Research on Online Food Ordering

Home , Chowbus, Delivery Hero, Foodpanda, Munchery, Online food ordering, Talabat

Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Investors Are Optimistic Regarding Opportunities For Development 2 Online Food Ordering

Key Players 3 Everyone Wants A Piece of The Pie 7 It’s A Fierce Business 8 Innovating to Flourish 8 Food Delivery Companies Are Adding Healthy Snacks To Their Kits 9 Taking Advantage of Cold Chain Logistics 10 Pairing Meals with Salty Treats 11 Can Food Delivery Apps Deliver Profits for Investors? 11 A Sizable Runaway for Delivery 13 The Growing Importance of Chains 14 Questions on Profitability 14 Thinking Rationally 14 The Restaurant Perspective 15 Fighting for Share in the $16.6 Billion Delivery App Market 15 Where Do We Stand Today? 15 It’s All about the Metrics 16 Market Trends 19 7 Hot Trends That Will Change the Future of the Food Delivery Industry 19 Restaurant Online Ordering Statistics 25 Key Trends in the Food Delivery Industry 27 Conclusion 28

Online Food Ordering

Executive Summary

Food delivery idea isn't new. From buying food by telephone to utilizing specialized internet channels connected to a specific restaurant, the ordering process has been as simple as heating a frozen TV meal. In the last 5-7 years, a handful of businesses around the world seem to have zeroed in on a fresh (and now not so secret) magic formula; while earlier models of the digital food ordering program were restricted to a single restaurant or menu, it's now a complete buffet, giving consumers exposure to thousands of restaurants and millions of dishes.

Online food businesses consider that consumers are hungry for these services, to their delight. Growth levels in the market have skyrocketed as millions of consumers have been more than happy to get food served by clicking a button rather than wasting extended times cooking ladle in pot. Frost & Sullivan projected the market at $82 billion in gross sales bookings in 2018 which is expected to more than double by 2025, supported by a combined 14 per cent growth rate.

The delivery of online food already has a big effect on the dine-in restaurant market. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver pointed to online food ordering systems as one of the key causes his chain of restaurants went, ahem, belly-up. Indeed, the idea of spending a night at home where one can relax (with Netfilix on-demand) and chow (on your own on-demand dinner) is hard to disagree with.

North America now houses more than 10 online food delivery firms with Grubhub, the biggest operator, responsible for more than one third of the sector. Europe already has more than 10 vendors, with Dutch firm Just Eat getting a presence in the area in eight countries with a UK share of over 83 per cent market. Yet Asia accounts for a whopping 55 per cent share of the global online food procurement industry in terms of sheer figures, due to the almost insatiable appetite of the Chinese dragon. In 2018, China alone reported more than $34 billion in revenue from online food distribution, with two of its biggest competitors, Ele.me and Meituan Dianping breaking up nearly 10 billion deliveries between them last year.

Investors Are Optimistic Regarding Opportunities For Development

But to fully grasp the increasing influence of the online food delivery industry, one just needs to follow one company's story-Uber Eats. Launched in 2014 on the back of its famous elder sibling, Uber, the business has expanded astronomically around the globe. Uber Eats itself is presently estimated at a rather respectable $20 billion, reports total sales of $1.4 billion, has a footprint in over 670 cities on six continents and provides about a billion meals daily.

That kind of growth — not only for Uber Eats but for virtually all of today's actively running online food distribution companies — would be unthinkable without substantial expenditure.

Online Food Ordering

Those firms were injected with more than $9.6 billion in 2018 alone, with Asia earning almost 60 percent of those assets. Heavy hitters such as Alibaba, Tiger Capital and SoftBank Group were among the leading investors in this company and continue to be optimistic about their 1 prospects for development.

Key Players

Given below are the top 10 food delivery apps that you can use to browse menus from nearby restaurants to place your order via your smartphone.

Zomato

Zomato, an online restaurant search platform, was founded under the name ‘Foodiebay’ in 2008. The company expanded the features by including food ordering and delivery in the top cities of the world. Zomato is now available in nearly 25 countries all over the world including India, Australia, and the United States.

