It’s not often when a product or service transcends price. But that’s where third-party delivery providers often find themselves, according to the results of a report from Gridwise, which analyzed data from 171,173,390 rideshare trips, covering 603,819,147 miles. Plenty of those trips involved meals, for which a lot of consumers say they would pay just about anything.
Ryan Green, CEO of Gridwise
“Consumers value convenience over cost right now,” said Ryan Green, CEO of Gridwise, in an interview. “Even if their discretionary income may not support the costs in the volumes they are ordering, the value in being able to do other things while your food is being prepared and delivered is high. I think there’s still more ceiling for delivery.”
DoorDash landed in the pole position in the report’s findings, but not by as much as the year before. It dropped from 72 percent of market share to 67 percent. Uber Eats went up, from 25 percent to 30 percent. Grubhub made up the rest.
The report also offers insights on how consumers choose between delivery providers. Nearly 75 percent of consumers list convenience as their top variable when deciding on a platform, with 37 percent saying time savings, and 32 percent cost savings. Think of that: cost savings is third.
There weren’t many surprises in terms of the most popular restaurants on the list: McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Chick-fil-A were the top three. Starbucks, for all its much-publicized stagnation, landed at number six. Still pretty good? Sure. But not great.
“It’s a mainstay, but last year it was number three,” Green said, noting that Dunkin’ and Panda Express also fell off the top 10 while Papa John’s joined it.
Gridwise’s data included some fun nuggets. It discovered the largest food-delivery tip was recorded on March 24 in Indio, Calif., during an Uber Eats order: $346.44. If you’re wondering what was taking place on that day in Indio, there was an Indy500 race. Fuel was needed.
For the top hustler of the year, one finds a driver in Philly who made 434 deliveries during the week of Dec. 16. And the top performer for a month drove in New York City in November and made 1,634 DoorDash and Uber Eats deliveries.
The takeaways for operators are simple to discern, according to Green.
“Consumers are saying they’re going to pick the deliver providers that are the fastest and most affordable,” he said. “Consumers do become conscious of price but only when the deviation of convenience between the providers are similar to one another.”
