DoorDash promises restaurant owners access to new audiences, a profit margin of up to 60 percent, and a customer-pleasing average delivery time of 37 minutes. But the service remains unavailable to 20 percent of U.S. consumers, and not every merchant is thrilled with their DoorDash experience.
Even restaurants that are perfectly happy with DoorDash may wish to partner with multiple gig-worker delivery services. Because many of these companies accept orders through their own apps, they each represent an independent channel with a base of loyal consumers.
Whether you’re dissatisfied with DoorDash or simply wish to expand the delivery program at your restaurant, here are some DoorDash alternatives to look into.
1. Grubhub
Currently, Grubhub is DoorDash’s biggest competitor. While DoorDash controlled 42 percent of U.S. food delivery sales in February 2020, Grubhub (along with subsidiaries Seamless and Eat24) seized 28 percent. The two companies have established turf, with Grubhub dominating the cities of the Northeast and DoorDash earning well over half of all sales in large Texas cities and the Bay Area.
What makes it unique
Grubhub offers industry-leading support tools to partner restaurants, including web-ready online order links, with or without Grubhub branding. They also provide strong marketing services like email promotions, coupons, and targeted offers for repeat customers.
2. Postmates
Postmates made 9 percent of total U.S. meal delivery sales in March 2020, but it still leads the industry in spend per customer. Those statistics may seem incongruous, but they hint at Postmates’s strongest feature: Its contract delivery workers don’t just deliver meals from restaurants. They’ll drop off just about anything you can buy on a customer’s doorstep. Postmates’s reach is similar to DoorDash’s, with 80 percent of U.S. households in its delivery area.
What makes it unique
Postmates’s ability to deliver restaurant meals along with groceries, alcohol, and just about anything else gives it broad reach and a huge customer base. The company also offers strong promotions and flexible ordering integrations.
3. EatStreet
EatStreet may be the “fastest growing online food ordering company” in the United States, but it still doesn’t have the reach or market share of a Grubhub or a DoorDash. Still, it operates in more than 250 U.S. cities and boasts one of the simpler, more user-friendly ordering apps on the market.
What makes it unique
EatStreet is the only meal delivery company on this list that employs its drivers directly rather than using contract workers. This feature provides a more reliable, consistent service, EatStreet cofounder Matt Howard told Forbes.
“We can give our diners the information and experience they crave: accurate delivery times, reliable and friendly drivers, and a clear channel for providing feedback we use to improve the EatStreet experience,” Howard said.
4. Uber Eats
Uber Eats taps into the industry’s largest network of delivery drivers for reliably fast service. The company came in third by sales in March 2020, with 20 percent of the U.S. market. Uber Eats offers deliveries in more than 500 cities around the world, in 46 countries. (These numbers are likely to grow very quickly.)
What makes it unique
Uber Eats is a little more hands-on with its partner restaurants than other services on this list, at least at the outset. The company charges an activation fee, which covers a tablet computer loaded with the Uber Eats restaurant software, along with a professional photo shoot. Uber Eats’s restaurant dashboard helps with order management and provides analytics and customer insights.
Online ordering and delivery for restaurants with DoorDash and beyond
DoorDash is a powerful way for restaurateurs to reach new customers and grow the delivery side of the business. But the DoorDash alternatives listed above can also help achieve those goals, either with DoorDash or instead of it. Regardless of the delivery service you use, streamline online ordering through your site with easy-to-implement restaurant order forms from JotForm.
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