Zomato food delivery app offers the list of best restaurants to its users. Not only does it offer the best restaurant choices, but it also works as a social network like Twitter or Facebook for foodies.

Zomato, one of the best food ordering apps, received the latest update, which is built on the foundation of their new design system—Sushi. It brings the following features to the app: ● One search fits all

● Sorted and how

● All answers under one umbrella

● Fastest way to review now

● Brand new profile

UberEats

UberEats is operational in more than 1000+ major cities in various countries around the world. The app enables clients to choose their preferred food from local restaurants and delivers food to the clients’ place in the shortest possible time.

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Online Food Ordering

UberEats and Uber are two different apps, they share several similar features such as cashless transactions and expected delivery times. If you trust Uber to drive you safely around the city, maybe you’ll trust them to deliver you good quality food as well. Recently, UberEats acquired Ando: a delivery-only lunch menu that operates out of a couple of industrial kitchens around Manhattan.

The UberEats app is a standalone food delivery app, which is currently available in many countries including Brazil, Japan, Mexico, India, and the United States.

FoodPanda

FoodPanda is quite a famous online food ordering app, which has been operational in 41 countries. The company is headquartered in Berlin, Germany and started service in 2012. The firm has banded together with nearly 40,000 local restaurants in different cities to provide on-time delivery.

The reason behind the popularity of the FoodPanda delivery app is the huge database of restaurants from various cities and the accessibility of rebates and offers. The application accepts credit, debit, and cash on delivery payment methods.

Swiggy

Swiggy is the top-rated mobile app, based in Bengaluru, India. With close to 1,500,000 downloads in the play store, Swiggy has been rated No. 1 online food delivery app in India and is currently available in almost all the cities across the country.

Swiggy came up with an idea to provide delivery from the restaurants to big-time urban foodies. Swiggy food app lets customers order their favorite food from their favorite nearby restaurants by detecting the user’s location so that the agent can deliver food as soon as possible.

Recently, Swiggy came up with a new upgrade—Wallet Function—where users can store money and pay for transactions on Swiggy.

Grubhub

GrubHub’s widespread list of more than 30,000 restaurants in more than 800 U.S. urban communities will make sure to satisfy their customers, thereby making it one of the best food ordering apps. GrubHub has offices in Chicago, New York, and London. The GrubHub app was launched in 2004, which allowed the company to set up a partnership and build relationships with various restaurants. All the orders are managed by the company’s 24/7 customer service teams.

Online Food Ordering

It offers an option to search for your desired food or browse through the list of local restaurants. You can filter as per working hours, customer feedback, coupons, discounts, and so on. You can even save your order details to your top picks for future orders as well.

Deliveroo

Deliveroo is a London-based food delivery startup, which works in over 200 cities. It is the most popular food delivery app across Europe. It enables customers to order food from restaurant outlets that don’t have a set-up of their own and charges a fee from the customer and the restaurant for the service. Users are charged as per their order, whereas restaurants pay a commission.

The quick food delivery options and the coupon deals engage customers who wish to avail the best possible facility. The use of the app is high due to a higher number of customers, world-class client benefit, and higher restaurant choices throughout the world, thereby making it one of the best food ordering apps available across the globe.

Domino’s Pizza

Domino’s app is a well-known pizza delivery app to place an order without having to call. Also, it’s the first fast-food delivery app to execute online fast food delivery. This delivery app allows you to make quick online orders and guarantees to deliver the order within 30 minutes.

Domino’s offers various coupon deals and discounts for customers to pick the best available to satisfy their taste buds with the cheesy and luscious pizza anytime, anywhere with multiple payment options. You can make your payments through an online wallet, credit/debit card, or cash on delivery.

Just Eat

Just Eat was established in 2001 in Europe. It’s a search tool for all the local restaurants that deliver food. The company covers more than 82,000 restaurants and profits from charging a commission fee from them.

In 2017, Just Eat empowered 21.5M customers, out of which 11M are active users, to order more than 170M takeaways everywhere around the world. The Just Eat food delivery app includes similar features like Foodpanda. The customers can filter the menu as per their food choices and pay either via card or cash on delivery.

