RESTAURANT CUSTOMERS REALLY LIKE THEIR DELIVERY SERVICES CONTINUED...
TECHNOLOGY
At the end of the day, the ease of ordering third-party delivery and the convenience of having some- one bring food to your home trumps concern about prices. Ninety-six percent of customers said placing orders on third-party delivery apps was easy. For the study, Intouch used shop- pers who ordered delivery from restaurants and convenience stores using one of the big three services. They did not use a paid tiered ac- count or priority delivery. They made 600 shops from April to June between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. EST, and the orders were spread across the U.S. Each delivery ser- vice had 200 shops, 100 from a con- venience store and 100 from a lim- ited-service restaurant. Third-party delivery followed growth of businesses such as ride- share services, emerging in the years before the pandemic as a rapidly-growing source of sales for restaurant operators. That growth took off during the pandemic. Some 193 million people are ex- pected to use these services by 2029. The study examines both lim- ited-service restaurants and con- venience stores, given the growing competition between the two sec- tors. More than half of consumers consider convenience stores to be
quarter. That’s lower than it had been more recently, but it is still higher than the traffic posted by most restaurant chains over that same period. DoorDash, meanwhile, per- formed better on most metrics. It had shorter delivery times than its two rivals, for instance. It had 90% accuracy, compared with 83% for Uber Eats and 79% for Grubhub. And it had higher overall customer satisfaction, 90%, compared with 87% for Uber Eats and 79% for Grubhub. Each of those data points include both restaurants and convenience stores. Customers were particularly sat- isfied with speed of service, with 91% satisfaction on that metric, in- cluding 94% for restaurant orders. Each of the three delivery services scored more than 90% on that met- ric. Indeed, orders were more likely to arrive early, with 72% of orders showing up before the promoted delivery time. All that said, customers gener- ally don’t shift from one service to the other. More than eight in ten customers said they either typically use one app or are loyal to one app. Only 19% said they switch between platforms. ILLUSTRATION BY MIDJOURNEY/NICO HEINS
a viable option for made-to-or- der food compared with fast-food restaurants, according to Intouch. But the study’s results show that delivery at convenience stores is be- hind restaurants, at least in the view of customers. Overall satisfaction was higher at restaurants (90%) than convenience stores (80%). One huge reason: accuracy. The study found 90% accuracy among restaurant orders, but just 77% at convenience stores. Third-party delivery does cost customers. Typical fees charged by the different services were about $6 per order, from $5.67 from Grubhub to $6.38 by Uber Eats. Generally speaking, one-third of those fees went for delivery, the rest for ser- vice. Restaurants themselves marked up the menu prices. The study ex- amined the higher prices charged for main items on third-party deliv- ery apps. Chains generally tended to charge more: an extra $1.90 for the main item in the order, com- pared with $1.25 at independents. On balance, however, higher prices were commonplace. That means an order could cost an additional $8 or so, at least. That clearly isn’t dissuading customers. Total orders at DoorDash, for in- stance, were up 19% in the second
18
RESTAURANT BUSINESS OCTOBER 2024
Powered by FlippingBook