Jan 28th 2020
Key Takeaways
• Starbucks’ YOY growth of delivery service sales for Q4 was 207%
• With Grubhub’s Dunkin’ partnership starting in July 2019, Dunkin’ took 16% of market share
Starbucks started on its path working with on-demand food delivery apps in 2015, beginning with a partnership with Postmates and servicing Seattle. As consumer demand has shifted to the expectation that anything can be delivered, delivery has become an increasingly important facet of Starbucks’ business. Now in 2020, it was announced that Starbucks will be working exclusively with UberEats to deliver nationwide. In such a competitive market and with many users using multiple apps, these exclusive deals are important to lock in users for the delivery app companies.
In our September 2019 report, DoorDash maintained its lead in the market with a 35% market share of consumer spend, followed by UberEats at 25%, and Grubhub at 23%. With Dunkin’ expanding its partnership with GrubHub in July 2019 and taking the battle more directly with Starbucks in the delivery market, Edison Trends analyzed sales patterns and trends from more than 6,500 transactions in the U.S. in Q4.
Figure 1: Chart shows customer spend by week on Starbucks and Dunkin’ orders through food delivery services from September 30, 2019, to January 19, 2020, according to Edison Trends. The highest weekly spend has been set to 100, and all other values have been scaled in proportion. This analysis is based on over 6,500 transactions.
With Dunkin’ entering the food on-demand market in July alongside its Grubhub partnership, the coffee and donut brand became Starbucks’ key competitor in the food delivery space. Spending on Starbucks orders through food delivery services has remained reasonably steady over the last few months, with a slight peak during the week of December 15. Likewise, spending on Dunkin’ orders has remained steady throughout the last few months. Starbucks did not have any other close competitors in the coffee industry.
Figure 2: Chart shows market share of spend on food delivery orders between Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts from September 30, 2019 to January 19, 2020, according to Edison Trends. This analysis is based on over 6,500 transactions.
Comparing brand sales through food delivery services between September 30, 2019 and January 19, 2020 shows that Starbucks captured 84% of customer dollars spent while Dunkin’ took 16%. While this is an average, there was little variation in their relative share over the time period analyzed.
Figure 3: Chart shows year-over-year change in customer spending on Starbucks orders through food delivery services from September 30, 2019 to January 19, 2020, according to Edison Trends. This analysis is based on over 6500 transactions.
Spending on Starbucks through food delivery services continues to grow at a rapid pace, with Q4 2019 bringing in a 207% increase over Q4 2018 while Q3 2019 brought in a 239% increase over Q3 2018.
With Starbucks and Uber Eats going exclusive and Dunkin’ expanding its services via GrubHub, 2020 is shaping up to be an extremely interesting year for Starbucks, Dunkin’ and the food delivery apps, as consumers and workers become more acclimatized to ordering their coffee and breakfast via delivery apps.
As the market evolves, we will continue to stay on top of the latest trends. To learn more about how Edison Trends can help your business, contact us at bizdev@edison.tech. For more up-to-date insights in the e-commerce space, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on Twitter at @EdisonTrends.
*The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from millions of consumers in the United States.