In 2009, the Delivery Club founders saw a free food delivery market. They decided to combine restaurants on one site and put them in conditions of open competition, when the rating of the establishment depends on customer reviews. In the first months, the online aggregator did not interest either investors or users. Later, the company raised $10 million in investments, and the number of orders per day grew from 15 to 12,000 in five years.

The service's revenue, according to H&F, is about $15 million per month. All attempts by foreign companies to conquer the Russian market in this niche turned out to be a failure. In June, Foodpanda 100% stake in Delivery Club to secure its position in Russia.

Levon HOVHANISSYAN, Anna SHKIRINA,
Daniel SHULEYKO

Co-founders of Delivery Club

How it all began

A year after the first investment, the second round took place - also from AddVenture, about $ 1 million. Some predicted that we would begin to lose growth, but this expectation did not materialize. We continued to grow three to five times a year. When in the fall of 2011 we reached the first thousand orders, we believed in ourselves.

I managed Delivery Club for a long time, but at some point I realized that the company is developing well, and the team is very professional - it does not require my expertise. Sitting and waiting for it to grow further for another two or three years, I became uninteresting. I have new goals related to e-commerce and investing in startups. I founded the venture fund SOLventures with other partners. As for the rest of the founders, all except Anna left the project with the advent of Phenomen Ventures - they received an offer to buy back shares, and the shareholders accepted it. Basically, everyone is out now because Foodpanda has acquired 100% of Delivery Club shares.

Product

You can order food through us using the website, application or by phone. The user sees the addresses of restaurants and how far they are from him, so that it becomes clear how long he will wait for food. We have a CRM department that keeps in touch with offended people and solves the problem. The feedback system that users leave affects the rating of restaurants - if the institution is not very good, it will not be at the top of the list. A person can leave a comment only after placing an order, so we do not have reviews from the restaurants themselves or their employees. In addition, we look at the IP addresses that people write from, and if they are the IP addresses of restaurants, we clean them up. Now we are represented in 18 cities of Russia - in all million cities.

We we know everything about the market, so it's good help partners. If someone decides start off his business in this area, we will tell him what better open and what food create

To place an order, it is not necessary to register on the site, but most do it at some point - you do not need to constantly enter your data and you can receive bonus points that change into free food. We accumulate the user's history from the very beginning - when registering, a person sees all his previous orders in his personal account, and if he has accumulated points for them, he will receive them.

Money

We immediately began to take a commission of 10% from restaurants - this was our principled position. Almost from the first day of our work, we have never spent more money on attracting one client than we later earned from him. We have grown from 15 orders on the first day of operation to 12,000 orders a day now. The average check for February - this month the most average figures - 1,344 rubles for million-plus cities and 1,508 rubles for Moscow. The number of users is more than 1 million.

When we started the project, the cost of attracting a user could reach 2,000 rubles - despite the fact that the average commission was 100–120 rubles per order. Now Delivery Club marketers have learned how to attract a user for 70–80 rubles, which means that the business is healthy. ( H&F estimates that the company's monthly revenue is $15 million. - Approx.)

Promotion

At the very beginning, we spent a lot of money on marketing, but not very effectively. I can't say that then we used some instruments, and now they are different, it's just that now it's all of a different quality. We used contextual advertising, and SEO promotion, and banners, and offline advertising, but, without proper expertise, we could not boast of great success.

If we see a segment where the Delivery Club is clearly missing, then we study it and start communicating with the players. It is always a very long process. It is difficult to convince a restaurant that he needs delivery, because for him it is a big investment - the purchase of equipment, the purchase of a paid car, the involvement of managers. But we just call and ask: “Do you want to increase turnover by so many percent?” Restaurants have no risk with us - they only pay if they receive an order through our service.

Competitors

When we began to develop, competitors began to appear on the market. We did not feel very confident then, we were worried about Western players. The first attempt to enter Russia was made by the Turkish Yemeksepeti, then by the German holding Delivery Hero and further by Foodpanda. However, foreign expertise did not work, although they all had impressive start-up investments - about $3 million. Nobody managed to compete with Delivery Club. Yemeksepeti and Foodpanda left Russia, and Foodpanda was forced to acquire the leader of the sphere - the only way they could enter the market.

