Square Announces On-Demand Delivery Through Square Online for Canada’s Food & Beverage Industry

Businesses can provide service through a third-party delivery partner for orders placed directly on their website, with no commission fee

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Square announced the availability of on-demand delivery for Square Online orders in Canada through DoorDash Drive, DoorDash’s white-label fulfillment platform that powers direct delivery for any business. Canada is the first international market to offer on-demand delivery since its US launch in 2020. Given the challenges businesses have had to face in recent months, it’s more important than ever that sellers have access to the tools they need to sell online quickly, efficiently, and affordably.

Now, with on-demand delivery, restaurants, bars, breweries, bottle shops, convenience stores, or any seller using Square Online across Canada can tap into the DoorDash logistics network and dispatch a courier to deliver orders placed directly on their website including food and alcoholic beverages¹. This feature provides Canadian businesses with a lucrative new revenue stream without the costly overhead associated with building out a delivery fleet or hiring and training additional staff.

Wilson Shin, the owner of Katsupan Japanese Sandwich in Toronto, Ontario, has been one of the early adopters of on-demand delivery through Square Online in Canada and welcomes the service as a way to reach more customers. “I think it’s great that Square can now offer a delivery option for customers who buy online, right alongside pickups, as the choice is right in front of them,” says Shin. “The service has been easy to use, which is always important. Overall, it’s a good option for recurring customers and it helps me save on fees as well.”

With on-demand delivery for Square Online, Canadian businesses can take control of their fulfillment process by offering delivery to their loyal customer base directly from their own websites, commission-free. For some businesses, this may be a more cost-efficient alternative than other delivery solutions currently on the market and also encourages sellers to fully own the relationship with their customers.

When an order is placed on the business's online store, a DoorDash courier is dispatched to the business’s location, picks up the order, and delivers it to the customer. The customer receives text updates with links to a live map to track delivery progress. Sellers pay a flat fee of $1.50 per order to Square and a flat delivery fee to DoorDash — without the marketplace commissions. Sellers can pass the delivery fee entirely to the buyer or offer custom delivery promotions. When applied across hundreds of delivery orders each month, sellers can save a significant amount on per-order costs.

Additionally, when customers place an order through Square Online, businesses receive their contact information in the Square Customer Directory and can maintain sales history to better market to those customers and develop relationships. When paired with other products like Square Loyalty and Square Marketing, sellers can further strengthen customer relationships and incentivize patrons to keep coming back. What’s more, by integrating Square Online with Square POS, sellers can automatically import their item catalogue so orders, items and inventory stay in sync for easy and streamlined inventory management.

​​“We’re excited to offer a new solution for Canada’s food and beverage industry to get the most out of its businesses in 2022,” said David Rusenko, head of eCommerce at Square. “Whether that’s a bakery delivering food to customers, a restaurant monetizing its wine cellar, a grocery store supplementing their on-premise sales, or a local brewery introducing old favourites to a new crowd, we’re proud to provide our sellers with more ways to make money.”

Sellers can get started with on-demand delivery powered by DoorDash now. On-demand delivery is just the latest feature Square has built to help Canadian sellers take their business online. Every business has different needs, and by using Square Online, sellers can fulfill orders however it makes the most sense for their operation -- whether that’s via curbside pickup, shipping, local seller-powered delivery, or working with delivery partners.

For more details, visit: https://squareup.com/ca/en/online-store/restaurants/on-demand-delivery

¹ Where applicable and permissible by law.

About Square

Square helps sellers more easily run and grow their businesses with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions. Square offers purpose-built software to run complex restaurants and retail operations, versatile e-commerce tools, embedded financial services and banking products, an appointment booking platform, staff management and payroll capabilities, and much more – all of which work together to save sellers time and effort. Millions of sellers across the globe trust Square to power their business and help them thrive in the economy. Square is part of Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ), a global technology company with a focus on financial services. For more information, visit www.squareup.ca.