Aggregators Compete for Global on-Demand Grocery Dominance

Around the world, top restaurant aggregators are competing to be consumers’ go-to not only for cooked meals but also for groceries.

DoorDash, for its part, announced Tuesday (May 10) that it is partnering with food distributor, wholesaler and retailer SpartanNash to add over 100 of the grocer’s own-brand stores to its marketplace. The move also adds the chance for the food seller’s more than 2,000 independent retail customers to get on the platform and/or use DoorDash’s white-label delivery driver service.

“We are excited to partner with SpartanNash to bring innovative eCommerce solutions to their … grocery banners across the Midwest, independent grocers and retailers so that they can build their omnichannel presence and provide consumers with access to convenient, on-demand grocery delivery,” DoorDash CEO and Co-Founder Tony Xu said in a statement. “We are proud to work together to empower independent grocers with the tools and resources needed to grow their businesses and expand their digital footprints.”

Throughout 2022, leading restaurant aggregators have been growing their grocery offerings. In the first month of the year, Uber Eats announced an expansion of its West Coast grocery store selection, adding 173 new locations with more to follow.

Read more: Uber Eats Expands West Coast Grocery, Alcohol Selection to Become More Central to Consumers’ Daily Lives

The following month, Grubhub announced a partnership with ultrafast grocery delivery startup Buyk to offer 15-minute delivery of the grocer’s products through the aggregator’s marketplace.

See more: Grubhub to Launch 15-Minute Grocery Delivery With Buyk

International aggregators are doing the same. In April, it was revealed that Grubhub’s parent company Just Eat Takeaway.com is partnering with Ahold Delhaize’s Netherlands-based supermarket chain Albert Heijn, the country’s largest grocer.

Read more: Just Eat Takeaway Teaming up With Ahold’s Albert Heijn Chain

Throughout the year, Deliveroo has been expanding Hop, its ultrafast grocery third-party delivery service.

“[In] really dense urban areas, I do think the dark store models can work,” CEO Will Shu told analysts on a call at the time. “Ultimately, we expect this on-demand grocery space to be served by a mix of dark stores, the store-pick model, and maybe some sort of hybrid pickup and delivery site.”

See more: Deliveroo Lays out Timeline to Profitability, Leverages Ghost Kitchens, Dark Stores

About three in 10 consumers are looking for same-day grocery delivery options, according to data from PYMNTS’ study “Satisfaction in the Age of eCommerce: How Trust Helps Online Merchants Build Customer Loyalty,” created in collaboration with Riskified. The report, which drew from a survey of more than 2,100 U.S. adults, found that 14% of consumers view same-day delivery as the single most important feature when shopping with online grocers, and an additional 26% view it as among the features that are important to them.

Read more: Merchants Risk Losing 40% of Online Retail, Grocery Customers Over Trust

Additionally, the study found that online grocers have both the opportunity to capture other players’ customers and the risk of losing their own. Forty percent of online grocery shoppers reported being very or extremely likely to switch to a new merchant if they believe the merchant they are using is no longer trustworthy, and 48% reported being somewhat likely.