The market is growing and will continue to grow, especially in large cities. There are more and more restaurants that deliver food. If earlier in one area there were five pizzerias from where you can order something, now there are 25.

The telephone is our main competitor. If in Moscow there is a clear trend towards a decrease in the share of orders by phone, then outside of it, most of the orders are made in this way - these are the customers we cannot focus on. We don't really like phone orders. Their processing costs a lot of money, and we get a small percentage.

We are leaders in the Russian market. Overtaking and catching up with us is a practically unsolvable task. And in a couple of months it will be completely unsolvable, well, only with very large investments, which hardly anyone will go for.

Sale

Foodpanda works with 45 countries in the world, and in each of these countries there will be a part of our expertise. Now we are acting as Foodpanda, as a global player, and our global goal is to conquer the global market. Now it's one company. In some countries it is called Foodpanda, in others Hollofood, in others Delivery Club, and they all have one shareholder - Rocket Internet. Now we represent this company in Russia.

The deal was predictable. Our closest competitors are dozens of times behind us by any measure, and Foodpanda has scaled to 45 countries around the world. This partnership is of interest to both parties. Nothing changes in our company, all plans will be the same, the efforts of the team go to conquer the market in which we work. Our cooperation takes place not only in terms of global strategy, but also in terms of the exchange of experience.

Ralph Wenzel, CEO of Foodpanda:

We met with the company's leaders about six months ago and it became clear that by pooling resources and teams, we can become stronger in the Russian market. We have been working here since December 2012 and have seen the growth of the company ever since. The Russian market is incredibly large, it has huge potential, so we continue to focus on it.

We will develop the service and are going to bring it to more than 30 cities in Russia, connect about 10,000 restaurants. Another task is to make the business truly mobile, so that more and more people order food through the application. Both FoodPanda and Delivery Club have already shown good growth in mobile orders, and we plan to continue this trend.

Plans

With the growth of the company's success, the work becomes more and more. When we had 15 orders on September 1, I wanted 100. Now we have 12,000 orders a day and I want 100,000.

We want to build one of the leading players in the market in Russia. We are inspired by the results of Just-Eat in the UK and Yemeksepeti in Turkey. Delivery Club wants to occupy a leading market share - less than 30–40% will not suit us at all. Now we estimate the volume at $1.5 billion, where we hold about 10%. Growth by three to five times in the next couple of years is the number 1 task for us.

We want to expand the geography. So far, we plan to conquer 44 cities before the end of the year. By this time, the percentage of orders should increase at least twice. We want the Delivery Club to be present in the CIS countries - we will do this at the beginning of 2015. And soon we plan to launch two new projects that will help increase our share in the Russian market. In early August, we will have a product that should surprise everyone.

Believe and don't give up. At the start, it will often seem that nothing is working out, everything is gone and no one needs it. But perseverance and faith will win everything.

Always answer the question how much a user is costing you, and do not spend money thoughtlessly. People often start with luxurious offices and end up burning out. The business needs to be healthy, so spend on its development.

The editors express their gratitude to the restaurant "La Casa".

How do you navigate food delivery services? Do you accidentally learn about new ones and make sure from your own experience where it is tasty and cheap, and where not so much? The Delivery Club aggregator is changing this scheme. On the site or in the application, you can see many available establishments in your city, their menu, reviews and ratings, which establishments are currently running promotions and other information.

Today it is the largest aggregator of offers for the delivery of food and groceries in Russia, which is easy to see by visiting the website delivery-club.ru.

Delivery Club is constantly growing

So far, residents of 29 major Russian cities and 22 cities in the Moscow region can use Delivery Club. But the service is constantly evolving, new cities and establishments are added every week. So if your city is not yet on the list, it will appear in the near future.

And now let's move on to the capabilities of the service.

Choose food and compare prices

You can choose food both on the delivery-club.ru website and in the application. But, most likely, you will do this more often from the application, because it is more convenient to order on the go.

