DoorDash CEO admits ordering groceries via delivery apps is ‘worse than buying your own’ – as the service undergoes a series of changes
Ordering groceries through a delivery app is often “worse than the physical experience of buying your own,” DoorDash’s CEO admits.
Tony Xu said there is “still a long way to go” before mobile apps can perfect grocery delivery services. Customers became frustrated with the fact that their orders were often out of stock.
DoorDash recently unveiled two changes to its app, including accepting food stamps as a form of payment and adding more non-food vendors like Staples to its platform.
Xu made the comments during the Goldman Sachs technology conference in San Francisco, reports said The sun.
He said: ‘Today you pay more (for online grocery delivery) and you don’t always get what you ordered.
DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, pictured, said there is “still a long way to go” before mobile apps can perfect grocery delivery services. Customers were frustrated by the fact that their orders were often out of stock
DoorDash recently unveiled two changes to its app, including accepting food stamps as a form of payment and adding more non-food vendors like Staples to its platform
“That’s where the status quo reigns. We have a lot of work to do… there has to be something better.”
He added that delivery services should provide customers with what they ordered at “prices they expect to pay in a manner and time that is more convenient than if they did it themselves.”
“People have been working on this since the 1970s, and there is still a long way to go in the supermarket sector,” Xu told the conference.
He made the comments last week, but since then grocery delivery app Instacart has seen its valuation fall from record highs during the pandemic.
The online grocer is preparing to go public this week. It set a price target of up to $9.3 billion in valuation, down from the $39 billion price tag it raised in its last funding round two years ago.
Demand for mobile delivery apps surged during the lockdown, when fears of catching Covid-19 kept shoppers from going to stores themselves.
Between April and September 2020, UberEats, DoorDash, GrubHub and Postmates all raked in around $5.5 billion – more than double their revenue in the same period the year before.
However, as customers returned to dining and shopping, many of these apps lost their power. Today, DoorDash is trading at about $82.84 per share, compared to $238 at the height of the pandemic.
Last month, the company announced a partnership with stationary giant Staples.
Users of the app can now place orders at approximately 1,000 Staples stores, meaning they can have office supplies, backpacks and electronics delivered to their door within an hour.
In March, DoorDash also committed to accepting EBT/Snap benefits, commonly known as food stamps.
Matt Rettig, vice president of public policy and social impact at DoorDash, said at the time: “As part of our mission to strengthen local economies, we are proud to expand access to food for the communities we serve. ‘