DoorDash survey finds restaurant takeout is on the rise, launches new pickup feature

Enjoying a hot meal prepared by your favorite neighborhood restaurant can lift your mood, satisfy cravings, and give you a little more time in the day to manage the newfound stress we’re all facing. While many customers prefer the ease and convenience of door-to-door delivery, we know that others opt for the pickup feature, ordering their food online for pickup at the restaurant. During the past few months the way we dine has drastically changed, which is why DoorDash wanted to give you more choice in how you’d prefer to experience a restaurant-quality meal at home while supporting your favorite local restaurants. We’ve onboarded tens of thousands of merchants onto pickup to help generate even more sales for merchants at zero cost to them while offering you another way to access your favorite cuisines. As more merchants adopted the pickup feature, we also saw more of you opting for takeout, a win-win for restaurants and customers who pay no fees on pickup orders.

DoorDash surveyed customers to understand what’s motivating you to choose takeout. Here’s what we found out:

Restaurant takeout is on the rise:

• 56% of customers said the amount they ordered takeout has increased amidst the pandemic as customers support their local businesses during COVID-19.
• Consumers ages 35–54 were the largest pickup adopters, ordering takeout multiple times a week in March and April.

Parents are opting for takeout to get some much-needed alone time and a break from the house:

• One in five parents told us they are choosing takeout as an opportunity to go for a drive or get some alone time. With self-isolation extending into the summer, parents are looking for ways to grab a quick break and a little peace and quiet.

Customers are looking for ways to order food affordably:

• 44% cited affordability as the top reason they chose pickup. At a time when many customers are looking to cut costs, skipping the wait while saving money is increasingly becoming a more popular option for online food ordering.

We still prefer to eat our takeout in the comfort of our home:

• The vast majority of respondents, 82%, said they take their food home to eat after picking up their order at the restaurant. While residents look for a chance to get out of the house by ordering restaurant food for pickup, the vast majority still come home to enjoy their meal.

Pickup is a product feature DoorDash launched nearly 2 years ago, giving merchants the option to offer customers the ability to order food online for carryout from the restaurant, skipping the phone call, the wait, and the fees. During the pandemic, we’ve onboarded new merchant stores onto pickup that are seeing incremental sales through this product feature, including national chains like Wingstop and Jollibee along with local independent restaurants including Duke’s Counter in D.C. and The Village Bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We launched DoorDash Pickup in April and have been impressed out of the gate. Pickup represents a double-digit percentage of our overall DoorDash sales because our customers love the convenience of ordering and paying ahead. It’s a great way for customers who are outside the delivery radius to still enjoy Jollibee and the 0% commissions are greatly appreciated during these unprecedented times,” said Beth Dela-Cruz, President of Jollibee Foods Corporation North America, Philippine Brands.

Now, DoorDash is making the pickup process even more efficient, launching a pickup product feature to ease the takeout wait time for customers. During this time when social-distance measures are continuing to be enforced, we wanted to make sure customers weren’t waiting for long at the curb for their order to be ready. Now, if customers choose to opt-in to share their location data when the app is running, merchants will be alerted when the customer is approaching the store so they can have their order ready upon arrival.

“We are adapting daily to new realities, and DoorDash takeout has been especially instrumental during the pandemic. The volume exceeded expectations and continues to grow, allowing us to serve guests looking for affordable and convenient ways to pick up food from us,” said Daniel Kramer, Managing Partner of Duke’s Counter, Duke’s Grocery and Gogi Yogi in Washington, D.C.

We’re doing all that we can to serve our community at a time when delivery and pickup have become lifelines for restaurants to earn sales and for customers to access a hot meal safely and affordably. So whether you’re looking to pick up a quick lunch nearby in between Zoom meetings or want to take a walk after work and scoop up dinner on the route, we’re here for you. Just toggle to the Pickup button at the top of the app.

*Survey Methodology: DoorDash surveyed nearly 1,000 customers through SurveyMonkey to understand their pickup habits and sentiment towards the service. The survey was fielded to DoorDash users who had ordered on the platform for delivery or takeout at least once in the last 60 days. The questionnaire was conducted between Friday, March 1st and Wednesday, March 6th, 2020.