Understand how much it costs to use Cookaborough to manage your business.
Regardless of the size of your business, you have full access to the suite of platform features and benefits for the fee charged by us on each order placed. Read on to understand these feed depending on your type of business and the type of customer you service.
What is Cookaborough's pricing model?
Cookaborough charges a commission on each order processed via the platform. There are no set-up fees, lock-in contracts, subscriptions or exit fees. This means that we only take a payment from you when your business is making sales through the platform.
NB: OUR COMMISSION ALSO INCLUDES PAYMENT GATEWAY TRANSACTION FEES, WHICH ARE FEES CHARGED TO BUSINESSES AND CUSTOMERS FOR ANY ONLINE TRANSACTION.
How much commission does Cookaborough take on each order?
Most transactions on Cookaborough are charged 8% + GST but the exact commission amount is determined by the type of food sold and the type of order. These additions and discounts are detailed below:
Type of food sold
- Ready-made meals: The base commission for a business selling ready-made meals on Cookaborough is 8% + GST.
- Catering: The base commission for a business running catering on Cookaborough is 6% + GST per transaction.
- Artisan: Artisans include bakers (who mostly make breads and pies) and patissiers (who mostly make cakes and pastries). The base commission for selling Artisan products is 6% + GST per transaction.
Type of Customer orders
- Standard: An order made by a Standard Customer is charged at the base commission rate as per above.
- Home Care Package or NDIS Participant: Orders made by Home Care Packages or NDIS customers are charged the base commission plus an additional 2%.
- Find-A-Cook Directory Customers: Orders by customers who have connected with your business via Cookaborough’s ‘Find a Cook’ directory are charged the base commission plus an additional 2%.
- Cash & Invoice Customers: Orders made by Customers who you have approved to pay via Cash or Invoice are charged the base commission less 2%.
What is included in Cookaborough's commission?
Everything! The commission includes access to all feature and functions of the platform, plus access to resource guides, marketing collateral design templates and 7-day per week support services.
There are no fees to set up your business on Cookaborough. Our team will work with you to get your business up and running and you don’t pay a cent until you get an order.
No lock-in period
There are no lock-in contracts, you are free to stop using the platform at any time without incurring exit fees or. If you do decide to stop using the platform your data and customer details can be downloaded and taken with you.
Third party inclusions
In addition to our in-house software development, Cookaborough also pays third party companies for their specialised software services. A few examples of these integrated services included in your fee are:
- Stripe is the global payment gateway system that we use to process all your customer payments. They are one of the world’s leading payment systems with the highest level of security. Through our agreement with Stripe we provide additional services such as fraud detection on every single transaction that automatically stops suspicious transactions from going through. The fees charged by Stripe are approximately 2% of every transaction
- Sendgrid manages incoming and outgoing emails and customer notifications.
- Routific is a delivery routing tool that integrates with your orders to manage delivery routes.
- AWS (Amazon Web Services) provides hosting services, security and technical support for our software platform. AWS is the world's largest Cloud provider and is used by companies such as AirBnB, Netflix and Coca Cola.
Frequently asked questions
Why do NDIS & HCP orders incur an additional 2% fee?
To enable businesses to more easily service HCP & NDIS Participants we spend considerable time and resources building and maintaining the platform so your business can realise the opportunity presented by these two growing segments.
In addition to the platform functionality we also provide high-touch account management to help you connect with Care Providers and Plan Managers, resulting in you finding long-term, high value customers who order their meals via these government funded programs.
The additional 2% fee is to compensate Cookaborough for the time, resources and investment to help service these customers.
Why do customers who connect via Find-a-Cook incur an additional 2% fee?
The Find-a-Cook directory is a destination for hungry households to search for and connect with businesses on Cookaborough. Being featured on the directory is a form of marketing for your business and presents an opportunity to reach new customers. Appearing on the directory is optional and can be turned on and off via your account Settings.
Why do cash and invoice orders receive a discount of 2%?
When an order is made using a credit card the payment is processed via Stripe, our payment gateway partner. On each transaction Stripe charges a fee of approximately 2% of the total transaction value. When a customer places their order and they are tagged as a cash or invoice customer, the order is not processed by Stripe, therefore we are able to waive this portion of the fee.
Why does catering have a lower base rate to ready-made meals?
Catering businesses receive a reduce base commission due to some of the functionality in the platform being less relevant for a catering business (for example a catering menu is typically always-on, not requiring weekly emails to be sent). Catering orders tend to be higher dollar value, where a lower commission is fairer. A ready-made meals business that also has Catering menus will be charged 8% + GST on the Ready-made meal orders and 6% + GST on catering menu orders.
Why do artisan products have a different base rate to ready-made meals?
Bakers and pastry makers typically have multiple orders for lower price points, where a lower fee is therefore fairer. These businesses also can us Cookaborough only for particular moments in the year such as Easter or Christmas, or have monthly rather than weekly menus, making them less costly to run for Cookaborough.
Can I pass on some of the commission to my customers?
Yes you can. Via your Settings you have the ability to add a service fee onto customer orders of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% or 2%. For Home Care Package and NDIS customer orders the options are 1%, 2%, 3% or 5%. The fee is automatically added to each order and is presented as a line item for the customer at checkout.
Do social enterprises receive a discount on commission?
Yes. If you are operating as a social enterprise, please get in touch to discuss discounted fees.
TIP: OFF-SETTING FEES: You have the option to off-set your fees by adding a service fee to your customers' orders, which are subsequently paid for by your customers. Similar to credit card fees charged for various types of purchases in store and online, this option can assist you in off-setting your cookaborough fees.
the cost for each customer is negligible for them, whereas the cost for you across your whole customer base can make a big difference to your bottom line. You can opt to charge 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% or 2%.
We want you to thrive
Running a food business is hard work and margins tend to be thin.
Cookaborough currently provides our full suite of features and functions as part of the above explained fees with no exceptions, meaning that all functionality is covered in the fees. These features include online payment, recipe storage, automatic labels and nutrition panels, customisable customer management, promotional tools, menu scheduling, costing, recipe cards, order slips and pick and pack options and more.
We are built specifically to be relevant for your type of business and to provide you with the features and functions you need to thrive.
Need more help?
Online: Check out the 'Learn' tab on the Cookaborough home page for more tips, tricks and insights.
Email: If you have further questions or need assistance, contact our team.