Dive Brief:

• DoorDash on Wednesday announced its entry into same-day flower delivery, partnering with more than 3,000 local and national florists ahead of the Valentine's Day rush, according to a press release emailed to Restaurant Dive. Flower deliveries can also be scheduled up to 30 days in advance. 
• A new "Flowers" tile now appears at the top of the DoorDash app listing florists and their offerings. To promote the new vertical, DoorDash will give 10 customers who order flower deliveries between Feb. 9 and Feb. 14 a chance to win free diamond necklaces from Neil Lane. 
• This launch comes as third-party delivery companies diversify their offerings to grow revenue. In recent months, DoorDash has added alcohol delivery, nationwide restaurant shipping, rapid delivery for retailers and DoubleDash, which allows customers to order from restaurants and nearby convenience stores in one transaction. The company has also expanded into virtual restaurant and shared kitchen spaces.

Dive Insight:

The third-party restaurant delivery sector is evolving rapidly as these companies become profitable and build out their infrastructures — finding new growth opportunities along the way. A diversified delivery platform can take advantage of increasing consumer demand for efficient delivery for a range of product categories by bundling these offerings in one hub. This diversity could also protect hard-won profitability. 

DoorDash isn't the only delivery company using this strategy. Uber Eats just added a new "Babies and Kids" category that delivers products like diapers. Uber Eats and Grubhub have also explored c-store, retail and alcohol delivery, while Waitr has its eye on the cannabis market.

So far, the floral delivery vertical seems untapped by other major third-party delivery companies. The online floral delivery market generates about $5.2 billion and is on pace to catch up to the $5.8 billion brick-and-mortar business, according to IBISWorld research. That is significant white space, especially since 50% of U.S. consumers ordered from a delivery platform in December, and 58% of those ordered through DoorDash, according to Bloomberg Second Measure. Another vertical could keep current DoorDash users engaged and entice new customers to the platform. 

Flower delivery could also provide a boon for the company's restaurant partners. Flowers are the third most popular Valentine's Day gift, according to research by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. This behavior could place a large swath of consumers on DoorDash's app for flower delivery, which will also expose them to the nearly 400,000 restaurants listed on the platform. Valentine's Day is the second most popular day of the year to gift on DoorDash, according to the company, so such cross exposure could strengthen engagement.