The default model for digital ordering in local commerce is marketplace intermediation. A customer finds a business through a platform. The platform processes the payment. The platform takes a commission. The platform controls the data. The merchant receives what is left.
This model solved a real problem. It gave merchants access to digital demand they could not reach on their own. But it also created a dependency that weakens the merchant's position over time. The more a business relies on a marketplace for orders, the less control it has over pricing, margins, customer relationships, and its own economics.
Merchant-direct ordering is the alternative. It means the customer pays the merchant directly. No intermediary processes the transaction. No third party captures the margin or owns the customer relationship. The business that fulfills the order is the business that receives the revenue.
This is not a minor product distinction. It is a structural choice about how local commerce should work.
The marketplace dependency problem
Marketplaces grew by aggregating demand and connecting it to supply. That aggregation was valuable, especially for businesses that had no digital presence. But the cost of that aggregation has become clearer over time.
Commission rates on major food and service marketplaces typically range from 15% to 30% per transaction. For a business operating on already thin margins, that is not a fee. It is a structural transfer of value from the merchant to the platform.
Beyond the commission, the marketplace controls the customer relationship. The customer's loyalty is to the platform, not the business. The merchant does not own the transaction data. The merchant cannot build a direct relationship with the person who ordered from them. Every repeat customer is, in effect, a rental.
This creates a cycle where the merchant becomes more dependent on the marketplace to drive demand, while the marketplace captures more of the value that demand creates.
Why merchant-direct ordering is structurally different
Merchant-direct ordering breaks this cycle. When a customer pays the merchant directly, three things change.
The merchant keeps the margin. There is no commission on the transaction. The revenue that the business earns is the revenue the business keeps.
The merchant keeps the relationship. The customer interacted with the business, not with a platform. That creates the foundation for repeat visits, direct loyalty, and a customer connection that belongs to the merchant.
The merchant keeps the data. Transaction data, customer preferences, ordering patterns. These belong to the business, not to an intermediary. Over time, this data becomes one of the most valuable assets a local business can have.
None of this means marketplaces have no role. But it does mean that a healthy local commerce ecosystem needs a path where merchants can receive orders without surrendering their economics to a third party.
What this means for consumers
Merchant-direct ordering is not just a merchant-side improvement. It changes the consumer experience too.
When the transaction goes directly to the merchant, the customer is supporting the business they chose. The money does not pass through a platform that takes a share before the merchant sees it. The relationship is direct, transparent, and aligned.
For consumers who care about supporting local businesses, this is the cleanest path. It removes the structural gap between choosing a business and actually benefiting that business with the full value of the transaction.
Why near me® is built around this model
near me® exists to connect "near me" intent to nearby real-world fulfillment. That connection only works properly if the action at the end of the journey benefits the merchant as directly as possible.
In supported markets across Canada and select U.S. cities, near me® enables users to order direct from nearby merchants. The customer pays the merchant directly. near me® provides the discovery layer and the intent-to-action path. The transaction stays where it belongs.
This is the natural extension of the Local Commerce 2.0 thesis. Every brick-and-mortar business is a distribution center. Service businesses are fulfillment. If the infrastructure already exists at the point of sale, there is no structural reason for a middleman to sit between the customer and the merchant.
The economics of local commerce depend on this
The long-term health of local commerce depends on whether merchants can build sustainable, direct businesses in a digital environment.
If every digital order passes through a platform that takes 15% to 30%, local businesses are structurally disadvantaged compared to businesses that own their own digital channels. Over time, this erodes the margin that makes brick-and-mortar commerce viable.
Merchant-direct ordering is not a feature. It is a correction. It restores the economic relationship that has always existed in physical commerce: the customer pays the business that served them.
near me® is building the discovery-to-action layer that makes this possible at scale. Not by disintermediating marketplaces for the sake of it, but by providing a path where the merchant's visibility, the customer's intent, and the transaction itself are all aligned.
The merchant-direct layer of Local Commerce 2.0
Local Commerce 1.0 solved discovery. Marketplaces solved digital ordering but introduced structural dependency. Local Commerce 2.0 connects intent to action while keeping the transaction between the customer and the merchant.
That is the merchant-direct layer. It is not a workaround. It is how local commerce should have worked digitally from the beginning.
near me® is building this layer across Canadian cities and select U.S. cities, and expanding from there.