DoorDash

DoorDash is one of the more established food delivery apps. It supports over 300 cities in 32 markets. The app offers great services in Canadian cities including Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton,

Online Food Ordering

Vancouver; and U.S. cities including Atlanta, Seattle, Boston, New York, and Chicago. The service also brags of a Yum score on restaurants.

It not only focuses on food quality but also on how the restaurants work well with DoorDash to get your food delivered on time, aiming at complete customer satisfaction. The app includes features like “DoorDash Delight” that has a scoring system based on food quality or restaurant popularity.

Postmates

Postmates delivery app is available in more than 90 cities throughout the U.S. This app is quite different from other online food delivery apps. When someone places an order for food, the food valet who works for Postmates gets the alert and heads towards the restaurant for pickup. Then, they’ll pick and bring the ordered food directly at the customer’s doorstep. The delivery 2 app not only offers food delivery, but also alcohol delivery to the user’s choice of location.

These coffers have helped online food delivery businesses to actively acquire smaller counterparts in other countries, extend their global reach and improve their competitive position.

Leading online food delivery industry players in 2018

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Online Food Ordering

The Dutch company Takeaway.com, an ambitious expansionist, purchased out another big player, Delivery Hero's German sector for $1.1 billion in 2018. It also controls leading players in the Greek, Bulgarian, and Romanian industries. Takeaway.com revealed as recently as last month that it's involved in integrating with Just Feed, another big global competitor in the market. For a total client base of over 40 million people, this new company will be valued over $11 billion, and will be the biggest force in Europe.

Delivery Hero has also effectively extended its presence and has a market share in the Middle East industry of over 70 percent thanks to its acquisition of local brands Talabat, Carriage and Zomato in India in the region. Some acquisitions, however, have not gone according to the recipe; Ola, a connectivity firm, acquired food distribution service Foodpanda in 2017 for around $45 million only to halt operations in 2019 when it struggled to maintain up with competition.

Everyone Wants A Piece of The Pie

Everyone yearns for a slice of this pie, even companies outside the industry. For example, fintech companies have managed to generate revenues from the online food delivery industry by incorporating their payment gateways into existing networks, such as digital wallets, thereby offering a smooth ordering and purchasing experience.

Hospitality partners are taking advantage of increased capacity in hotel kitchens to prepare food ordered and distributed through online food delivery platforms. Automotive and transportation companies are looking to tap into the enormous growth opportunities provided by last-mile delivery.

Independent technology companies are now using surface robots in closed areas such as university campuses and urban locations to make industrial deliveries. Nuro, an independent robotics firm, and Dominos Pizza, plan to sell these deliveries very soon in Houston, Texas. The next step might be drone / robot deliveries, given the cost and time efficiencies gained compared to traditional methods that rely on your friendly neighborhood delivery guy.

Vehicle manufacturers such as GM, Ford, and Toyota have successfully tested their autonomous food service deliveries in the U.S. in what appears to be a wave of autonomous vehicle technology used by online food platforms.

Online Food Ordering

It’s A Fierce Business

However, the fact remains that given the huge sales and investments, food distribution companies are still struggling with profitability, mainly because of their high cash burn levels.

Predatory pricing is a commonly used technique for beating the market where businesses absorb a sales loss by massively subsidizing the meal costs. Logistical efficiency and the quality of the goods are beyond their jurisdiction as these functions are contracted to others. The online food business has to bear the monetary cost if a customer is dissatisfied with any of the elements. Lastly, deception around the value chain – whether by restaurant-manipulated 'ghost' deliveries or digital payment-related cybersecurity vulnerabilities – is evolving as an extremely important factor that affects the company. As a result of these patterns, many firms were unable to handle the heat in the kitchen and exited the company. The trend of failure has been disconcerting.

Just in 2019, Munchery, headquartered in the U.S., shut down operations after raising more than $120 million in funding due to an exceptionally high cash burn rate and aggressive growth ambitions that failed to attract new investors. Hurt by a small client base, 5.4, an Australian firm delivering organic, custom-made food, closed operations. And, most recently, due to heavy competition and its failure to increase its presence in the US market, Amazon Restaurants shut 3 down its operations.

