DoorDash Expands Alcohol Delivery Service to Australia and Canada

DoorDash’s alcohol delivery service was previously only available in one US state. The change is expected to boost profits for restaurants and other businesses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Francisco, California, 2021-Sep-30 — /EPR Network/ — San Francisco-based delivery application DoorDash now offers users the possibility of ordering alcoholic beverages through their app. The alcohol delivery service will be available in 20 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and Australia, catering to around 100 million customers. CEO Tony Xu stated that with this new feature, restaurants will benefit from larger orders, and gig workers can earn more money. This is in addition to the overall boost that the pandemic has brought to eCommerce in general, which stores like https://www.instacake.com.au/ have benefited from.

According to DoorDash’s website, U.S. users will be able to take advantage of this feature in the following states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. Some of these states, as of yet, do not facilitate alcohol delivery directly from restaurants, such as Tennessee. Before the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the service was only available to California dwellers.

The new functionality will require ID verification to determine whether the customer fulfills the necessary age requirement (21 and older), although DoorDash’s customer support has also informed users that their data won’t be disclosed to employees, as the platform will blur out the identification of users, aside from the date of birth and photo. Nevertheless, the driver will also ask for ID verification upon handing off the order. After the order has been completed, the ID will no longer be accessible to the deliverer.

This recent addition was triggered by events surrounding last year’s lockdown measures issued in the wake of the pandemic. States like New York softened the restrictions related to alcohol delivery as a way to support establishments that could not open their doors. This new model was effectively thwarted after the governor’s office lifted the state of emergency in June and reestablished the alcohol restrictions, a measure frowned upon by many restaurant owners.

This feature, however, is not exclusive to DoorDash. Services like Drizly, Saucey, and Minibar already had this functionality. DoorDash itself made it available to merchants through DoorDash Drive, providing them with large batches for events. 

This trend has proven to be very popular among consumers. According to recent data taken from the National Restaurant Association, 56% of customers over 21 expressed their willingness to order alcoholic beverages, were they to be offered as part of the delivery menu. 

Also, a recent Nielsen report, cited by DoorDash, suggested that alcohol has become the fastest-growing consumer-packaged goods in online commerce. This market environment pushed Uber Eats to purchase Drizly in February for the sum of $1.1 billion, a deal that caught the attention of the US Federal Trade Commission (USFTC) out of concern that it would hinder competition.

DoorDash stock also witnessed an increase of around 0.5% in the aftermath of the announcement, although it has been trading in a consistently bullish pattern since May 13th, after the price touched its local bottom at $110.