DoorDash, a San Francisco-based third-party delivery service, on Wednesday launched DashPass, a subscription service that will give users unlimited delivery for $9.99 a month.
In addition, the company launched a service called DoorDash Pickup that will let customers order from its app and pick up the food at the restaurant for free.
The two services could potentially expand the company’s users while increasing the frequency with which its most loyal customers use certain restaurants.
And it ensures that the third-party delivery trend will continue to evolve as services grow more sophisticated, pushing for more customers and orders while expanding into business that doesn’t deliver.
The services “introduce even more convenience and cost savings for customers,” DoorDash Chief Operating Officer Christopher Payne said in a statement. “We’re excited to see how these new offerings captivate our customers and drive incremental sales for our restaurant partners.”
Consumers are rapidly shifting more spending to off-premise services, and delivery is a huge part of that, with the service expected to grow in the double digits annually for the next five years.
Restaurant chains have been jumping on board the delivery bandwagon for some time, with chains ranging from White Castle to The Cheesecake Factory all eager to give customers the option to have their food delivered.
And even some companies that already had delivery are using third-party services to enhance their own options.
Papa John’s, for instance, said Tuesday that it has a partnership with DoorDash that will enable the chain to expand the delivery zones for 1,000 of its restaurants across the country.
Existing services continue to expand, meanwhile. The Minneapolis-based delivery service Bite Squad has expanded to 100 new U.S. cities this year and is now in more than 300 markets.
DoorDash has expanded its last-mile delivery logistics service to more than 1,000 locations across the U.S. and Canada this year.
The services aren’t just delivery providers. In many cases they are aggregators, and as the services grow along with their demand, they promise to shift more consumer decisions toward their mobile apps, similar to how online sites such as Hotels.com dominate hotel-stay decisions.
Both of DoorDash’s service additions seem to push the industry in this direction.
DoorDash Pickup, for instance, would open up the service to customers who prefer picking up their own food and don’t want to pay for delivery.
Chains such as Smashburger, BJ’s Restaurants and Brewhouse and Pokeworks are rolling out pickup services through DoorDash, and other chains such as Chop’t Creative Salad in New York City and Big Star in Chicago offer pickup through DoorDash.
By adding the pickup service, “DoorDash now provides an all-in-one off-premise” strategy for restaurant companies, the company said.
The company’s DashPass program, meanwhile, provides a service for its most frequent users, letting them get unlimited delivery on orders of $15 or more. That could increase the use of the service among chains that use DoorDash, including Cheesecake, White Castle, Jack in the Box and others.
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