By the way, the Delivery Club cross-platform mobile app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone has already been installed more than 2 million times.

First you need to register - so you can immediately earn bonus points and receive free dishes for them. Well, after registration, it's time to study the list of restaurants.

On the first tab "Food" select a category, for example "Pizza" or "Sushi". If you don't have any preferences about dishes and cuisine, you can choose "All Restaurants" and navigate by rating.

The more positive and less negative reviews, the higher the rating of the restaurant. By the way, after ordering, you can also contribute to the assessment of establishments.

When you go to a restaurant, you see all the information about it: the minimum order amount and delivery amount, the average food delivery time, address and opening hours.

If a restaurant has a promotion, you see information about it in front of the menu - don't miss it anyway. On the last tab, you can read the reviews left.

Now it remains to look at the restaurant menu, divided into categories of dishes, and add the desired food to the basket. But don't rush to order. Before placing an order, you can find out the prices, list of dishes and reviews of dozens of different restaurants. And for this you do not have to open dozens of tabs in your browser - you just scroll through the application and choose the best option.

It's the same with grocery stores with home delivery: choose the best store by price and rating from one list.

And for those who like to save money on various promotions, the app is a real paradise: the last tab contains information about exclusive promotions for Delivery Club users with conditions and an indication of the time left until completion.

By the way, it is enough to put just one tick, and you will receive notifications about new promotions.

If the skeptics are now thinking that the savings are dubious, because the prices are inflated in the application, they were mistaken.

All prices in Delivery Club are identical to those of partners.

And this means that when ordering on the site, for example, the same Yakitoria, you will give exactly the same amount of money for your order, but you will not be able to compare with other restaurants and learn about promotions.

Let's say you have decided where and what to order, and filled the basket. It's time to move on to placing an order.

Registration in two clicks

The order is placed from the basket, where you can correct it for the last time and see the total amount. Here you can also enter a promotional code, if you have one, and see how many points you earn for your order. I will talk about the use of points a little later.

So, you click the "Place an order" button and proceed to fill out the form. What is convenient, you fill in the contact details only once, and they are saved in your personal account.

You do not have to fill in these fields every time, as if you were ordering on the websites of different restaurants - this will be done automatically. So it remains to dial the address and note how you will pay.

By the way, you can place an order without registering with Delivery Club, but then you will have to enter your contact details for the order again each time. So it’s better to register right away, especially since it won’t take much time.

Recently, in the Delivery Club application, it became possible to pay for orders with a bank card. Unfortunately, this payment method does not work with all restaurants. In the institution card, you can immediately see if online payment is possible.

Your personal account stores the data of your card (at your request, of course) or several cards. So the next time you order, you can place it much faster without entering additional data.

Unfortunately, this feature is only available on the website for now, but I think it will appear in the app soon.

For registered users, each completed order goes to the “History” tab, where you will always find answers to questions like “What kind of delicious pizza did we order for a corporate party?” or “What was the name of such delicious rolls with green caviar on top?”. Well, or together with your friends you can calculate how much money everyone should give for Saturday gatherings with pizza. In general, it's convenient.

Well, now about the most pleasant thing - about bonus points.

Bonuses and free food

Now the system of bonus points is used by all and sundry, and in almost every pizzeria or sushi bar with delivery you will receive some bonuses and gifts.

True, these bonuses, no matter how you look at it, limit your choices. If you want to spend them, please order in this restaurant.

With Delivery Club there are no such restrictions. You can order food at a new restaurant at least every day, and bonus points will be awarded. For every 100 rubles of an order, you get 10 bonus points, you can save them to receive prizes or spend them on free meals.

On the site, you can see which restaurants participate in the Meal for Points promotion in your city and get some dishes for free.

In the application, you can set the filter "With food for points" and choose from restaurants that support this promotion.

However, no bonuses erase unpleasant emotions if the order was delivered for three hours instead of the promised hour, and the rolls turned out to be stale. For such cases, Delivery Club has the opportunity to leave your feedback and support from the service itself.

