How does Grubhub Work? A Step by Step Explanation

Grubhub is an on-demand food delivery service. It operates on both website and mobile application. The Grubhub mobile application is available for both iOS and Android.

It was founded by Matt Maloney and Michael Evans in 2004. It is headquartered in Chicago and serves in more than 900 locations in the USA. Within 10 years of business, the startup was its dream of becoming an IPO. Grubhub attained the IPO status on 7th April 2014.

This website has made several restaurants accessible for their users. The target audience for the company is the ‘tired people group’. Food delivery makes everyday meals very simple for bachelors. It is also a great option to host parties.

How does Grubhub work?

Let’s discuss how does Grubhub work. Grubhub connects diners with a variety of restaurants available near them. They can order food and get it delivered at their doorsteps. They provide their services on their website as well as mobile application. Let’s see how it works for different components of the business.

Consumers: The users can browse the various restaurants available on the portal. They can then place an order and wait for their orders to the delivered on their doorsteps. The portal allows them to pay online or in cash. This gives the consumer flexibility and makes the application user-friendly.

Restaurants: Once a user places an order, the restaurant is notified about the same. They can confirm the order based on the availability of the same. Once they confirm, they can proceed to prepare the order and keep it ready for the couriers for delivery.

Couriers: Once a restaurant confirms an order, a courier stationed nearest to the location gets a notification. He has to accept the delivery request and then directly head to the restaurant. The order is either ready for collection or the courier has to wait for a while before it is prepared and packed.

Once this cycle has been completed, the food is then delivered at the consumer’s address. This is how one complete cycle of an order takes place. We can understand this simple process in detail.

How does Grubhub work for consumers?

In this section, we will see how does Grubhub work for the consumer through a stepwise model. The consumers are the primary users of the food delivery service. They are the basic component of the business. Giving an excellent user experience to the consumers is very important for any business to thrive in the market.

Let’s have a look on the stepwise model of how Grubhub works for their consumers. The consumers have to order their food in the following steps:

Step 1: Browse

There are a variety of restaurants available on the online portal. The consumers have to browse the restaurants and their menus based on the cuisine they’d prefer on a certain day. Once they’ve decided upon the cuisine they can go through the restaurants providing the same and decide what they want to order.

Step 2: Place an order

Once the user has browsed the available options he comes to a decision. Once this choice of meal is made, the user has to place an order. He has to select the items he wants to order and add them to cart. The user also has to set a delivery address to the order. After the cart is ready the application will ask a confirmation, once the user approves the next step begins

Step 3: Payment Options

After the confirmation from the user, the application directs them to the checkout page. Here the user has to make the payment for his order. There are several options available to the user to make a payment. he/she can pay through debit/credit cards, PayPal or they can request a Cash on Delivery for their order

Step 4: Wait Wait Wait

Payment is the last step for ordering food from Grubhub. Once the payment is done, the ordered the placed and the restaurant’s role comes into play. Now all the consumer has to do is wait for the courier to bring them the meal at their doorstep.

This is how Grubhub works for their consumers. It makes it super simple for the users to order meals at any time of the day. For its simplicity and variety, it has become the go-to option for the ‘hunger-pangs’ of USA.

Read more: How does Grubhub work?