The Product Dish: Enhancing Flexibility of Item Restrictions within the Corporate Admin Portal

To showcase the product innovation work that Grubhub's Product teams are supporting, we're taking a closer look at the technology and product projects that improve the way customers, merchants, and partners connect through Grubhub.

Grubhub launched a comprehensive Item Restriction feature that gives corporate clients increased control over how their meal program funds are utilized. Prior to launching this feature, admins could not set restrictions on categories such as groceries and snacks, household supplies, alcohol, and other non-food items.

This new capability was informed by extensive Voice of Customer research involving 50+ corporate clients representing over $250 million in gross food sales, many of whom were at risk of churn due to the lack of spending controls. These enterprise accounts drive significant "restricted" budget activation, accounting for more than 50 percent of line of credit gross food sales in 2023/2024, demonstrating strong demand for customizable meal program parameters.

This increased flexibility of item restriction helps ensure company-funded orders align with corporate policies while maintaining employee satisfaction and program engagement. By introducing item-level restrictions alongside existing merchant controls, Grubhub is the only platform providing both merchant and item-level meal credit restrictions, creating a key competitive differentiation in the corporate dining space.

What's new?

This new capability allows administrators to restrict purchases of non-food items, groceries and snacks, household supplies, durable goods, and over-the-counter products-ensuring corporate meal benefits are used as intended. Key updates include:

• Comprehensive Item Categorization: We've enabled tax category tagging across 95% of marketplace items, classifying them into restriction-eligible categories to enable precise policy enforcement without manual merchant intervention.

• Compliance and Audit Readiness: The feature supports regulatory requirements across industries like financial services, healthcare, and collegiate athletics by proactively blocking prohibited purchases and providing care agents with full restriction visibility for streamlined case resolution.

What's next?

Looking ahead, the Grubhub Product team is exploring opportunities to bring these flexible item restriction capabilities to campus business units, with planned support across all platforms including web, mobile web, iOS, and Android. This expansion would further strengthen Grubhub's position in the institutional dining space.

Want to be part of the magic behind our product launches? Explore our open Product roles here!