{"id":6797,"date":"2018-03-04T19:17:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T00:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/grubhub-easy-for-the-customer-hard-for-the-restaurant\/"},"modified":"2018-03-04T19:17:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T00:17:54","slug":"grubhub-easy-for-the-customer-hard-for-the-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/grubhub-easy-for-the-customer-hard-for-the-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"Grubhub \u2013 Easy for the customer, hard for the restaurant?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Founded in 2004, Grubhub has become the leader in online food delivery. In recent years they have built an impressive portfolio of brands through mergers, acquisitions and partnerships. This has allowed for significant scale in the platform, which features 80,000 restaurants in 1,600 cities and serves 392,500 daily orders [1]. But in a market worth \u201c1 percent of the total food market and 4% of food sold through restaurants\u201d according to Mckinsey, competition has increased significantly, with popular brands such as Amazon and Uber hoping to gain a share of the pie.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Food delivery services are gaining increasing importance as they create significant value for the users and the restaurants. From the user perspective, food delivery apps provide a one-stop-shop to access a wide range of options. In addition, the services provide convenience, as the food is delivered to the user\u2019s door without the need to wait in line, or go out in bad weather. The friendly consumer interface allows for discovery and a seamless experience, while centralization decreases frictions in key parts of the customer journey such as the check-out. By creating a profile only once, the customer is able to order from different establishments without the need to input their data, therefore streamlining the process.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the restaurant perspective, in essence, being part of this services provides access to more customers. In addition, Grubhub provides services to improve the efficiency of restaurants, for example they provide a \u201csimple restaurant platform\u201d which seeks to increase the efficiency of the partner restaurant\u2019s takeout business [3].<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This platform model allows Grubhub to capture value in two main ways; by charging a fee to restaurants for each order and by charging a delivery fee to users [4]. The potential scale of the opportunity and the monetization options has not failed to attract competition to what seems like a winner takes all market. The indirect network effects in food delivery appear to be strong, the more users are present in the market, more restaurants will try and be part of the platform. Similarly, as more options are available in a platform, more users are drawn to it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although this seems straightforward from a user and restaurant perspective, several negative implications for restaurants arise. Even when delivery still signifies a small percentage of overall restaurant transactions, currently just 3% [5], there are significant operational challenges associated with delivery. Serving the customers in a new manner means new logistics for restaurants. Moreover, the overall restaurant experience has to be re-conceived, as, in part, the customer is no longer in the premises. Considering the difficulties, restaurants face increased complexities as the number of platforms they participate in increases. Each platform has its own processes and interface which limits the amount of multi-homing a restaurant is able to manage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Therefore, it is not surprising that Grubhub sought to create value for the restaurants as well as for the users. In this market, users can easily multi-home unless a there is a significant differentiation among platforms, the number of establishments featured being the most important. Restaurants, on the other hand, are likely to use a limited number of platforms if not only one, and it is therefore in the company\u2019s best interest to create significant value for them.<\/p>\n

As stock prices and analysts\u2019 expectations for Grubhub and similar companies continue to increase, more competition is bound to arise. In a market that is still young and growing, it will be interesting to see which platform best leverages the indirect networks effects and creates a \u201cstickier\u201d user base that ensures long-term sustainability. As of now, it appears that an initial advantage and scale are key factors of success.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] https:\/\/about.grubhub.com\/about-us\/what-is-grubhub\/default.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

[2] https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/industries\/high-tech\/our-insights\/the-changing-market-for-food-delivery<\/a><\/p>\n

[3] https:\/\/get.grubhub.com\/?referer=grubhub.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[4] https:\/\/medium.com\/@eastern_peak\/all-you-need-to-know-about-building-a-food-delivery-app-grubhub-case-study-2965cdb24801<\/a><\/p>\n

[5] http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/business\/ct-restaurant-digital-renovation-0903-biz-20170831-story.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a platform that relies on featuring many options and attracting many users, which side to focus on?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2004,"featured_media":6799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[2031,2033,2032],"class_list":["post-6797","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-delivery","category-multi-homing","category-online-delivery"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/growing-businesses-in-the-age-of-platforms-2018\/","yoast_head":"\nGrubhub \u2013 Easy for the customer, hard for the restaurant? - Digital Innovation and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/grubhub-easy-for-the-customer-hard-for-the-restaurant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grubhub \u2013 Easy for the customer, hard for the restaurant? 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