DoorDash reports strong sales in the face of ongoing losses. Plus, Tim Hortons executives discuss the brand’s loyalty strategy in an interview. New Data Show Digital Loyalty Programs Are Key Differentiator for Top-Performing Restaurants The 2022 Restaurant Friction Index, a PYMNTS and Paytronix collaboration, provides an insiders’ look at the state of the restaurant business in 2022. We surveyed a census-balanced panel of 2,146 U.S. consumers about their restaurant ordering habits and 501 restaurant managers to find out how well restaurants are delivering on their customers’ increasing demand for smoother, faster and more integrated cross-channel ordering experiences. With Record-High 25M Active Users, DoorDash Eyes International Expansion Even with mobility much higher than it was throughout 2020, consumers continue to have their meals delivered more and more often, according to DoorDash’s record-breaking fourth quarter. Tim Hortons: Loyalty Programs Will Enable Customer Communication ‘Outside of the Restaurant Transaction’ Ernest Choi, senior director of digital and loyalty sales at Tim Hortons Canada, and Allison Matheson, who occupies the same position at Tim Hortons U.S., discussed in an interview with PYMNTS the ways the Tims Rewards program contributes to the digital and omnichannel growth of the brand. Amid Rising Food Costs, Startups Monetize Would-Be Waste In even the best of times, food waste is a huge problem for restaurants and grocery stores’ bottom lines. With inflation sending food prices skyrocketing, the issue is even more pressing than usual. Noting this challenge, a handful of startups are stepping in with solutions for businesses to drive revenue from would-be food waste.

Jitse Groen, CEO of Just Eat Takeaway, has said the company’s plan to delist its shares from the Nasdaq doesn’t mean it’s planning to sell Grubhub, Reuters reported Sunday (Feb. 13). The company announced the delisting last Tuesday (Feb. 8). At the time, Groen said it was a “cost-reduction measure” and that Just Eat is looking into various strategies for Grubhub’s future. In an interview with Dutch media, Groen said he still believed only the biggest food delivery players in every market will be profitable in the long run. “We have to get into a market position such as we have in the Netherlands, so that we can earn money,” he said, adding that there had been “a lot of discussions with people in the U.S.” about Grubhub. “[But] if you talk to people, then you have to have the goal that it improves the business,” he continued. Just Eat bought Grubhub last year for $7.3 billion, according to Reuters. Last December, PYMNTS wrote that Just Eat Takeaway had partnered with U.K. grocery chain Asda to trial a grocery delivery service. During the trial, Just Eat customers were able to order from five Asda stores, and both companies expected the program to expand in the future. Just Eat has already been delivering hot pizza from Asda since 2019. In the past, Groen said there wasn’t a lot of money in grocery delivery, although he has changed his opinion since then. The pressure to ditch Grubhub has also been growing. Shareholder Cat Rock Capital said the company needs to get rid of Grubhub and that this could help its stock price, shifting the focus of the company back to European customers. Cat Rock also said that if Grubhub consolidated with an American company, it would offer more value.

Deliveroo plans to trial its “Deliveroo Hop” rapid grocery service with supermarket chain Waitrose, Reuters reported Thursday (Feb. 10). Later this month, Waitrose is opening a delivery-only store in Bermondsey, London, which will be the first location that the service is offered from. For those living around the dark store location, the Hop service will cut delivery times to around 10 minutes — half of the time that traditional Waitrose deliveries take. Waitrose also has an existing partnership with Deliveroo, which allows for food delivery from 150 Waitrose shops across Britain. Deliveroo has been using grocery delivery to get to the scale to justify its model, PYMNTS reported last month. On an earnings call, Deliveroo Chief Financial Officer Adam Miller said the company wanted to “give a sense of the relative unit economics on grocery versus restaurant — not quite as good as restaurant economics.” When discussing the fourth quarter results, Miller said there were “differences” in the commission and higher consumer fees. “Grocery’s nearly 100% incremental to our restaurant business, so customers that are ordering groceries — they’re doing that on top of their existing restaurant volume, and it also has benefits on the overall density of the network and smoothing out the work for riders across the day,” he said, per the report. The U.K. grocery market is different than that in the U.S., according to data from PYMNTS’ study, “What U.K. Consumers Expect From Their Grocery Shopping Experiences,” created in collaboration with ACI Worldwide. The report looked into 2,500 U.K. adults’ grocery experiences, finding that over twice as many British residents buy groceries online when compared to Americans, at 32% and 15%, respectively. In addition, Deliveroo plans to do more work with ghost kitchens, which it has termed “Editions,” which goes against what some restaurants on the marketplace want. The virtual locations will be a big part of the international expansion efforts in France and Hong Kong, per the report.

