In 2021, there's no doubt — the restaurant revolution has taken place. Market revenue has increased by a staggering 204% in the last five years. The vast majority of restaurant customers have taken up online ordering, the relatively new virtual kitchen trend is on the rise and food tech is steadily improving.
Despite the major industry growth, delivery services are in fierce competition with each other. In fact, statistics show that all major delivery apps have a lower percentage of exclusive customers compared to previous years. The share of single-service customers has been steadily decreasing, as competitors lure them with wider restaurant selection, promotional codes, and limited-time offers.
Of course, that's why many restaurants choose to stay ahead and accept orders through multiple delivery services. However, this strategy is not without difficulties. Often restaurants need to use a separate device for each app, so keeping track of all ordering systems can be confusing and time-consuming. Restaurant analytics are harder to monitor and mistakes are more likely to happen.
Cuboh offers restaurant SaaS that helps our customers streamline their workflow and increase revenue by using more platforms. This way, restaurants can enjoy the features and unique selling points of each of our partners, with none of the hassle.
DoorDash
Services: Delivery
Reach: US and Canada. DoorDash is by far the most popular delivery app in the US, having earned 57% of the market share. Additionally, the app's users spend the most compared to competitors. By 2021, over 390,000 restaurants deliver through the app in the US. In Canada, the service has been used by 25% of delivery service customers.
Commission Fee: 15-30%, depending on plan selection
Unique Selling Point: Unlike the majority of apps, DoorDash allows restaurants to charge higher prices compared to their direct orders. This allows restaurants to raise prices of takeout food on the app and offset their commission fees, without having to edit their current menu or change in-house pricing. The app has a particularly high reach in suburbs, unlike competitors who concentrate mostly on urban centers.
UberEats
Services: Delivery
Reach: US and Canada. UberEast supports the largest number of restaurants in the US. By 2021, they are delivering for over 600,000 restaurants in the country. UberEats is the second most popular delivery app in Canada, used by 44% of customers.
Commission Fee: 15-30%, depending on plan
Unique Selling Point: UberEats have the unique advantage of building their system on top of the pre-existing infrastructure of the Uber app. This enables them to offer delivery times that are the fastest on the market by a large margin, with an average food delivery time of just 15 minutes. Thus, they're the preferred choice for customers who are short on time or don't like to wait.
ChowNow:
Services: Delivery
Reach: US and Canada. While the app is up-and-coming, they're still doing significant numbers. As of 2021 they've served more than 7 million customers. They have nearly 15,000 locations using their services and over $750 million is sales in 2020.
Commission Fee: none
Unique Selling Point: Instead of charging a commission fee with each purchase, ChowNow operates on a subscription basis. ChowNow targets primarily small, local and family-run restaurants who may be put off by the high commission on mainstream delivery apps. For many restaurants, the 20-40% delivery fees may be the entire profit margin on the dishes. Besides their delivery functionality, the app assists restaurants at developing their custom ordering apps and establishing easy-to-use delivery functionality on their website. An increasing number of restaurants are choosing to focus on this app as a means of educating their clients on the benefits of ordering directly and moving away from commisson-based delivery services..
Grubhub / Seamless:
Services: Pick-up and Delivery
Reach: US. GrubHub is the most popular service for restaurant pick-up. They have a 16% market share in the US.
Commission Fee: 20% for pick-up orders and 30% for delivery orders
Unique Selling Point: GrubHub and Seamless support the largest number of payment methods, including PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay. This makes them a preferred choice for customers who feel uncomfortable sharing their credit card info directly with the app. This feature particularly appeals to the business crowd that Seamless caters to.
SkipTheDishes
Services: Delivery
Reach: Canada. Headquartered in Winnipeg, this Canadian-born app dominates the market at its home country. It's used by 67% of delivery app users and it has the widest variety of restaurants in Canada.
Commission Fee: 15-30%, depending on province regulations
Unique Selling Point: SkipTheDishes is a uniquely Canadian brand, and it's the preferred choice of the majority of Canadian customers. One of the app's most well-liked features is the option to filter restaurants by delivery fees. Customers often use this feature to find restaurants that offer free delivery. Here, restaurants have a useful marketing opportunity to take advantage of — by removing the dreaded delivery fee, even for a limited time, businesses can get a lot more customers to discover them.