After less than a year of partnering with same-day grocery delivery service Instacart, supermarket giant Kroger announced it’s expanding the service to another 75 markets by late October. That increase means Instacart will be available at more than 1,600 Kroger stores and makes the San Francisco-based company Kroger’s main delivery provider (it uses Uber and Shipt in some markets). “We are redefining the customer experience through Restock Kroger by rapidly accelerating our customer coverage area for seamless shopping, giving our shoppers the choice of stores, delivery, curbside pickup or ship […]
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In a move to keep customers on its own website and app, Chipotle began offering direct delivery without sending customers to a third-party service platform. Still powered by Doordash, the in-app delivery order function is now available in all 70 markets at the more than 1,800 Chipotle restaurants that Doordash serves. “Fans have long been requesting Chipotle delivery, and as part of our commitment to make it easy for our customers to get the delicious food they love when, where and how they want it, we’re rolling out our own […]
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Ordermark, a fast growing provider of online ordering solutions for restaurants, announced the close of a $9.5M Series A funding round. Led by Nosara Capital, the latest round brings in new investors including Vertical Venture Partners, Techstars Ventures, Riverpark Ventures, and Matchstick Ventures—joined by prior investors including TenOneTen, Mucker Capital, Act One Ventures and AARD Capital. “This has been a growth year for Ordermark, expanding to reach hundreds of top restaurant brands nationwide, and launching new tools to make it easier and more cost efficient for restaurants of all sizes […]
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With insight from four restaurant industry and some anecdotes from the Food On Demand editorial team, financial services and research firm Cowen released its latest delivery report suggesting the restaurant delivery market is still accelerating as more investment dollars continue flowing into the category.
Read MoreRestaurant Revolution Technologies, a platform that integrates online ordering with restaurant point of sale, announced a new partnership that integrates marketing and loyalty. The company is now integrated with Thanx, which blends customer engagement, customer data, loyalty and marketing messaging. Under the new partnership, users of Restaurant Revolution will be able to update menus in real time, integrate suggestive ordering, monitor the order flow and capture customer data across the ordering process. It will also make it easy for restaurant customers to sign in with a single sign on, easing […]
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We’re officially seven months out from the second-annual Food On Demand Conference, April 1-2 in downtown Chicago, and the Food On Demand team is going full steam organizing the largest-ever gathering of delivery providers, technology experts, foodservice analysts and restaurant operators. Registration is now open for this groundbreaking event designed to help restaurants drive profitable delivery sales, maintain brand standards, navigate financial and legal hurdles, leverage customer data to attract and retain customers, and also to learn about the latest in mobile ordering technology, virtual kitchens and hear directly from […]
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According to Brick Meets Click, a research firm that’s been tracking the online grocery migration since 2011, the number of U.S. households shopping for groceries online is up 22 percent over the previous year, to a new high of 5.5 percent of households. That’s up from 3.4 percent in just two years ago.
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An Indianapolis food-delivery startup called ClusterTruck is tweaking the food-delivery model and taking aim at some of the foundational issues within the space. Essentially, ClusterTruck is a collection of different menus or “virtual food trucks” that are all cooked in one central kitchen. When the order of pad Thai, burgers, tacos and/or barbecue is done, it’s handed off to a ClusterTruck driver for an extremely fast delivery. “It’s about six minutes, we get really, really disappointed if your food is eight minutes old,” said Founder/CEO Chris Baggott. From order to […]
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I dream of a bizarro-world grocery store where the shelves are fully stocked, confusing ads are banished and the inefficiency of crying babies, unhurried seniors and flustered moms are nowhere in sight—it’s just me, my cart and a Supermarket Sweep-like blast up and down the aisles in two minutes flat. Of course my fantasy isn’t real, but my recent tour of the CobornsDelivers warehouse in suburban Minneapolis was shocking for the many efficiencies and innovations in a delivery warehouse that’s infinitely more streamlined than anything in your typical supermarket. My […]
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As casual-dining chains saw traffic decline over the past decade, many began turning to delivery as a way to draw customers and boost off-premise sales. It’s a strategy that’s showing results and some companies are doubling down on what’s becoming not merely an industry trend but a fundamental shift in how restaurants operate.
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