Ways delivering food will get even more convenient

Convenient no longer means what it used to. Today, most people can get most anything from pizza to liquor to toothpaste delivered anytime, anywhere. In the future, that value is unlikely to shift. That’s especially true for food as ghost kitchens and indoor agriculture bring food creation closer to our doorstep than ever. Kyle Goings wants Grubhub to be the brand to bring it to you, whether that’s a fully cooked meal or a missing ingredient in the recipe you’re cooking yourself.

Kate MacArthur: How does this hybrid shift in our work style — and society at large — change how people define convenience?

Kyle Goings: Something that is and has been and will always be true is that convenience means different things to different people. Think of a brand partnership like 7-Eleven. We've recently deepened our partnership with them with our Grubhub Goods brand that we launched with them. It's those kinds of items that we find are most relevant to our customers; the snacks, drinks, toothpaste, milk, basically the consumer-packaged items.

MacArthur: How does that shift the tradeoffs that people are willing to make in things like speed or price?

Goings: They want both, and we don't want them to have to pick one over the other. We offer things like a Grubhub Guarantee, which is like retail price matching. We're so confident that we have the best price versus competitors that we’ll give diners the difference and plus $5 off their next order if we don’t.

MacArthur: How do you see consumers making those decisions?

Goings: There are different use cases. We're seeing it’s mostly coming in different times of day, as opposed to the planning ahead versus the “I need it right now [occasions].” So, it's just a difference in non-dinner-, non-lunch-ordering behaviors.

MacArthur: Do you expect this to stick?

Goings: When people order from a convenience or grocery store, or alcohol or something like a new vertical or non-restaurant vertical, we see that they end up ordering more restaurant food because it makes the platform stickier. Will we get every single person to try it and order it forever? No, but there is a big chunk of people on our platform that have ordered it and continue to order it.

MacArthur: How does the addition of convenience and other channels shift how you plan the customer experience?

Goings: If you’re cooking, and you forgot tomatoes for the tomato sauce that you’re making, you’re going to probably be more willing to pay a little bit more if that means that you could potentially get it quicker than if you’re ordering your weekly groceries, and you don't need them right now. You can potentially make less of a tradeoff there if there was one to be made. We can infer a lot of things from our data, based on what is the likelihood or conversion rate of someone that's ordering for a small order.

MacArthur: How much is loyalty brand-specific versus category-specific?

Goings: People just want a one-stop shop. They want to be able to come to a platform like Grubhub that guarantees the most competitive price, and they can get whatever they want.

MacArthur: How soon could we see delivery bots?

Goings: It’s tough to predict. We started offering this type of delivery on college campuses last year and it makes sense for that type of environment given that they are notoriously difficult for cars to navigate. Robot delivery solves for that and then some, which makes it a great environment to provide this delivery.  

MacArthur: What else is on the horizon?

Goings: We’re also doing some things with stadiums where you can pre-order so you can skip the line if you don’t want to miss 10 plays of the game. Or you can pre-order just like you can on our actual Grubhub marketplace for your local restaurant, but it's for the concession-stand lines.

MacArthur: How do alcoholic beverage sales change the business for delivery and convenience? 

Goings: When an order contains alcohol, the ticket size is, on average, about 50% higher — resulting in higher sales, and profit for the restaurant. Being able to offer alcohol on their menus during the pandemic has served as a lifeline, and we’re seeing many add it to their menus in cities and states where it’s newly permitted.