The news: Grubhub is eliminating delivery and service fees on restaurant orders over $50 in a bid to attract new users and increase order sizes, per Bloomberg. The change began rolling out to some customers in late January before expanding more broadly on February 2.

Why is this happening? Grubhub’s US market share has slid to about 4%, down from roughly 10% in 2023, per Bloomberg Second Measure—even after the company has pulled multiple levers to drive growth. Those efforts included offering the 189.7 million US Amazon Prime members a free Grubhub+ subscription with perks like no delivery fees, lower service fees, and 5% back on pickup orders.

At its core, food delivery has become a business defined by habit, scale, and perceived value. In a category with little differentiation, Grubhub is betting that removing fees can help it reclaim the value narrative. CEO Howard Migdal told Bloomberg that fees are the top driver of cart abandonment, with 81% of customers backing out as costs pile up.

Implications for restaurants: While the move makes sense on paper, it may be too late to meaningfully change consumer behavior.

Thanks to Amazon Prime, a large share of consumers have access to free delivery via Grubhub+, yet many either don’t use it—or don’t use it often enough to move the needle. That underscores how sticky food delivery habits have become, with consumers spending years building routines and paying for DoorDash’s DashPass or Uber One memberships that bundle delivery with extras like streaming perks and ride credits. Grubhub also has a structural disadvantage: Its site and app attract far fewer unique visitors than DoorDash or Uber Eats, which limits how much fee cuts alone can really help.

Still, Grubhub, which ranks lower than its key peers, isn’t out of the game. As delivery apps continue to tweak fees and promotions, restaurants are best served by staying active across multiple platforms, tracking where orders originate, and being ready for shifts in demand and economics as each service fights to win (and keep) users.