Big restaurant POS supplier Toast is joining forces with delivery provider Uber to make it easier for restaurants to use the two services in tandem.
The partnership will make Uber’s delivery service automatically available to the roughly 148,000 restaurants that use Toast. It will also make the integration between the two platforms seamless, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during an earnings call Tuesday.
That means it will be easier for restaurants to do things like make menu changes or upload photos to their Uber Eats page. Starting next year, restaurants will also be able to manage Uber Eats promotions and marketing campaigns directly within Toast.
"We're actually using the restaurant data that Toast is empowering and then moving that data directly across to Uber Eats," Khosrowshahi said. "It's going to simplify setting up your operation on Eats, it's going to simplify how you market on Eats, and it's going to save a bunch of time for those entrepreneurs who are building out our restaurant ecosystem."
Ultimately, the companies believe this tighter connection will help restaurants grow their revenue. And they said in a press release that they will also build new tools that will "enable restaurants to attract new guests and retain existing ones."
Khosrowshahi also added that Uber can help Toast grow internationally, where Uber already has a large presence.
“For us, it gives us more footprint across Toast's ecosystem. And then for Toast, it helps them grow outside of the U.S. as well,” he said.
The move deepens a relationship between the two companies that began to progress late last year, when Toast said it would integrate with Uber Direct, Uber’s white-label delivery service. This was notable because previously, Toast had offered only DoorDash’s competing service, DoorDash Drive, as an option for direct delivery orders.
And of the two options, Toast gave Uber an edge: Orders routed from Toast to Uber would cost restaurants $6.99 per transaction, while DoorDash orders would cost $7.49.
This latest partnership would appear to tip the scales even further in Uber’s direction for restaurants that use Toast.
And it comes amid rising competition from DoorDash, which is not only the U.S. delivery market leader, but is also increasingly moving into Toast’s turf with products such as online ordering, websites, mobile apps, marketing and reservations via the recent acquisition of SevenRooms.
In August, Toast partnered with reservations platform Resy and Tock to combine their customer data to enable restaurants to provide more personalized service.
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