ALEXANDRIA, Va.—DoorDash facilitated over $25 billion in sales for its marketplace merchants last year, and these sales supported nearly $38.4 billion in U.S. GDP, according to the company’s 2021 economic report. The delivery service also said in the report that more than 500,000 merchants were active on the DoorDash platform in the U.S. as of the end of 2021.

“Merchants say they value the DoorDash platform because it enables them to grow their business and access new customers they may not otherwise have been able to reach,” said DoorDash in the report, which was compiled through economic impact models in partnership with Oxford Economics, as well as independent surveys of four groups: restaurants, convenience and grocery stores and other retailers.

According to the report, 58% of merchants agree that DoorDash helps expand their reach to new customers, and 71% recommend DoorDash for increasing revenues.

DoorDash found that 59% of merchants surveyed that do not fulfill deliveries from their own website report difficulties hiring and retaining delivery workers, and half say offering delivery services is too time-consuming to manage on their own. Sixty-one percent of surveyed merchants agree that they prefer DoorDash to operating their own delivery fleet, with the same share agreeing that a third-party platform is good for the restaurant industry.

Nearly two-thirds of meal deliveries through DoorDash might not otherwise have existed, according to the company, as 42% of consumer survey respondents say that if they could not order delivery they would instead cook at home, and a further 21% say they would eat leftovers. Seventy-nine percent of consumers say the platform allows them to spend more time with their families, increase their productivity, and rest and relax more.

According to the report, DoorDash facilitated 1.39 billion consumer orders globally. Seventy-seven percent of surveyed consumers used DoorDash to try a new restaurant they would not have otherwise tried.

DoorDash recently revealed what food its customers ordered the most on its app in its second annual Restaurant Online Ordering Trends Report.

Food-delivery apps are facing slow growth, decades-high inflation and a potential economic slowdown.

Apps, including DoorDash, were used heavily by consumers during the pandemic, when eateries were closed to inside patrons. But now that the pandemic has waned and rising prices weigh on the American consumer, food-delivery apps are offering new ads and deals to attract customers, updating their apps to encourage more spending and deliver more than food to keep and attract new customers.

More than 80% of the U.S. food-delivery market is run by DoorDash and Uber. Both apps increased their delivery revenue in the first quarter and are expected to expand during the full year. However, both apps’ growth rate has slowed.

According to the NACS “Last Mile Fulfillment in Convenience Retail” report, 61% of retailers are satisfied with their third-party delivery partners. Concerns include high fees, little access to consumer data, difficulties delivering age-restricted products and service and operational issues. Read more about these challenges and what c-stores are doing to make delivery work for their businesses in “Delivering Convenience” in the December 2021 issue of NACS Magazine.