From McDonald’s to Starbucks, delivery initiatives were ramped up during the most recent quarter with expectations of reaching a national footprint in the coming months. Restaurant companies continue to expand their digital offerings to make delivery and off-premise ordering easier for customers to keep sales flowing. While delivery remains largely incremental, it continues to produce higher average checks.
… McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook told investors during the company’s Q2 2019 earnings call that the company expects its global delivery business to have $4 billion in sales in 2019. Restaurants that have had delivery available for at least 12 months have already seen double-digit delivery growth. Delivery orders also are twice the size of an average check, he said.
… Delivery is still in its early days in the U.S. and has yet to make a meaningful contribution to Starbucks’ business results
… While delivery in the U.S. has moved much slower than in China, where delivery made up 6% of sales during the recent quarter, COO and Group President Americas Roz Brewer told investors there have been encouraging signs in the U.S. to move its partnership with Uber Eats nationwide. During its pilot, the company made sure that it had good software integration and that delivery could be executed at the store level first.
…Chipotle Off-premise is helping drive significant comparable sales growth of 10% during the second quarter, which included about 7% of transaction growth, CEO Brian Niccol said during the company’s Q2 2019 earnings call with investors. Chipotle’s digital sales grew 99% year-over-year to $262 million and made up 18.2% of sales during the second quarter.
… Off-premise continues to grow at over 20%, BJ’s Restaurant CEO and Director Gregory Trojan told investors during the company’s Q2 2019 earnings call. Ongoing systems and operational improvements that the restaurant and its delivery partners are doing are helping produce solid guest experiences and improve net promoter scores for orders sourced from its website and online.