Competition is what makes this world a better place.
Healthy competition is an ideal situation as it compels us to come up with our best. A monopoly in any industry causes dissatisfaction to the general populace due to the limited options it presents. Monopoly in any industry spells doom to the competition.
Governments also deter practises that encourage monopoly. Google is facing an antitrust suit to break its monopoly in the online advertising ecosystem. A domain is better off when there is active competition that benefits all stakeholders. In a competitive domain each entity tries to find ways to woo customers to their products.
There’s engaging competition in the food delivery industry, here we take a look at DoorDash competitors to unfurl the scenario.
Introduction: DoorDash Competitors
In a competition, all parties search for ways to get the better of their opponents by offering something out of the ordinary or something more to their customers.
Before talking about DoorDash competitors, let’s introduce you to DoorDash.
DoorDash is an online food delivery and ordering platform based in San Francisco, California. The company’s web and mobile platforms enable users to order food from local restaurants. The company was launched in 2013 by Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang, and Evan Moore who are its founders.
DoorDash generated $2.86 billion in 2020. DoorDash revenue increased by 69% in 2021 to $4.88 billion, which is an increase of 237%. The company has approximately 7,550 employees and controls 56% of the food delivery market in the US.
Its consumers can order groceries, drinks, and ready-made meals from over 300,000 local restaurants, outlets, or grocers in their area. DoorDash delivers its orders through its fleet of delivery workers called Dashers. Hence, restaurants without in-house delivery drivers can bank on DoorDash to complete their deliveries.
The company has three plans in place that businesses can opt for:
Basic- 15% commission, DoorDash Plus – 25%, and DoorDash Premier-30%.
For more visibility and wider reach, restaurants on DoorDash set menu prices and pay for Plus and Premier. However, the company has to defend itself from strong competitors like UberEATS, Postmates, GrubHub, and Instacart.
Insight Into DoorDash Competitors
Read on to explore the competitive landscape in the on-demand food delivery market. Also, you will fathom how DoorDash stacks up against other players. Learn about their strengths and weaknesses to get a better understanding of the industry as a whole.
1. Grubhub
Grubhub is an online, mobile, and food-ordering delivery platform that is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois founded in 2004. It has around 2,800 employees and earned over $500 million in revenues per quarter in 2021. GrubHub delivers more than 745,000 orders daily by leveraging tech-driven processes. Grubhub is an able DoorDash Competitors.
Grubhub vs Doordash
The customer centric pre-order service is the main advantage that GrubHub has over DoorDash, which is also its USP. In this service, when a customer calls and seeks to speak to a representative of the restaurant they are ordering from, the call is routed to them.
The advantage is, customers can give finer details of their food requirements directly to the restaurant.
Grubhub integrates its expertise in internet software and food service to guarantee ultimate comfort and satisfaction for its customers.
Its consumers can live-track their orders from AAPI-owned restaurants directly to their doorstep.
GrubHub and Just Eat Takeaway have together partnered with Resort World Las Vegas, the Washington Football Team, and Yandex in 2021. These strategic partnerships further strengthened GrubHub’s competitive advantage. GrubHub is the next best alternative to DoorDash that provides wonderful service.
With DoorDash, you usually end up paying a service fee to both the restaurant you’re ordering from and DoorDash. But Grubhub generally does not include restaurant service fees, but then insists on minimum order amounts.
2. Uber Eats
Uber Eats was launched in 2014 (a part of Uber) and is an online food ordering and delivery platform. Meals are delivered by couriers via bikes, cars, scooters, or on foot. As of 2021, Uber Eats is operational in over 6,000 cities across 45 countries. Uber Eats is among the top DoorDash competitors.
Uber Eats vs DoorDash
UberEATS is the most popular online delivery service via an app with more than 10,000 employees and approximately 81 million users. Uber eats and DoorDash offer 24/7 food delivery. Uber Eats controls 22% of the US food delivery market. It earned $4.8 billion in annual revenue as of Mar 2021.
The main competitive benefit for UberEATS over DoorDash is its connection with Uber’s taxi service. The flawless combination with Uber offers easy access to millions of riders globally. Customers can order meals and ingredients right away or pre-order a week in advance.