Food delivery service DoorDash Inc. will offer financing on its app to restaurants that need business loans through the new DoorDash Capital program, according to a Bloomberg report Wednesday (Feb. 9). DoorDash Capital merchants can apply for financing to pay for business operations, including buying equipment, paying rent, hiring employees and meeting payroll, the report says. “As we continue to listen to our partners and adapt our services and offerings to meet their needs, one key area where they have asked for support is quick and easy access to capital,” DoorDash Chief Revenue Officer Tom Pickett wrote in a blog post. DoorDash Capital will craft its loan repayment structure to a restaurant’s revenue, the report says. Eligible business owners can see their cash advance offers in the DoorDash app and accept terms without signing additional paperwork or affecting their credit scores, getting the money often in one or two business days. DoorDash’s financing platform adds a new revenue stream for the San Francisco-based company, following its launch in October of sponsored listings on its app in a move to increase its advertising business. DoorDash controlled about 60% of the U.S. meal delivery market as of December, the report said. DoorDash Capital joins similar products by restaurant software company Toast Inc. and payment processing firms PayPal Holdings Inc., Stripe Inc. and Block Inc. In January, DoorDash partnered with Girl Scouts of America to sell Girl Scout Cookies through its digital marketplace to allow customers to order cookies online for delivery or pickup at in-person cookie booths. Girl Scouts sell about 200 million boxes of cookies each year, according to a document on their website. At the 2021 price of $5-$6 per box, that's a minimum of $1 billion. If DoorDash took a commission at the lowest end of its typical 15-30% range, the deal would bring in $150 million.

Indian food delivery giant Swiggy raises $700 million, while Latin American grocery delivery startup Calii brings in $23 million. Plus, PYMNTS research reveals that grocers’ price increases could send shoppers running right into the arms of competitors. Indian Food Delivery Giant Swiggy Raises $700M at $10.7B Valuation Indian food delivery giant Swiggy raised $700 million and doubled its valuation to $10.7 billion. Backed by Softbank, Swiggy is just behind Zomato in the booming sector of fast delivery of food and groceries in India. Swiggy previously raised $1.25 billion in July, which gave it a valuation of $5.5 billion. Zomato went public in a $1.3 billion initial public offering (IPO) earlier this month. Latam Grocery Delivery Platform Calii Raises $22.5M Series A Grocery delivery startup Calii raised $22.5 million in a Series A funding round, bringing its fundraising to date to almost $35 million, as it strives to grow its position in the Latin American food delivery sector. Price Increases Threaten Grocery Shopper Loyalty, Data Show As inflation drives food prices up, grocers that shift the cost too quickly to consumers risk losing their most loosely held customers to competitors, revealed data from PYMNTS’ study “Decoding Customer Affinity: The Customer Loyalty to Merchants Survey 2022.” Gorillas to Snap up Frichti for Bigger Slice of Food Delivery Pie German rapid grocery startup Gorillas is working on a deal to acquire the French delivery firm Frichti for undisclosed terms. The combined entity would grow its footprint in the competitive food delivery space and give it the second-largest market share, 17.1%, for same-day grocery delivery in Paris, just ahead of Carrefour SA and behind leader Casino Guichard-Perrachon, according to Nielsen data. Snack Giant Utz Acquires Clem, J&D Snack maker Utz announced it will acquire two of its New York City-based distributors. The Pennsylvania chip and pretzel maker said it had signed an agreement to acquire the assets of Clem Snacks based in Brooklyn and servicing around 100 stores in the city and Long Island, and J&D Snacks, a 25-route distributor based in the Bronx. The two companies are what’s known as direct store delivery (DSD) distributors of Utz’s products. NYC Mayor Adams: Third-Party Food Delivery Apps Must Now Be Licensed Starting Monday (Jan. 24), third-party food delivery apps will have to be licensed to operate in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Peter A. Hatch said in a press release. Grocers Must Connect the Digital Dots or Risk Losing Customers to Competitors “We see the impact of not being digitized and connected — we see the impact in their customer loyalty … [and] in general customer experience and satisfaction,” Guy Bloch, CEO of delivery and fulfillment cloud platform Bringg.

