DoorDash Turns in Strong Quarter as Grocery Business Grows
Consumers are opening more doors for grocery delivery through DoorDash, and the tech company is here for it. The local commerce platform has released its latest financial report showing record-breaking quarterly growth in total orders and revenue, with lifts across its operation that includes a growing grocery business.
According to DoorDash, total orders grew 19% on a year-over-year (YoY) basis while revenue spiked 23% during that same time frame to hit $2.6 billion. “In general, we see order frequency increases both within restaurants and incrementally on top of that from new verticals. It depends a lot on the geography and which new selection that has been onboarded or how strong the selection density is within a market,” said Tony Xu, co-founder, chairman and CEO, during Aug. 1 earnings webcast.
[RELATED: More Grocery Shoppers Are Hitting the Delivery Button]
Xu reiterated the company’s view that the organization's long runway to growth includes space for grocery. “Obviously, we've been very strong in grocery and in convenience. That's been a big focus for us for three years,” he remarked, citing the addition of more retailers and CPGs to the platform. “And so, I think you're seeing the appreciation of our performance not just by consumers, but also by other large companies out there that are trying to tap into a very valuable base of customers, a lot of whom are coming to us for grocery and for these new verticals.”
CFO Ravi Inukonda echoed that sentiment. “Our goal is to drive overall order frequency up. We're not trying to drive just the restaurant order frequency up or the new vertical product frequency app. In fact, looking at the order frequency on a blended basis is not how we think about the business. It's truly a cohorted business,” he explained, adding that diversified cohorts offer more options to users. “We are adding selection in restaurants. We are definitely adding more selection on the grocery side, as well as international.”
On that point, DoorDash recently announced that its services are live on more than 400 Save A Lot locations. Other newer partners include Vallarta Supermarkets, New Seasons Market, Haggen, Mother’s Market, and Jimbo’s, along with Wakefern Food Corp. banners ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Fairway Market, Gourmet Garage, and Dearborn Market.
As grocery usage expands, so is DoorDash’s advertising arm. “Our CPG ad business is going really, really fast. I'm very pleased with the performance by the team. But again, in terms of pacing, analysts think of it as sequencing, which is the marketplace — the health of the marketplace should always come before the monetization of the marketplace,” Xu pointed out.
