Who's standing between you and your customers
Twenty trades, and the platform taking a cut in each one. Rows marked ● are where it hurts most: a customer worth a lot, a steep cut, and buyers who search locally.
| Trade | In the way | How it bleeds them |
|---|---|---|
| ● Hair, nails, lash & brow | Fresha · Treatwell · Booksy | Commission on every new client the marketplace sends |
| Barbers | Booksy · Fresha | Marketplace fees, and no loyalty to you |
| ● Aesthetics clinics | Groupon · Wowcher · Treatwell | Deep discounts that attract bargain hunters who never return |
| Massage & spa | Treatwell · Buyagift · Wowcher | Voucher discounts plus commission |
| Gyms, yoga, pilates | ClassPass · Wellhub · Groupon | A fraction of what a direct member is worth, per visit |
| ● Physio, chiro, osteo | Groupon · Doctify · Top Doctors | Discounting, plus a fee to appear on someone else’s site |
| Cosmetic dentistry | Groupon · aligner lead-gen | Cheap-deal patients and bought leads |
| ● Trades — plumbers, sparks, builders | Checkatrade · MyBuilder · Rated People · Bark | A subscription, then the same lead sold to several rivals |
| Gardeners & landscapers | Checkatrade · Bark | Pay per lead, into a price race |
| Cleaners | Bark · Airtasker | Shared leads and a race to the bottom |
| ● Removals | Compare My Move · Bark | One lead sold to several firms at once |
| Car garages / MOT | BookMyGarage · WhoCanFixMyCar | Booking fees, and customers comparing on price alone |
| ● Restaurants & takeaways | Just Eat · Deliveroo · Uber Eats · TheFork | A cut of every order, including the regulars |
| Hotels & B&Bs | Booking.com · Expedia | High commission — and the platform owns the guest |
| Activities & escape rooms | Groupon · Virgin Experience Days | Sold well below your own price |
| Wedding suppliers | Hitched · Bridebook · Bark | Listing fees and pay-per-lead |
| Party & event entertainment | Poptop · Bark · Add to Event | Commission and lead fees |
| Tutors | Tutorful · MyTutor · Superprof | Commission on every lesson, indefinitely |
| Pet groomers & walkers | Rover · booking apps | A platform fee on every booking, repeat clients included |
| Photographers | Bark · Hitched | Pay per lead |
Why those five
A customer worth a lot, a steep cut, and people who search locally. Everything else is a worse version of the same trade.
Paying to be one of four
A subscription and a fee for a lead three rivals are phoning at the same moment. An exclusive, direct enquiry is not a better version of that — it is a different product.
High ticket, sick of Groupon
The discount brings someone shopping on price who never returns at full price. They know it, and most of them are already looking for the way out.
A patient is a course, not a visit
One new patient books six sessions, so the value of a direct enquiry is several times the headline figure — and several times the platform's cut.
High ticket, sold four times
Expensive, one-off, and the same quote request is sold to several firms. Arriving first and alone is worth more here than almost anywhere.
The easiest first yes
A familiar commission model and heavy repeat business, so the cost of renting the relationship compounds visibly. Usually the quickest conversation to have.
Some of these trades cannot say what they like
In the UK, prescription-only medicines — Botox among them — cannot be advertised to the public at all. Solicitors and financial advisers work under their own regulators. Content generated for those trades needs guardrails from the first draft, not a review at the end, because the exposure lands on the business rather than on us.
βWave has a compliance filter in the generation path for exactly this reason. It is the least glamorous thing in the product and the one most likely to keep a client out of trouble.
Which one is in your way?
We read your live site and name them. Free, read-only, about ninety seconds.
Which one is in your way?
Give us your address and we read your live site the way a search engine does — naming the platforms standing between you and your customers. About ninety seconds. Read-only: nothing on your site is touched, and nobody logs into anything.