Delivery Hero is ending its restaurant deals in Norway, and Friendly’s is opening a more digital-centric restaurant concept. Plus, Starbucks is reversing its decision to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing, and Andrew Robbins, CEO of Paytronix, discusses how restaurants can leverage loyalty-driving tools to navigate crises. Delivery Hero Ends Exclusive Restaurant Deals in Norway After Competition Probe Norway residents will soon have other ways of getting their meals delivered. Delivery Hero, one of the biggest online food delivery companies in Europe, has been remanded for its exclusivity agreements. The Norwegian Competition Authority (NCA), the government agency responsible for ensuring competition, and the German-based delivery giant settled an anti-competitive probe into Foodora, a Delivery Hero subsidiary. Friendly’s is gearing up to open a fast-casual concept; Starbucks is backpedaling on its vaccine mandate; Del Taco is opening a digital-order-focused store; and Pret a Manger has been ordered to settle a lawsuit over alleged biometric privacy violations. Restaurants Lean on Loyal Customers to Navigate Omicron, Inflation Impact “A strong loyalty CRM program, online ordering, those are the twin pillars of a good strategy,” Andrew Robbins, CEO of Paytronix, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview. “And we see this every single time there’s a downturn.” Buy Now, Pay Later Coming to Food and Beverage Categories Despite Pushback Consumer finance company Zilch has come under fire for promoting its buy now, pay later (BNPL) option as a way to pay for pizza at the supermarket in a now-deleted blog post, but for better or quite likely for worse, Zilch is not the only company attempting to extend BNPL to the food and beverage space. The Generation Gap in Restaurant Loyalty Programs When it comes to restaurant loyalty programs, there is a generational divide. According to PYMNTS research, 64% of Generation Z diners and 61% of millennials participate in these programs at one or two of the table-service restaurants they frequent. For their parents and grandparents, it’s a different story. Just 37% of Gen X and 27% of baby boomer patrons do the same. Virtual Restaurants Are Evolving Beyond the Need for Aggregators “I think that [direct ordering] will lead to a new twist on how loyalty is created, which will be pretty exciting to see — how we battle for people in the online world differently than when we have them in a captive audience space inside our restaurants,” Rishi Nagam, CEO of virtual restaurant solutions provider Franklin Junction, told PYMNTS in an interview.

Deliveroo leans on ghost kitchens and grocery delivery to stand out from competitors, and Walmart announces a new eCommerce fulfillment center. Plus, Torchy’s Tacos Chief Marketing Officer Scott Hudler tells PYMNTS how elements of surprise and delight are helping the chain’s loyalty program build a loyal following. Deliveroo Uses Grocery, Ghost Kitchens to Make Its Labor Model Work As Deliveroo and its competitors race to win the spending of on-demand food delivery customers worldwide, the London, U.K.-based company is leveraging grocery delivery to reach the scale needed to make the economics of the model make sense. Despite grocery delivery being less profitable in its own right, adding the service on top of the existing restaurant offerings allows the company to better use its workforce. Grocery Roundup: Aldi Drops Deliveroo; Walmart to Open eCommerce Fulfillment Center Aldi is pulling its stores from Deliveroo’s marketplace, while Walmart has announced a new fulfillment center. Plus, a checkout tech startup has announced a $10 million funding round, and Stop & Shop has rolled out a new eCommerce offering. Restaurants Roll Out Loyalty Offerings Beyond the Points-per-Dollar Standard Austin, Texas-based brand Torchy’s Tacos, which has 100 locations across 11 states, announced the launch of its rewards program earlier this month, offering surprise rewards that members cannot anticipate or control. “We wanted to build a loyalty program that was not just points and punches,” Torchy’s Tacos Chief Marketing Officer Scott Hudler said. “We wanted to build something that was fun and unique and different.” Food delivery aggregators were once considered rarities reserved for special occasions, primarily used by young, tech-savvy consumers, but they have fast become a staple in many American households that defy any single demographic. The pandemic has made Americans’ desire for seamless, customizable dining experiences more apparent, with more consumers now preferring the ease of convenient, frictionless, aggregator-assisted ordering experiences.

Instacart is partnering with Chase and Mastercard, and 7-Eleven is getting into subscription commerce. Plus, Aldi is opening its first cashier-less checkout supermarket in London. Instacart Launching Credit Card With Chase and Mastercard Credit card issuer Chase and online grocery platform Instacart announced Wednesday (Jan. 19) an expansion of their partnership with Instacart’s first credit card, with Chase as the exclusive issuer and Mastercard as the exclusive payments network for the new offering. 7-Eleven Launches Subscription to Make Delivery Economics Work in All Parties’ Favor 7-Eleven announced in a Wednesday (Jan. 19) press release the launch of its 7NOW Gold Pass subscription offering providing free delivery, double rewards points and select freebies for $5.95 per month. Aldi Launches London Pilot of Cashierless Supermarket Aldi is piloting its first cashierless supermarkets open to the public in Greenwich, London, Wednesday (Jan. 19) following a successful trial of the technology by Aldi’s employees over the past few months. Aldi’s new concept store, Aldi Shop&Go, enables customers to shop without scanning any products or having to go through a checkout line. Paytronix: 2021 Was the Year of Ghost Ghost kitchens aren’t just a flash in the pan. Hungry consumers are turning to digital channels in unprecedented numbers to answer the age-old question, “What’s for dinner?” For restaurateurs, this offers an opportunity to build brands without having to invest in costly storefronts, said Paytronix CEO Andrew Robbins. Walmart Leverages Alternative Fulfillment Methods to Drive Delivery Sales With Away-From-Home Consumers While grocery delivery orders soared during the early months of the pandemic as consumers sought stay-at-home alternatives to their usual habits, 2021 revealed the limitations of the channel for consumers who wanted the convenience but could not always be counted on to be at home. Now, grocers are rolling out alternatives to retain their delivery customers even as consumer mobility varies.