Consumer demands are shifting and they appreciate other types of products delivered in an hour. Old school ecommerce – next day, two days deliveries – versus. One to two-hour deliveries is a large difference; shoppers will naturally welcome any quicker deliveries. Welcome to Quick Commerce.
Quick commerce has expanded from the media story of being a good way to burn cash for VCs to something that consumers expect 24×7. Thanks to apps and new partnerships; consumers have now come to expect more of their food — restaurant and grocery alike — on demand.
Quick commerce has also focused on a new revenue stream tapping into the traffic of the shopper base: Retail Media.
The new announcement from GrubHub in the US shows the potential of Retail Media in quick commerce.
GrubHub and Amazon
Grubhub was one of the first online food delivery platforms quick delivery marketplaces in the US. Today it is a part of Just Eat Takeaway.com, and has 33 million+ users and 375,000 merchants in over 4,000 U.S. cities.
What is unique about Grubhub is its partnership with Amazon. Since 2022, Amazon Prime’s 180 million members have had access to Grubhub+, the brand’s premium subscription offering with $0 delivery costs. In May 2024, direct ordering via the Amazon app or website was announced. Amazon shoppers can order from restaurants in all 50 states with Grubhub directly on Amazon.com and in the Amazon Shopping app.
If the customer is an Amazon Prime member, they get a free Grubhub+ membership worth $120 a year, which includes $0 delivery fees, lower service fees, and 5% credit back on pick-up orders. The partnership also includes exclusive deals on Prime Day.
The Amazon partnership delivers substantial reach and substantially differentiated audience against US competitors such as Uber Eats or DoorDash.
GrubHub Ads Network
GrubHub has partnered with Koddi to launch the GrubHub ads network. The shift in Retail Media is a must to compete with Uber Eats and DoorDash, which have long had large ad businesses aimed at restaurants. Ads will appear when shoppers search for specific cuisine or local restaurants.
Koddi helps the likes of Booking.com, Fanatics, Cars.com. and other billion-dollar businesses build, operate and grow their retail and commerce media networks.
Eric Brackmann, VP Commerce Media for Koddi said that ‘restaurants will be able to tap into GrubHub vast audience and reach to be able to promote their restaurants. Sponsored listings, sponsored restaurants can appear on the homepage, within search results, and in cuisine categories, reaching potential customers at key decision points. Advertisers can also avail of automated optimisations to fine-tune budgets and bids and drive higher performance”
Koddi will also deliver insights to advertisers into key performance metrics such as share of voice and ROAS by audience segment. The platform supports 10+ audience parameters with millions of possible combinations, enabling precise engagement for new, returned and lapsed audiences.
Koddi reckon that their ultimate goal is to “create a seamless, end-to-end media network for advertisers. You can work with Koddi to run your end-to-end media business, inclusive of onsite, offsite, and in-store,” Brackmann explains, emphasizing the flexibility of their platform.
“As a marketplace with tens of millions of customers, we’re excited to give merchants and brands more opportunities to grow their business through Grubhub,” said Kyle Emmett, senior director of retail media and merchant solutions at Grubhub. “These new advertising tools are a natural extension of our long-standing efforts to make Grubhub an effective marketing channel for our merchant partners to acquire more consumers and a further step to reach our full potential as an advertising channel.”
Quick Commerce and Retail Media
Quick commerce and retail media are the perfect match: q-commerce has become the new benchmark for convenience, offering fast delivery times from mouse-click to doorstep. But this comes at a cost. One of the ways to achieve sustainable for quick commerce is leverage its traffic to create an advertising business. Expect to see more capabilities in Retail Media coming from the likes of Koddi to help GrubHub turn a reliable profit.
