Aggregators Step Up Efforts to Offer Everything On-Demand

Leading U.S. food delivery service DoorDash is expanding its selection of cosmetics, a lightweight, high-cost category that racks-up large order values while taking up minimal space in drivers’ cars.

In a company announcement Wednesday (Nov. 9), DoorDash said it is partnering with Sephora to deliver from more than 500 of the beauty brand’s retail stores in the U.S. and Canada.

“The ability to access Sephora’s unparalleled selection of beauty products on-demand is a gamechanger for consumers who value selection and speed,” Shanna Prevé, vice president of partnerships at DoorDash, said in a statement. “Our consumers crave convenience, and we’re excited to see how they’re inspired by this partnership,” she added, pointing to new buying occasions like last-minute holiday gifts, wish-list indulgences, or seasonal stock ups ahead of parties or travel events.

The move comes as restaurant aggregators are diversifying their edible delivery portfolios as they try to differentiate themselves.

Through this partnership, the aggregator is able to seize the sales opportunity presented by consumers’ last-minute holiday shopping panic as well as create a place for its marketplace in customers’ beauty routines.

Uber Eats, meanwhile, is focusing on driving non-restaurant adoption within the broader food category, setting its sights on consumers’ weekly (or multiple times a week) grocery needs. The country’s second-place aggregator shared Wednesday that it is expanding its partnership with discount grocery retailer Grocery Outlet, reaching nearly 400 stores on the East and West coasts.

The move enables Uber to deliver its cake and eat it too, as it were, catering to the needs of both those who continue to spring for restaurant delivery and those who are looking for more affordable food options as prices rise.

“Consumers are looking for savings and quality more than ever these days, which makes the expansion of our partnership with Grocery Outlet an incredibly exciting priority,” Christian Freese, Uber’s head of grocery and new verticals across the U.S. and Canada, commented in the announcement. “Uber Eats’ goal is providing grocery delivery options that work for everyone, no matter [their] budget.”

Data from the August edition of PYMNTS’ Consumer Inflation Sentiment study “Consumer Inflation Sentiment: Inflation Slowly Ebbs, But Consumer Outlook Remains Gloomy,” which draws from a survey of 2,169 consumers, finds that 48% of consumers have switched to cheaper grocery merchants in response to inflation. Plus, many are shifting away from restaurants towards groceries to manage their spending. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed reported that they have been eating more at home.

Get the study: Consumer Inflation Sentiment: Inflation Slowly Ebbs, But Consumer Outlook Remains Gloomy

Additionally, as leading aggregators expand their grocery offerings, they have the opportunity to grow their place in consumers’ day-to-day routines, meeting more of their food needs and driving order frequency. DoorDash’s Sephora move serves a similar function, although it does not benefit from the same high-frequency purchasing seen in grocery.

PYMNTS research reveals that businesses that can meet consumers’ needs across as many pillars of the ConnectedEconomy as possible — how they eat, shop, pay, live, travel, bank, work, communicate, have fun and stay well — pull ahead of those that stick to one pillar. By building out their non-restaurant offerings, aggregators are making their offerings more essential to their customers’ lives, building deeper relationships that will drive greater value in the long term.