Sign reading We Deliver on Doordash in a restaurant setting, San Ramon, California, April 17, 2020.
Smith Collection | Gado | Getty Images
DoorDash on Wednesday said it is expanding its corporate delivery offerings as the coronavirus pandemic keeps many office buildings empty.
Its subscription program DashPass will include corporate members, giving employees unlimited free delivery and reduced service fees. Companies can also offer meal credits to their employees to expense meals deliverd by DoorDash or its subsidiary Caviar. Group ordering capability and employee gift cards are also part of the delivery company’s corporate business, now available to employees working remotely.
DoorDash said that more than 4,000 businesses have already signed on to the new program, including Zoom Video, Charles Schwab and Hulu.
Fear of spiking cases during the winter has pushed some companies to postpone their return to their office buildings until next spring. That’s bad news for DoorDash and its competitors. Corporate customers can account for a huge chunk of business, depending on the market and the third-delivery company.
For example, Grubhub told shareholders in May that the dramatic decline in corporate orders resulted in overall orders shrinking by double digits in the last two weeks of its first quarter, compared with the same time last year. In the previous quarter, its corporate business amounted to less than a tenth of its total sales. Grubhub reported $341 million in sales in the fourth quarter.
Overall, however, the pandemic has accelerated demand for DoorDash and its rivals. Dining room closures in the early months of lockdowns pushed many consumers to try the apps for the first time. Analytics platform Second Measure found that sales for meal delivery services grew 158% during August from a year earlier.
