OpenTable Gets Into Food Delivery

OpenTable’s Expanding Menu Of Services

OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation company, has partnered with Caviar, Grubhub and Uber Eats to provide delivery from restaurants all over the country, according to reports.

The company has also revamped its mobile interface. The home screen now offers user recommendations based on past customer choices, favorites and other user-centric options.

“Sometimes plans change or the weather doesn’t cooperate. Instead of canceling their reservation, diners can now enjoy the meal they had planned from home,” said OpenTable CTO Joseph Essas. “Our goal is to make OpenTable the go-to app for all dining occasions. Adding delivery is an important next step.”

Now customers can get options delivered in just a few steps. On the app, customers will see a “get it delivered” button, which will take them to either the restaurant’s preferred partner or a list of delivery options.

OpenTable said that its three main partners will provide deliveries for upwards of 8,000 restaurants through 90 cities in the States. It plans to eventually provide delivery times and costs inside the app.

The move coincides with Google’s recent foray into delivery partnerships. The company brought Postmates, DoorDash, ChowNow, Delivery.com, Slice and others to its Search, Maps and Assistant platforms.

Google also started an Order Online shortcut with results for people using Google Assistant on mobile phones, which also allows users to place orders using Google Pay.

The competitive food delivery market could balloon to $24 billion by the year 2023, from $17 billion this year. Much of the demand for delivery services is driven by millennials, according to a study by Acosta and Technomic, which found that 77 percent of millennials used a delivery service in the past three months, as opposed to just 51 percent of all diners. Also, 44 percent of millennials ordered from third-party services compared to 20 percent of all diners.