It’s no question that restaurant delivery services are here to stay. Selecting one for your business can be a daunting process. Grubhub for restaurants is one of the biggest services around. While their brand is the most widely recognized, are they the best? Where might they fall short? Who could potentially overtake Grubhub’s market share in this competitive landscape? Sixdots, the only restaurant delivery service that takes zero revenue share, is now a prime contender for taking the top spot. Let’s see how these two platforms compare.
Grubhub for Restaurants
Today, Grubhub for restaurants holds 20% of the market share. While that’s not the largest (currently Doordash is the most popular), it is a sizable part of the market. Grubhub’s biggest benefit is name recognition. Many customers, both existing and prospective, know the name and have used the service, so making the association with your restaurant can be beneficial.
Grubhub has acquired a number of businesses in its lifetime. Since the company’s creation in 2004, they’ve purchased Seamless, Eat24, AllMenus, MenuPages, LevelUp, and Tapingo. Other smaller companies could fall under their umbrella in the future, meaning more built in customers.
Grubhub for restaurants’ biggest drawback is the cost. Commissions and fees can get high with most restaurant delivery services, up to 40% on each order. Grubhub does have a number of fees and commissions usually totaling around 30% of each order. These fees take many forms and are numerous. For some restaurants, that’s enough to make it not profitable.
Grubhub’s policies have also come under fire recently. Programs designed to offer customers discounts have ended up costing restaurants a considerable amount. Grubhub has responded to these issues (cutting commission costs, for example), but it’s worth keeping an eye on how they respond in the future.
Sixdots for Restaurants
Sixdots is a newer platform in the restaurant space that’s an “all-in-one bar and restaurant technology designed to help you recover from the impact of COVID-19.” It has its own POS system or can connect to an existing POS. But by far its biggest plus is the cost: Sixdots is totally free when partnering with beverage alcohol suppliers. That means no revenue share and no fees. That’s a huge boon for restaurants, especially for smaller ones trying to survive a pandemic.
Aside from being free, Sixdots has added bonuses that help restaurants increase operational efficiency. Sixdots offers a suite of tools that help restaurants with day-to-day management, including a digital menu builder, cocktail costing tool, cocktail recipe repository, and sales analytics. Sixdots’ partnerships with beverage alcohol suppliers also give restaurants the opportunity to participate in unique supplier-backed digital advertising programs.
Restaurant technology is expanding in a number of directions, so Sixdots gets points for having that adaptability.
How does Sixdots compare with Grubhub for restaurants?
When it comes to the bottom line, it’s clear. Grubhub for restaurants takes a large cut from profits with the promise of pulling in more customers through their brand recognition. Whether that cost is offset enough by more traffic to make it worthwhile is hard to say. Meanwhile, Sixdots is free-to-use and has many added benefits for front- and back-of-house operations. What Grubhub means for restaurants is brand recognition, but there’s a limit as to how much that can benefit your business.
FAQs
What companies does Grubhub own?
Grubhub owns Seamless, Eat24, AllMenus, MenuPages, LevelUp, and Tapingo.
How much do Grubhub and Sixdots charge restaurants?
Grubhub for restaurants’ fees average out to about 30% of each order. Sixdots charges nothing.
Is Grubhub for restaurants good or bad for your business?
It depends on the sales volume the restaurant does, as well as the average size of orders. In terms of the bottom line, Sixdots is much more cost-effective.
