Need food delivered? Just ask Alexa.
Grubhub is the latest brand to jump in the voice commerce space after announcing Wednesday that it is integrating its ordering capabilities with Amazon Alexa. Chicago-based Grubhub has launched a skill for Alexa that makes it easy for Grubhub users to order food from their favorite spots.
The service works on all of Amazon's Alexa-powered devices, such as the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Amazon Tap.
Grubhub says the Alexa skill will allow customers to get food from the delivery giant's network of more than 50,000 restaurants. However, users don't quite have access to Grubhub's entire catalogue of dining options with Alexa. Diners will have the choice between the last three orders they placed on Grubhub, and can ask Alexa to place a reorder of one of those items.
It's a similar service to Amazon's own food delivery feature, which launched an Alexa-powered ordering service back in January.
"We're always looking for new ways to evolve the ordering process so that our diners can order the food they want from their favorite local restaurants, however they would want to order it," Sudev Balakrishnan, Grubhub's senior vice president of product, said in a statement. "With the new Alexa skill, we're thrilled to offer added convenience to our diners, allowing them to quickly reorder using their voice."
The move into voice ordering comes as Grubhub tries to remain the leader in the food delivery space as players like Amazon and Uber continue to threaten its market share. Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney last year called Uber and Amazon "the new boogiemen in the market" as the two have quickly risen as the most formidable challengers to Grubhub's business.
Here's how Grubhub's Alexa voice ordering works:
- Users enable the Grubhub skill and link to their Grubhub account using the Alexa app
- Open the Grubhub skill for Alexa by saying, "Alexa, open Grubhub" or, "Alexa, tell Grubhub I'm hungry"
- Alexa will respond with, "Welcome to Grubhub! Here are the latest orders available for reorder"
- Diners can then choose which option they would like to reorder
- Alexa places the order for the diner providing an estimated time of when it will be ready
