Could 1% Online Ordering Change the Game for Restaurants?
Square and Cash App are giving restaurants a new way to attract customers, take direct orders, and build lasting relationships.
Online ordering is essential for many restaurants, but getting those orders can come at a cost. Third-party marketplaces like DoorDash and Uber Eats can charge commissions of 15%–30%, depending on the platform and plan.
That's a significant portion of every order.
Square is offering restaurants another way to bring in online business—without paying a marketplace commission on qualifying Cash App orders.
Meet Neighborhoods on Cash App
Through Neighborhoods on Cash App, eligible Square restaurants can create an ordering profile where customers can discover the restaurant, browse the menu, and place an order.
When a customer places an order directly through that profile inside Cash App, the restaurant pays just 1% processing.
There is no marketplace commission or monthly fee on those qualifying orders.
One important detail: the 1% rate depends on where the customer places the order—not how they pay.
Orders placed through the restaurant's regular website do not qualify for the 1% rate.
It's More Than Online Ordering
Customers can follow restaurants they like and earn 10% back in Local Cash on qualifying purchases, up to $10 per order.
Restaurants can also reach their followers with offers, updates, and marketing campaigns.
That means Square isn't just helping you take an order.
It's helping you get the customer back.
And Local Cash isn't limited to the restaurant where it was earned. Customers can use it at other participating Neighborhoods businesses, creating a network of local businesses and customers.
Square Is Making Restaurants Easier to Find
This is where Square's strategy gets even bigger.
Customers don't always open a restaurant's website when they're hungry. They search.
So Square is working to put restaurants where customers are already looking.
Square now connects eligible restaurants with discovery opportunities through platforms including:
Cash App
Google Maps
ChatGPT and Claude
Apple Maps
Customers can discover restaurants, see menus, and—where supported—move directly into ordering.
Instead of hoping customers remember your website, Square is helping put your restaurant in front of them when they're ready to order.
What Could 1% Mean for Your Restaurant?
Let's say your restaurant receives $25,000 a month in qualifying Cash App orders.
At 1%, that's:
$250 a month
Or:
$3,000 a year
And that's just the processing cost.
The bigger opportunity is getting more customers to order directly from your restaurant instead of through a third-party marketplace.
The Bigger Picture
Third-party marketplaces aren't going away. They can still be valuable for discovery and delivery.
But they don't have to be the only way customers find and order from you.
Square is building a different path:
Get discovered.
Google. Apple. Cash App. AI.
Get the order
Direct online ordering through Square and qualifying Cash App orders at 1%.
Get the customer back.
Followers. Local Cash. Offers. Marketing.
And it all connects back to the same Square system you're already using to run your restaurant.
That's the real opportunity.
The 1% gets your attention.
But keeping more of the customer relationship is what could really change the game.
A Different Approach to Online Ordering
Third-party marketplaces aren't going away, and they can still be incredibly valuable for discovery and delivery.
But restaurants shouldn't necessarily have to pay marketplace-level costs for every online customer forever.
That's what makes Neighborhoods worth watching.
Square already powers the restaurant. Cash App already has the consumer audience. Now they're connecting the two with 1% qualifying online-order processing, customer discovery, rewards, marketing, and Google integration.
For restaurant owners trying to protect margins while growing direct online business, that could be a very big deal.
Online ordering isn't new. But 1% could change the conversation.
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