Restaurant Delivery Apps: Dinner at Your Door

Posted By Stephanie Faris

BreakingModern — As people rush from work to home, the mere thought of making dinner can seem exhausting. It gets worse if that person has to make a stop by the grocery store first. Fast food is an easy alternative, but too much fast food, as you know, can be bad for a family. Every option seems to require an extra step at the end of what is almost always an exhausting day.

Food delivery is a growing business, with investors eager to find the next innovative start-up. Instead of settling for pizza and Chinese delivery, the market is expanding, especially in larger cities. Best of all, consumers can use a mobile device or PC to order food online, paying and entering address information without having to make a phone call. Here are three delivery apps that are making it easier for families to get food right to their front doors.

Food Delivery apps computer

Seamless

The bad news is, Seamless currently is available only in limited markets. The good news is, the app goes beyond the traditional few markets to provide services in 17 separate states. For those who have access, the app lets you order from a variety of local restaurants. Seamless sends the order to the restaurant, which prepares and delivers it. Payment and location information is saved with Seamless, making it easy to place future orders. Seamless promises more than 12,000 restaurants with menus, bringing some of the best restaurants in an area to customers. The app is available free for Android on Google Play, Apple iOS and Blackberry.

GrubHub

If Seamless isn’t available in your area, try GrubHub. The service offers the same features in a much larger group of markets. Pizza is still a big part of GrubHub’s delivery range, but the service also partners with restaurants that provide a more-extensive menu, including sandwiches and Italian meals. GrubHub allows users to place orders on a mobile device, pay and have those orders delivered by the restaurant a short time later. Seamless and GrubHub are now partner companies, so the only real difference is their coverage areas. Grubhub is available free for Android on Google Play and Apple iOS.

delivery apps online grocery order

Delivery.com

Delivery.com has a limited service area but a wide variety of delivery options. In addition to restaurant delivery, the service also brings liquor, groceries and dry cleaning to customers’ doors. For each dollar a customer spends through Delivery.com, he receives rewards that can be used toward gift cards and other items. So not only will you save time with Delivery.com, you’ll earn rewards for using it. Delivery.com also offers reviews of local restaurants to help consumers try out local establishments without even leaving home. It’s available free for Android on Google Play and Apple iOS.

Perhaps the best thing about these apps is that they help familiarize consumers with local businesses. Because the restaurants participating in delivery services are limited to mostly locally owned companies, it also gives an edge to small business owners. In these early days of delivery apps, small businesses can get ahead of competitors by partnering with these apps to get their businesses listed. Once the service is in place, a local business can promote its delivery options and help get local customers familiar with the convenience of mobile-based ordering before competitors join in.

For BMod, I’m Stephanie Faris.