Food and grocery delivery has spiked during the pandemic. Apps like SkipTheDishes, Uber Eats, and Instacart have gained new users who turned to delivery out of necessity. For marketers, these apps present a new opportunity to reach consumers with ad products rich in intent and location data.

Delivery apps race to sign up retailers to their platforms: DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Gopuff each inked new deals to grow their retailer network and bring fast delivery to more customers.

DoorDash was once again the most downloaded US food and drink app in 2021, racking up 37.0 million downloads, 5% fewer than in 2020. McDonald’s jumped to second on the list with 24.0 million downloads, 33% more than the year prior. Meanwhile, Uber Eats dropped to third place with 21.0 million downloads.

A similar pattern has played out in the US, with Instacart, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and other platforms experiencing slower or declining sales as consumers order less food online.

Uber Eats is partnering with Tesco to bring groceries to UK customers, with delivery guaranteed within an hour, the company announced. Uber is also expanding its partnership with Albertsons to include over 2,000 stores, per a press release. Publix has begun offering 15-minute grocery delivery in Miami through a partnership with Instacart, the delivery platform said.

Restaurant delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats expanding into grocery, pharmacy, and convenience store delivery. The rise of quick commerce startups like Gopuff and Gorillas that use micro-fulfillment centers to deliver food and beverage items in a little as 15 minutes. Food and beverage is the second-largest category when measured by total retail sales.

After less than a year, Just Eat might sell Grubhub: The news is the latest sign that the oversaturated food delivery industry is struggling.

Forty-two percent of adult respondents in Canada placed orders using apps such as Skip The Dishes, DoorDash, and Uber Eats, according to a June 2021 survey from Media Technology Monitor. Remote work is a key driver of app adoption. It was necessitated during the pandemic and persists still for many white-collar industries.

Why it’s worth watching: In the early days of the pandemic, many restaurants that had never implemented food delivery had to rely on apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats to stay in business. These apps charge restaurants anywhere between 15% and 30% in commission fees.

It also integrates with point-of-sale (POS) systems like Clover and delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats. What this means: Block can use GoParrot to fortify the Square ecosystem. GoParrot can be combined with Square for Restaurants. The suite includes payment hardware and software tailored for dining establishments.

DoorDash’s partnership with Afterpay is another example of providers using payments integrations to offer customers more convenience: Uber Eats added a bill-splitting tool to its app on Wednesday, and DoorDash recently agreed to acquire restaurant tech firm Bbot to give restaurant customers more digital ordering and payment solutions.

The pandemic led to an uptake in online food ordering that will likely stick: In the early days of the pandemic, third-party food delivery apps like Uber Eats and GrubHub helped restaurants maintain sales despite temporary closures—but the fees they charged were a sore spot for cash-strapped restaurants.

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.

DoorDash and Uber Eats continue gaining market share

For example, Albertsons has partnerships with Instacart, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Shipt. As a result, third-party delivery services generated more than one-quarter of all digital grocery sales in 2020. The outlook for continued growth remains positive, as sales will nearly double between now and 2025.

Food delivery apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and SkipTheDishes—a Winnipeg-based homegrown competitor to the US-based services—had already established a foothold before the pandemic. The greater need for delivery last year elevated their influence in food service, even though the fees they charge have raised concerns in the restaurant industry and for regulators.

While the service isn’t intended to seriously compete with the likes of Doordash and Uber Eats, it does suggest TikTok is confident it can own the end-to-end experience for its users—rather than cede those transactions to food delivery companies. VDC has had success with MrBeast Burger, launched near 2020’s end, which sold 1 million burgers in its first three months, per Fortune.

Subscriptions like Grubhub+ and Uber Eats Pass allow cardholders to sidestep the often exorbitant fees attached to these increasingly in-demand services. US restaurant intermediary sales will reach $64.36 billion in 2022, up 11.7% year over year (YoY), per our forecasts. While subscription providers benefit from sales and co-branded marketing, issuers capture cardholder spending.