The Latest News
Grocery Stores Struggle with Too Many Online Orders
Mercatus, a digital engagement provider that builds mobile apps and websites for grocery retailers, says the near-instant move to curbside and delivery at grocery stores has created major challenges for the industry that mirror the restaurant delivery space: limited...
ChowNow Rolls Out Its Loyalty
ChowNow, one of several companies helping restaurants generate and fulfill their own in-house delivery orders, has rolled out a loyalty membership program that it says can help independent restaurants remain profitable as takeout and delivery remains the mainstay of...
Automation Heavyweight Joins Ono Food Co.
Ono Foods Co., the “full-stack food automation platform,” has signed on an industry heavy hitter to help drive new automated restaurant solutions. The company announced that Derek Pietz has joined as vice president of automation. While he might not be a household...
Market Share Data Gives COVID-Era Look at Third-Party Delivery
New market share data gives a little insight into who’s winning during the global COVID-19 pandemic. It may come as no surprise that U.S. delivery leader DoorDash is, so far, coming out on top. In a new look at more than 190,000 transactions through April, Edison...
Papa John’s Posts Biggest Sales Gains Since Schnatter Era
Less than nine months after appointing former Arby’s President Rob Lynch as its new president and CEO, Papa John’s posted system-wide sales growth of 5.3 percent during the first quarter of 2020, the brand’s best results since company founder John Schnatter resigned...
Food On Demand Topics
Finance
Slice Announces $43 Million Round as COVID Accelerates Adoption
Slice, a technology provider for independent pizza restaurants, secured a significant round of funding as it helps client businesses power through the pandemic. Pizza has been a big winner during the COVID-19 pandemic, Domino’s reported a 7.1 percent increase in...
Research
Report Shows Restaurant Delivery Surging 24 Percent
A new report from research firm Second Measure shows growth for the overall U.S. restaurant delivery scene, with sales at national third-party delivery providers growing a collective 24 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. In addition, statewide locks...
The Deliverers
Delivery Fee Caps Pop Up Across the Country
Sparked by a San Francisco decision to cap third-party delivery fees, several other U.S. cities are implementing or discussing their own cap-limitations in the name of helping restaurants. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the 15-percent fee cap is “part of a...
Best Practices
What are your peers doing in delivery? Get some of the best practices out there.
Delivery Trends ‘Up 30-40 Percent,’ Grocery Especially
It’s hard to quantify how many more people are ordering during the COVID-19 crisis. A new survey from Sense360 shows that 21 percent of respondents are now working from home, with 15 percent saying they would order groceries online, but just 5 percent planning to...
FOD Briefs
Grubhub, Just Salad Partner on Virtual Restaurant
Another week brings yet another example of a third-party delivery company partnering with a restaurant to launch a new virtual restaurant. This latest is New York City-based Just Salad partnering with Grubhub to launch Health Tribes, a digital-only concept that...
Delivery Bots ‘Paused’ After Accessibility Incident
Stuck because a robot won’t move out of the way might sound like a dumb episode of “Black Mirror,” but that was the reality for a doctoral student on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Emily Ackerman, a chemical engineering student who uses a wheelchair, said she...
Uber Buys Chilean Online Grocery Provider
Uber is getting into the online grocery business, which is increasingly being bundled into the same ecosystem as third-party restaurant delivery. In acquiring majority ownership of online grocer Cornershop, Uber will now have a toehold in Chile, Mexico, Peru and...
Ordermark Partners-Up for Social Media Ordering
The idea of ordering food via social media is gaining more and more traction as messaging platforms gobble up our lives. Huge numbers of consumers live their life on some messaging app or another, be it Slack, Messenger or whatever. Ordermark is sliding right in via a...
Grubhub Announces ‘Perks,’ Adding Offers, Loyalty
Grubhub this week announced new functionality dubbed “perks.” The new in-app feature means new options for diners and restaurant owners to better tailor the experience and potentially entice diners to order from them. It might not seem like a huge deal, but for a long...
DoorDash Cruises into Australia
DoorDash has announced its official launch in Melbourne, Australia, through a post on the company’s blog. It’s the largest U.S.-based delivery brand’s first expansion outside of North America. In preparation for the launch, DoorDash has already added thousands of...