When it comes to driver requirements for DoorDash and Uber Eats, the difference is academic, it boils down to age and how you deliver. A Uber Eats delivery can be done on foot. But to be a DoorDash driver you got to be 18 and have to deliver via bike, car or scooter.
UberEATS is cheaper than DoorDash. Customers pay only $2 for orders less than $10 and $3 for a $15 order. UberEATS is both DoorDash’s best competitor and the next best alternative.
3. Postmates
Postmates was founded in the year 2010 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. It is a food delivery service known for its ‘deliver-everything’ mantra. Postmates provides meals, alcoholic drinks, and everything in between from 600,000 and more merchants they partner with in the US.
In 2021 the revenue generated by Postmates was $730 million which was a 14% YoY increase over $500 million in 2020. Postmates has 9.3 million monthly active users and an order volume of five million items per month. Postmates was acquired Uber in 2020 for $2.65 billion.
Postmates vs Doordash
Postmates has had the longest competitive rivalry with DoorDash. Doordash has tried uniting with Postmates in 2018 to ward off UberEATS.
However, Postmates declined the offer, then DoorDash went on to acquire Caviar from Square in 2019. Moreover, Postmates agreed to Uber’s acquisition request at $2.65 billion.
This move flattened the gains that DoorDash hoped for by purchasing Caviar. Also, Postmates expects its revenue to rise from $909 million in 2021 to $1.3 billion in 2023. Postmates has sufficient financial resources to challenge DoorDash as Postmates is a subsidiary of uber.
4. Instacart
It was founded in the year 2012 with headquarters in San Francisco, California. It is an online platform that offers on-demand food, grocery delivery, and pick-up services.
Instacart has more than 500,000 active shoppers and strategic partnerships. It also has major retailers in its fold that include Walmart, Aldi, Whole Food Market, Kroger, Publix, and Costco. The company was estimated at $39 billion in March 2021. Instacart is a DoorDash competitors in many cities of US.
Instacart vs Doordash
Instacart leads the online grocery delivery market in the US. For drivers, DoorDash is likely the easier gig. With DoorDash there’s no shopping to be done as with Instacart shoppers sometimes have to do. Instacart does not provide Peak Pay incentives as DoorDash does. Therefore it is obvious, the earning potential with DoorDash is higher.
Instacart delivers in more than 5,500 cities in the US. It also hopes to create automated fulfilment centres to accomplish customers’ orders more efficiently.
Each facility will contain nearly 150 robots and will manage over 700 orders daily. Instacart is the most creative DoorDash competitor and alternative.
5. Seamless
It was founded in 1999 with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Seamless facilitates food ordering for delivery or takeout. Seamless is among DoorDash competitors in the US.
The company partners with over 12,000 restaurants and serves more than 4,000 companies. It launched a program to help its restaurant partners and reassessed the takeout experience for consumers.
Seamless reworked several trucks into mini restaurants. These restaurants on wheels brought the dining experience to customers’ doors instead of delivering food. It is a well-deserved DoorDash competitors.
6. Amazon Fresh
It was founded in the year 1994 with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. It is an online grocery store offered by Amazon.com. The global eCommerce giant has more than 2 million sellers on its US marketplace.
The company generated $189 billion in revenues in 2021 from the US market and over $360 billion globally.
DoorDash partnered with Albertsons Cos. to provide more than 40,000 grocery items with on-demand delivery in June 2021. DoorDash competes directly with Amazon Fresh and other e-grocers, such as Walmart+ and Shipt.
Amazon Fresh is DoorDash’s prime competitor in the e-grocer sector.
Conclusion: Analysing DoorDash Competitors
In the past few years, there has been a steep rise in the demand for global cuisines along with traditional ones. And most prefer to dine at home and hence are on the lookout for home delivery services.
With the influx of technology, people are shifting their preferences to online shopping and food ordering. Entrepreneurs looking to get into the on-demand business niche have an able partner in Appscrip.
Appscrip evolved with years of experience creating mobility solutions. We realized there wasn’t a specialized provider who can act as a technology partner for startups. That brought about the whole idea that is Appscrip is today.
After an Engineering degree and a Diploma in Management I devoted 16+ years working in the automotive industry. My innate skill and extreme passion in writing, encouraged me to adopt it up as a profession. I have been writing for more than 10+ years in the software industry. The 400+ blogs I published are informative, exhaustive and interesting to a professional and causal reader.