Innovating to Flourish

A chef is only as good as his next meal. And therefore, innovating or perish is a credo that will decide the future of online food delivery businesses. One such revolutionary idea that has burst onto the scene is that of a 'remote' or 'edge' kitchen, dedicated to serving online takeaway orders. Compared to a full blown restaurant facility, the substantially lower cost of the capital investment needed for this setup allows food to be served at cheaper rates. Online food supply companies are working with third-party businesses who are constructing and/or operating these facilities and also investing in them to cook food under different brands. Swiggy in India, for example, runs its own cloud kitchen service called The Bowl Company which prepares meals for Swiggy's supply company.

Another fascinating growth strategy being pursued by online food delivery businesses is to take a step backwards on the food supply chain. At the raw material level, they incorporate themselves into the supply chain, supplying these goods to warehouses from farmers or

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Online Food Ordering manufacturers, while also selling the supplies from these warehouses to restaurants and other food preparation establishments.

For example, Zomato is actively establishing enormous warehouses across India to store fresh food, thereby guaranteeing not only that quality standards are preserved, but also that the cost of their food supply is reduced. The end outcome is a minimal-cost, high-quality food for the consumer as Zomato is the broker in all aspects of the meal, from acquiring the ingredients right through to preparing the dish in a digital kitchen, earning it as a "full stack" player from the industry.

Just 11 per cent of the world's population today have access to channels for food delivery. In future there might be an intense food battle as businesses grow and innovate vigorously to capture more bellies and pockets. By the end of the next decade, I believe it would be more efficient — in terms of time, cost and effort — to basically order any sort of food one wants and have it delivered by robot / drone to your doorway, rather than another boring evening sweating it out in the kitchen. ko But then again, there might not be a kitchen in existence for 4 cooking anymore.

Food Delivery Companies Are Adding Healthy Snacks To Their Kits

If you're planning to order a hot lunch, fresh fruit or weekly groceries in the foreseeable future from a delivery app, chances are you'll also be suggested with a few safe snack products. That's because rising numbers of food delivery firms are considering snacks a tipping point for their growth in sales.

According to Research And Markets, the online food delivery industry of major participants, such as UberEats, GrubHub and DoorDash, has recently witnessed strong progress worldwide.

The segment was estimated at $81.56 billion in 2017 and would expand over the projected period from 2018 to 2026 at a CAGR of 9.8 per cent, guided largely by sufficient financing and innovation.

Chicago-based company Chowbus, which focuses mainly on offering authentic Asian food, has just secured $4 million in early 2019 financing led by Greycroft Partners and FJ Labs. Certain partners include Angels at Hyde Park and Fika Investments. Chowbus generated a sales growth pace of 300 per cent year-over-year in 2018, with intends to utilize the freshly acquired money to extend this coming year to over 20 additional U.S. regions.

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Online Food Ordering

Meanwhile, Oh My Green, based in San Francisco, committed to delivering organic foods to businesses, has received $20 million in seed financing in October 2018, backed by investors including the Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, PowerPlant Ventures, Backed VC, ZhenFund, Talis Capital and Standford-StartX Fund. Though few food delivery companies began as a purely snacks, players like Oh My Green, newcomers like KitcheNet have begun to turn on the profit growth segment.

"At the very beginning, we were primarily meal-focused and we even distributed fresh produce to underserved neighborhoods," said Trista Li, creator and CEO of the Chicago fresh fruit distribution company. "One aspect I found was that a number of our consumers checked out our fruits and vegetables to snack on, so we decided it would be a better idea to concentrate on snack products like grapes and berries since they're easy to grab and enjoy."

The rising snack component of its meal delivery company was also noted by Chowbus 'creator Linxin Wen. "Restaurant food is still our priority, but for sure, more and more people are ordering snacks on request, particularly items influenced by Asia," he said. "[We'll] introduce more options for our current and potential clients."

