Finding the right delivery apps for your restaurant

Wondering what the best delivery app for your restaurant might be? That's great! It's a good time to do it, too, as delivery sales have never been higher and can be expected to continue to rise. Of course, you'll need to develop a menu, create an online presence, and all that fun stuff, but there's one especially intimidating part of the process you may be putting off: selecting a delivery partner.

You know the giants in the industry: DoorDash, Grubhub, UberEats, etc. But you may be unsure which is most likely to bring in the most business for you. Luckily, we're here to help. We're going to go over a few considerations when selecting a delivery partner, as well as discuss some of the pros and cons of a few specific companies.

Choose according to your needs

While it may seem logical to simply partner with whichever delivery service has the largest market share, it's important to choose a partner that will serve you best based on your unique scenario. And that's not always going to be the most popular one. For example, DoorDash has double the national market share of Postmates, but Postmates is the most used delivery app in Los Angeles. It's important to focus on local market share rather than national or even global, because this will give you a better idea of what your customers are using. It doesn't matter what people in New York City are using if you're delivering in Wichita, Kansas.

Of course, the considerations go far past location. It's also important to consider your brand and what kind of food you offer. If you operate a more upscale restaurant, then you may want to go with a specialty delivery service, such as Caviar. They don't have the largest market share — not even close, actually — but that's not the point. You don't want to negatively affect your brand identity, or miss out on your target demographic because you're not meeting them where they're at. If you have a reputation of being the kind of place someone would wear a suit to, it's worth checking out if your target demographic is using Caviar more than other services in your area. Of course, this goes for any brand, not just upscale restaurants. You should research which delivery service's user demographics align best with your target demographics, and weigh that heavily when making your decision.

Let's talk money

Of course, you need to consider cost as well. Delivery partners charge a commission for their services, so you have to weigh this cost against the benefits of using that partner. This is one of the reasons DoorDash has been on the rise lately; that don't only have strong presences in most major markets, but they offer one of the lowest average commission rates in the business, making them very appealing for vendors.

However, some other services, such as Grubhub, have a wider range of offerings that may allow you to better tailor your partnership to your needs and end up with a low commission rate as well. For example, they offer point-of-sale integration, which makes your life easier but also costs more. If you don't need that, you may be able to lower that rate. Again, it largely depends on your needs.

Another thing to consider regarding revenue is the average size of orders and the consistency of orders on each platform. For this example, we'll talk about Caviar again. Say DoorDash or Grubhub or any other major player has a higher presence in your area, but a lower average order amount and monthly order total. This makes sense, because as a more upscale service, Caviar has both the highest average order amount and monthly order totals. So, if your food is typically more expensive and your customers are willing to pay higher prices, this may influence your decision. Even if it's not a matter of how fancy your restaurant is, it's important to compare these figures, because you obviously want people ordering a lot from you a lot of the time.

Listen to your customers

Finally, just listen to your target audience. If polls or reviews say that they prefer a certain app to others, that's probably good indicator that you should strongly consider that app. After all, if it works well for them, it will probably work for them. It may be worth a slightly higher commission rate if all of your customers seem to prefer a certain app's interface the most and use it for that reason. Vice versa, it may be worth forgoing a service that offers point-of-sale integration if your customers don't seem to love that platform too much.

If choosing a delivery partner, or any other part of launching a virtual restaurant, is still stressing you out, we here at Superorder have got you covered. With the help of our team, you can use your existing operation, however big or small, to launch a virtual restaurant with multiple brands. This means you'll have even more chances to reach consumers, with even less investment.

Start Your Virtual Restaurant with Superorder Today

We'll handle branding, website and menu design, and everything else needed to get you going. All you have to do is what you're best at: make great food (just for more people). If this sounds more like what you need, email us at signup@superorder.com or fill out this form to talk with a team expert!

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