The struggle for the quality of partner services

Let's say you didn't get the best experience with some restaurant - anything can happen, maybe not the most diligent employee worked that day. In any case, you resent the long wait and tasteless food.

First of all, even before leaving your angry review, you can contact the Delivery Club. Go to the tab in the app and call or email with your complaints.

The aggregator staff will deal with the situation and help you get compensation from the partner restaurant. Maybe after that you will not want to write bad comments to the institution.

Well, if you consider it your duty to warn other users - go ahead. Just a rating or a full comment will help other people choose the best institution.

Orders become easier

So, with the Delivery Club apps, ordering food at home becomes even easier and faster. You have more choice and opportunity for comparison, you immediately learn about discounts and promotions and can use them.

Not to mention that to place an order, you do not need to call the operator, dictate complex names of dishes to him, and even fill in your contact details when ordering.

Yes, if you can't decide on a restaurant or dish, go to Delivery Club blog. There you will find reviews of various partner restaurants (including "closed tours" to the cuisine of various establishments), interesting recipes and news from the life of the project.

Try ordering food delivery through the Delivery Club app and see for yourself the convenience of the service.

Delivery Club is an online service that combines more than 5,000 food and grocery delivery services. The project provides users with convenient conditions for quick, profitable orders from city restaurants.

Unified food delivery service from restaurants in your city

Now there are all sorts of online stores where the necessary food is ordered. Delivery Club is a unified system for ordering pizza, sushi, rolls, shish kebabs, pies, burgers and other dishes with home delivery. The range of the official website of Deliveryclub Ru is simply amazing in volume. The choice of products is thousands of items, on one cozy, well-designed portal, each person buys the products that are of interest. Delicious restaurant dishes are presented at the Delivery Club.

Small but pleasant surprises were invented for customers. People can indulge themselves with delicious and healthy food, get points that are exchanged for small but amazing prizes. Exclusive promotions are another gift provided by the official website of Delivery Club Ru.

At any time of the day or night, a person can count on the timely support of specialists working for the benefit of each client. This shows the sensitive care of the Delivery Club and interest in people.

The technological service and design of the Delivery Club website cannot leave anyone indifferent. Bright photographs depicting a juicy, appetizing chicken or a huge, chic pizza make you draw attention to yourself. People will not be able to pass up such unbeatable offers when they are hungry.

In addition, the site places dishes on the main page that are in demand recently. Here the buyer considers what the online store provides with the opportunity to save money by receiving some kind of dish as a gift. For example, if a client orders something from the menu for the amount of 1200 rubles, then he will take an appetizing Florida pizza as a reward for visiting the official website of DeliveryClub.

It is convenient to download the necessary applications to your phone, thereby ensuring the maximum convenience of ordering all kinds of services that are necessary at a certain time. The Delivery Club application is installed without problems on a smartphone and it is easy and convenient to use it at any time of the day.

The official website of Delivery Club Ru gives you the opportunity to diversify your usual diet and add a little zest to the life of every person.

Benefits of ordering food and groceries at the Delivery Club online

On the Delivery Club Ru portal, a suitable food delivery service is selected from thousands of partners in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities of Russia and orders are placed in a single interface.

By ordering the delivery of food or products, you automatically take part in the bonus program of the club, earning bonus points with each order, which are then exchanged for valuable prizes. In addition, the Delivery Club allows you to view your purchase history, compare prices and take part in special promotions and sweepstakes. Also on the Delivery Club, buyers leave reviews about a particular restaurant, delivery service and get acquainted with the opinions of other visitors.

In addition to the main Delivery Club online store, orders are placed using mobile applications that exist for all common mobile platforms (iOS, Android).

Advantages and opportunities of the Delivery Club aggregator

• free use of the system;
• prices similar to restaurants;
• objective choice among many delivery services on one official website;
• the ability to order from any connected restaurant;
• use of bonus points, their exchange for prizes;
• comparing prices in restaurant menus;
• posting reviews and suggestions on the official website of Delivery Club Ru;
• participation in special promotions available only to members of the club.