US digital sales of food and beverages from restaurants soared 123.8% last year, per eMarketer estimates. This massive increase was the result of more consumers using delivery services like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub amid lockdowns and restaurant closures.

In comparison, competitors like Grubhub historically only worked with restaurants that provided their own delivery. The company has also focused on suburbs and smaller urban areas. These decisions positioned DoorDash for success in 2020, as indoor dining was limited or stopped in many areas. The company also offers convenience, alcohol, and grocery deliveries.

Heather Freeland, vice president of marketing at Lyft, speaks with eMarketer vice president of business development Marissa Coslov on how the brand has pivoted its marketing priorities in response to shifting consumer behaviors, including partnering with Grubhub and offering free rides to the polls on election day.

eMarketer principal analysts Andrew Lipsman and Nicole Perrin discuss the most fortunate and unfortunate D2C companies during this coronavirus pandemic, and what they are doing to survive it. They then talk about Google helping retailers highlight curbside pickup, Uber's offer to buy GrubHub, the Media Ratings Council maybe taking Facebook's advertising badge of approval and what to make of some major retailers filing for bankruptcy.

To reach a wider audience, as well as make up for lost sales, many restaurants teamed up with services like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats. To round out the top five categories, health/fitness apps (28.5% growth), dating apps (21.3%), and news apps (17.5%) also soared in 2020 as more people relied on them to stay on track with their fitness goals, meet new people, and stay informed.

We'll then identify the ways restaurants can digitize—through in-house development, first-party payments providers, or third-party competitors like Grubhub—and determine which players are best suited to help in this endeavor. Finally, we'll highlight key priorities these players can focus on to win restaurant clients and capture volume, and evaluate providers operating most effectively in the space.

Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Postmates lagged behind, but the four companies still represented a combined 96.3% of all digital restaurant marketplace sales, leaving smaller platforms in their wake. More like this:. Article: On-demand delivery services power up across the globe. Article: In 2021, online grocery sales will surpass $100 billion.

To encourage card spending, the issuer periodically tweaked its rewards to cater to pandemic-driven spending habits: In April 2020, Amex began offering double rewards for takeout and delivery from GrubHub and Seamless, for example. It later introduced perks for streaming services and grocery purchases—two key spending areas during the pandemic.

Grubhub. Grubhub was an early US advertiser; it placed a 5-second ad in January 2019 and used ads on the app to drive installs and bring in new diners. After running a few campaigns, the company is increasing its ad investment, said Alex Weinstein, the company’s senior vice president of growth marketing.

After taking on roles as a marketing leader at American Express, DirecTV and Grubhub, Tristan Young now wants to leverage Poshmark’s position as a company that straddles the line between traditional retail and digital disruption.

While this is a major issue for DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, many restaurants will decide to stay on these apps. This consumer habit will stick around because of the conveniences associated with online ordering, and most people won’t receive vaccines until the summer.”.

Companies like Grubhub and Uber Eats have seen an influx of usage during the pandemic. In its most recent earnings, Grubhub reported that the number of active diners grew to 27.5 million in Q2 2020 from 20.3 million in Q2 2019—an increase of 35%.

This is closely followed by Grubhub (including Seamless) and Uber Eats, which capture 26.7% and 25.2% of consumer spending in the US, respectively.

Grubhub, for example, announced last week that it would temporarily suspend commission fees for independent restaurants during the crisis. The CEO of Zoom said the company would donate videoconferencing services to K-12 schools. Alphabet subsidiary Verily is working on a pilot project to help people in the San Francisco Bay Area understand whether they should seek a COVID-19 test.

“We’ve also seen increased spending from Grubhub and Uber Eats to bolster quick-service restaurants [QSRs] and casual dining transactions. Traditional movie spending weakened, but there was an uptake in streaming services.” This TV spend was accompanied by messaging that emphasized the availability and ease of different ways of getting products or services to consumers.

eMarketer junior forecasting analyst Nazmul Islam and principal analyst Andrew Lipsman tell us the likelihood that your food delivery driver has eaten some of your meal. How are people using food delivery apps, and how can they make the unit economics work for everyone?

As a result, US digital restaurant marketplace sales via platforms such as DoorDash and Grubhub more than doubled in 2020, per eMarketer forecasts from Insider Intelligence. Meanwhile, sales increased for providers that helped power digital ordering and delivery last year: Olo’s revenues grew to $45.7 million in 2020, for example.