What factors motivate consumers’ online food ordering behavior on food delivery apps?

Abstract

Ordering food through food delivery apps has become a new trend in restaurant consumers’ daily lives. Food delivery apps offer a rapid, convenient, multi-choice, and innovative method to solve dining problems. The purpose of this study to investigate what factors trigger consumers’ online ordering intentions through food delivery apps. The influences of attributes of food delivery apps and online customer reviews are examined. The findings of the study can help scholars better understand consumers’ motivations for ordering food online, and assist restaurant managers in adjusting their online advertising strategies and promoting revenue.

Keywords: Online customer reviews (OCRs), Online food ordering, Food delivery apps (FDAs),

FDAs’ attributes Introduction

The rapid spread and popularity of food delivery apps (hereafter FDAs) have been widely noticed by scholars and restaurant managers. A survey on restaurants in Los Angeles, California, showed that restaurants added 200 to 250 orders per week, and their revenue increased by 3 to

35% after launching their products on FDAs (Cho, Bonn, and Li, 2019). The success that FDAs bring to their partners (e.g., restaurants) creates the curiosity about the widespread of FDAs.

Extant studies have investigated the reasons that consumers order food online through FDAs

(e.g., Lee, Lee, and Jeon, 2017; Yeo, Goh, and Rezaei, 2017) and the consumer component of

FDAs (e.g., Cho, Bonn, and Li, 2019). However, the attributes of FDAs on consumer online food purchase behavior is under-investigated. The attributes of FDAs include price, average cost, the minimum ordering, expected delivery time, promotions, and delivery fee. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the influence of FDA attributes on consumer purchase behavior and identify which attributes can significantly impact online food ordering. In addition, Ha, Park, and

Park (2016) found that restaurant take-out consumers are sensitive to online ratings because online ratings are salient information sources for them to evaluate product quality and value. The influence of online customer reviews (hereafter OCRs) cannot be ignored. Thus, this study will also investigate the effect of review volume and overall ratings to identify factors driving food ordering behaviors through FDAs.

Literature review

Food delivery apps

FDAs refer to mobile applications installed by users on smartphones and other mobile electronic devices that can be used as efficient and convenient channels to browse restaurant menus, order food, make payments, and monitor delivery process without any physical and interpersonal interaction (Okumus and Bilgihan, 2014; Wang, Tseng, Wang, Shih, and Chan

2019). FDAs ranked second among apps downloaded by iPhone users in 2015 (Ariel, 2015). The rapid prevalence of FDAs can be attributed to two features. First, FDAs offer an innovative and easy method for consumers to order their food from a wide range of restaurants and increase the convenience by breaking the limitations of time and locations (Alalwan, 2020). Such apps also provide consumers with comprehensive and updated information about the restaurants, menu items, promotions, and payment options. Some apps, such as Meituan.com, send notifications to consumers about the progress of their orders through all stages (Aksenova, 2017). Secondly, from restaurants’ perspective, FDAs are service and business platforms that help them promote products, collect payments, and arrange deliveries. Restaurants who collaborate with FDAs can operate their food delivery business without considering other advertising and employee cost and reach a much broader consumer population to increase profitability, particularly for small and independent businesses.

Restaurant information on FDAs

Contrary to the conventional ways to order food, such as telephone and on-site orders, a large number of consumers may not know the restaurant where they order the food. The information (e.g., pictures and text) about the restaurant on the FDAs is the primary source for consumers to understand the quality, price and taste of food, service, and delivery time.

However, such information is generated and published by service-providers for active commercial purposes. Consumers need unbiased and reliable information to make their choices.

Therefore, OCRs on the FDAs constitutes another salient source of information to assist consumer make purchasing decisions. According to our observations, the OCRs on FDAs usually contains pictures, overall ratings, and review comments which present the actual status and quality of the menu items of the service providers. Through OCRs, FDAs consumers can evaluate the value of the food by comparing the quality and price and order based on estimated delivery time.

Online food ordering behavior

Prior studies (e.g., Jeong and Jang, 2011; Kim, Li, and Brymer, 2016) provide sufficient empirical evidence of the strong persuasive effect of OCRs on restaurant purchase behaviors. Ha,

Park and Park (2016) found that crowdedness can significantly affect consumers’ restaurant selection, and take-out purchases are particularly responsive to online ratings. In other words, the product information and evaluation of previous consumers are salient in the purchase decision process of potential consumers, due to information asymmetry and intangibility of restaurant products. Thus, we assume that OCRs can significantly affect the sales of restaurants on FDAs.

Moreover, Stambor (2011) claimed that online promotion is a vital motivation in attracting consumers to order food online. Offering various coupons and promotion program is an efficient approach that FDAs apply to increase user volume and promote sales, especially for cost-savers.

Therefore, price and promotions can affect the financial performance of restaurants on FDAs. In addition, other scholars also found that food delivery service offers a new change into individual’s daily life by providing more dining options while reducing mealtime (Lee, Sung, and Jeon, 2019). Therefore, expected delivery time, which indicates the waiting time, can be another factors that may affect consumer ordering behavior. If the expected delivery time is too long, it may greatly decrease the convenience of FDAs and negatively affect the purchasing experience of consumers.

Research design

A quantitative method will be applied in this study. The study will collect attributes and

OCRs data directly from Meituan.com, which is the largest food delivery app in China. Average cost, promotions, expected delivery time, the minimum ordering, delivery fee, review volume and overall ratings will be independent variables, and order volume and restaurant revenue will be dependent variables.

Implication

The findings of this study will benefit academia and industry, respectively. The study will help scholars better understand the motivations for online food ordering behaviors and provide a new perspective for future studies related to FDAs. For restaurant managers, the findings of this study can guide the advertising investments of restaurants on FDAs to achieve better profitability by explaining which factors/attributes trigger consumers’ order behaviors.

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