Taking Advantage of Cold Chain Logistics

Since being in operation for seven months, KitcheNet had a gross sales growth rate of 600 per cent. However more recently the business understood the strong demand of branded products and wanted to take a price break.

"We want to pursue this new market as CPG products will suit the workplace wellness hour activities quite well," Li said. "We're keen to partner with smaller CPG companies as well. They are less established, but many more developments are happening. However, they definitely want a new platform to highlight their items." Partnering with CPG companies is also helpful to Li's own company because KitcheNet is studying customer habits, such as their favorite portion sizes and food types, and aims to leverage the information to support the overall healthier segment at long last.

Until now, KitcheNet has included in its kits non-dairy frozen treats brand Frönen, egg white protein snacks Quevos, and RXBar nut butter. While both of these items have been well embraced by customers, Li indicated refrigerated snacks are the perfect choice to work with due to the current cold chain from KitcheNet.

"There is a pattern that nutritious snacks are frozen and need a more expensive form of distribution," she said, adding that KitcheNet is currently pursuing a relationship with Perfect Bar, a refrigerated protein bar brand that VMG Investors previously invested.

Online Food Ordering

According to Mintel, the U.S. frozen snacks segment, is estimated to hit $5.08 billion in market revenue by 2022, has been on fire in recent years, increasing its healthier offerings and convenience.

The development has forced the industry to expand last year with Conagra purchasing Pinnacle Foods for $10.9 billion – rendering the firm a pioneer in the frozen food segment.

Pairing Meals with Salty Treats

Snacks not only energize customer goods to get through the day, they are also an integral part of their meals.

Foxtrot Store, which sells a wide variety of food goods, indicated that its ranges are being carefully selected as shoppers are combining meals with different snack pieces.

"In our solution, we would like to find a compromise between regular indulgence and choices for anyone with food or allergy limitations, or those interested in seeking out a safer alternative," said Crystal Tao, the company's spokesperson.

"[We want] to deliver items that carry them from morning to evening, such as a simple morning breakfast bar with a chef prepared salad, or a tiny afternoon bag of potato chips," she said. "We're just a one-stop shop for anything you like." Tao indicated that jerky, nut butter and protein snacks in general perform especially well among all the things on sale, and Foxtrot is also seeing a massive rise in demand for daily-free ice cream and nutritious drinks.

"Continue to integrate nutritious and innovative snack items into our tailored range as new 5 entrants grow and established players continue to broaden their offerings," she added.

Can Food Delivery Apps Deliver Profits for Investors?

Investors and diners are showing increasing interest in distributing food digitally as the growth of aggregator apps allows it simpler for shoppers to chow down on take-out. Two-thirds of Americans are already purchasing online food delivery, and prospects for development are immense considering the incredibly small penetration of potential US$ 350 billion in restaurant sales, including fast food.

A peek under the hood does, however, show a more complex tale. On the one side, U.S. spending on online food distribution may rise at an eye-catching 18 percent annually, leaping

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Online Food Ordering from 6 percent penetration today to 13 percent in 2025, according to projections by Morgan Stanley.

But the scale of the gap among leading delivery aggregators has led to a cash-burning promotional fight between aggregators trying to attract diners and orders. This operation has exposed future profits to pressures and made a high-growth narrative marginally less desirable.

In a new Morgan Stanley Research study, the US company's internet and restaurant teams describe the state of online food delivery and outline scenarios that could help aggregators as well as restaurants leverage on online purchasing growth. “Consolidation and rationalization of food delivery’s aggregators would be crucial to enhancing — and likely generating — higher overall productivity," says Brian Nowak, stock analyst for the U.S. Internet industry. "The secret to enhancing distribution quality and consumer satisfaction will be a rational atmosphere with lower advertising behavior and ad intensity in 2020 and beyond.

Online Food Ordering

A Sizable Runaway for Delivery

The online food distribution market is alluring with so much space for expansion. A study commissioned by Alphawise, Morgan Stanley Research's exclusive study and analysis data arm, showed that 65 percent of respondents had requested online food distribution over the past six months. Meanwhile, food distribution through telephone orders is expected to shrink by 3 percent per annum through 2025, indicating a digital migration.

