every page on TableMagic connects up to its hub, across to its siblings, and out to the sources behind every number.

Up a level

More online ordering systems by type

The AI side

References

Every figure on this page drills down.

5 sourced statistics cited here across 5 publications. Each number links to the research hub, and each entry there links out to its primary source.

  1. 01National Restaurant Association, From Trend to Transformation: Off-Premises Dining Now Essential (2025)
  2. 02Sauce (getsauce.com), Breaking Down DoorDash Fees For Restaurants (2024)
  3. 03Rezku, Third-Party Delivery Fees in 2026: What DoorDash, Uber Eats & Grubhub Really Cost Restaurants (2026)
  4. 04Paytronix, Online Ordering 2024 Trends: Converting Guests from Third- to First-Party (2024)
  5. 05Owner.com, Online Ordering and Restaurant Marketing System (2026)
Term First-party orderingTerm First-party dataTerm Average checkTerm Third-party deliveryTerm Customer lifetime value (CLV)Tool Owner.comTool Grubhub for RestaurantsTool GloriaFoodTool MenufyTool ChowNowTool BentoBox

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Brewery online ordering for to-go beer & merch | TableMagic