Amazon’s Budding Grubhub Partnership Could Grow to 15% Stake

Grubhub’s Amazon bet appears to be paying off.

Last month, Grubhub’s parent, Just Eat Takeaway, announced that it had an agreement with Amazon that lets the retailer’s U.S. Amazon Prime customers order from Grubhub without a fee for a year to boost new customers. In exchange, Amazon would get a 2% stake in the food delivery company that could balloon to 15% if Grubhub gained customers.

Read more: Grubhub Deal Gives Amazon New Ammo in Walmart Food Fight

On a call with analysts Wednesday (Aug. 3) discussing Just Eat Takeaway’s half-year 2022 financial results, CEO Jitse Groen noted that the company has seen orders accelerate since the offer went live for Amazon Prime subscribers.

“I cannot disclose these [new user] numbers, … but It would surprise me a lot if you won’t see anything over the course of the next year in terms of a better trajectory for this business,” Groen said. “So, while [this commercial agreement] doesn’t address all the issues we face in the U.S., it does address a growth in market share issue. … It’s early days, but it looks pretty good to us.”

See also: Amazon’s Fight for a Seat at the Dinner Table

With the partnership, the aggregator intends to close the gap between Grubhub and the United States’ two leading aggregators. Research from the March/April edition of PYMNTS’ Digital Divide series, “The Digital Divide: Regional Variations in U.S. Food Ordering Trends and Digital Adoption,” created in collaboration with Paytronix which drew from a February survey of more than 2,500 U.S. adults, found that about one in three had used an aggregator in the previous 30 days. Of those, 41% had purchased from Grubhub, well behind the 48% that had purchased from Uber Eats and the 71% that had purchased from DoorDash.

Read more: New Research Shows That Regional Dining Quirks Matter in Tailoring Restaurant Offers

The news comes as aggregators face a more difficult market, with consumers increasingly ordering delivery from first party channels, restaurants’ websites and apps. The July edition of PYMNTS’ ConnectedEconomy™ study, “The ConnectedEconomy™ Monthly Report: The Rise Of The Smart Home,” which draws from a May survey of a census-balanced panel of more than 2,600 U.S. adults, finds that 53% of consumers had ordered food from a restaurant’s website for pickup or home delivery in the previous month. For comparison, 43% of consumers reported ordering from a restaurant aggregator such as DoorDash or Uber Eats in the same period.

Additional details: New Data Shows Convenience Drove Smart Home Upgrades for 83M Consumers in 2022

Moreover, restaurants’ adoption of third-party aggregators has actually decreased, at least in the United States, according to PYMNTS data. The 2022 edition of PYMNTS’ Restaurant Readiness Index, also created in collaboration with Paytronix, which drew from data aggregated from aggregators, restaurant sites, mobile apps and loyalty log-ins revealed that aggregator availability decreased significantly between September 2021 and April 2022.

Read more: More Than Half of Restaurants Depend on Digital Sales, Despite Uptick in On-Premises Orders

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