Bloomberg/Getty Images
- Delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats rely on a small group of superusers, new data show.
- Many people don’t use the services at all, according to the federal survey data.
- Food delivery companies have reported steady growth with no sign of customers pulling back.
Delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats are growing fast, thanks in large part to a group of superusers.
Consumers in their mid-40s or younger who order hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of food a year for delivery appear to be a key customer base for the apps, according to data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
“Those are where probably most of their revenue is coming from,” said Jeremy Horpedahl, an associate professor of economics at the University of Central Arkansas. “It’s super important for them to retain those customers.”
The data also suggest that many people don’t use delivery services at all, Horpedahl said.
The survey is conducted every three years and asks 5,000 households a range of questions about how they earn, spend, save, and invest their money. The latest data was collected in 2025 and released in October.
The data suggest that food delivery services don’t have as wide a consumer base as other companies in the retail world.
Stores like Walmart and Dollar General have warned in recent quarters that shoppers are pulling back on spending or looking for better value on what they do buy. That trend extends to households with six-figure incomes, the retailers have said.
At the same time, orders and spending on DoorDash and Uber has kept growing with no similar pullback.
“Surveys like this are a helpful snapshot, but they capture only one slice of how people use DoorDash today,” a DoorDash spokesperson said.
The company has recently added more grocers and other retailers to its platform, the spokesperson added. It is also growing its paid DashPass membership to retain some of its most frequent users.
Horpedahl said he reviewed the data by dividing the numbers into spending percentiles, or groups of 10% each. The bottom percentile represents respondents who said they spend the least on food delivery, while the top percentile includes those who spend the most.
For the eight bottom percentiles, the median consumer spent $0 on food delivery. That suggests that many people who responded to the survey have never used food delivery apps at all, Horpedahl said.
Those in the top 10% of spenders, meanwhile, appeared to be frequent users. The median consumer under 35 in that group spent $1,800 a year on food delivery. For those between 35 and 44, the figure was $2,400 a year.
A relatively small group of users willing to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars per year on food delivery could explain why delivery services continue to post strong earnings results while many retailers and brands warn about consumers reigning in their spending, Horpedahl said.
“It could be true that 95% of people are pulling back,” he said. “But if this group is still spending, that’s why Uber Eats could be saying ‘Yes, we’re still seeing strong revenue.'”
The Survey’s food delivery question doesn’t ask specifically about DoorDash or Uber and includes other services, such as pizza delivery. It also likely misses some customers who have ordered delivery once or twice in the past but forgot about those purchases while answering the survey, Horpedahl said.
The results suggest that companies have an opportunity to lure in first-time users, he said.
Grabbing some of the superusers from rivals, though, could prove particularly lucrative, Horpedahl said.
“If you get just one percent of those going to the other company, that would be huge,” he said.
Do you have a story idea about DoorDash, Uber, or a similar service? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here‘s our guide to sharing information securely.
Â