One explanation for the exodus is the proliferation of chain restaurants. Not long ago independent full-service restaurants and small national chains were the biggest chunk of restaurants on online ordering platforms. Already, everything has changed. About every big fast food company already has deals with at least one aggregator and several with more than one aggregator.

Online Food Ordering

Nowak and his colleagues have increased the overall addressable market (TAM) from $260 billion in 2017 to $325 billion, leading to this broader scope for distribution. They also estimate that the TAM will rise at a compound annual growth rate of 5 per cent by 2025—around $470 billion.

The Growing Importance of Chains

The introduction of chains, however, is complex. Chains were crucial to getting diners online, but the market is more difficult because lower Average Order Values (AOVs) make it tougher to produce food in a competitive manner.

Although fast food is the restaurant industry's largest sector, it's also the most cost-sensitive, with two-thirds of purchases under $6-7 per customer. Moreover, chains have the "take prices" muscle-to-pressure aggregator which is the amount of the sale the aggregator keeps as income.

Online Food Ordering

Questions on Profitability

The other obstacle is to proceed utilizing deep promotions and free shipping for tempt diners through leading aggregators. "While our data indicates that this makes strategic sense as discounts and offers play a role in 58 percent of the decision-making of diners, it also contributes to negative earnings in each area except New York," says Nowak.

The AlphaWise study showed that younger, digitally savvy diners aged 18-34 are the biggest consumers of delivery aggregators — but they're still the most coupon-sensitive, with 63 percent looking for coupons and discounts before buying or even buying with a discount.

Aggregators were still failing to establish exclusivity within the site. Ultimately, only 36 percent of diners are loyal to one site, opting to pursue offers or free delivery, making for a debate as to how advertising investment results in greater favourability with any particular product.

Thinking Rationally

What would push the food aggregators profitability? Nowak says a more realistic climate is crucial, namely a decline in the ability of private actors to invest heavily to obtain clients. This would need lower promo and promotional volume, and better efficiencies, resulting in higher deliveries per courier hourly.

The future of cost saving could be drone delivery and automated delivery. Nowak reports that every 1 percent of automated food deliveries will result in a marginally more than 1 percent rise in company-wide earnings by drones or other tools, which could potentially slash delivery times. Another aggregator / chain team up explored the usage of drones to transport food to a specified landing spot for easy delivery from the delivery agent to the client in order to low delivery times to less than 10 minutes.

The Restaurant Perspective

Finally, the restaurants themselves are in there. While delivery has now been extended to almost every store, only a few may point to demonstrable revenue rises – so far. That being said, earlier attempts at self-delivery for chains were mixed. As the importance of the food supply chain continues to expand, aggregators enable restaurants to target new consumers and 6 new markets – and the chains themselves via a fairly low-risk model.

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Fighting for Share in the $16.6 Billion Delivery App Market

Where should your restaurant brand begin? And what matters most?

CleverTap, a full-stack consumer lifecycle and communication tool, recently shared with QSR their research on Business Trends for Food Delivery Applications. To succeed in this crowded environment it exposed patterns, obstacles and best practices for food marketers and device makers. The results is focused on review of more than 3 billion messages distributed worldwide by on-demand food delivery applications.

"The food delivery app domain has very small barriers to entry and exit and therefore turnover and retention are persistent challenges. The secret to optimizing both is to have differentiated experience at growing point of the consumer lifecycle, "said in a statement Almitra Karnik, CleverTap's Global Head of Marketing.

Where Do We Stand Today?

The segment is obviously on the rise. Yet here's another eye-opener: According to asset management and equity consulting company UBS survey forecasts that global online grocery shopping would rise to $365bn by 2030. Which reflects an annual increase of 20 per cent from the current reality of $35 billion.

It will still be a big piece of runway, even though it slowed drastically from that estimate.

CleverTap attributed the increase to lower shipping costs (for the consumer) and the reality that today's adults are eating less than generations before. There is a fear-of-missing-out dimension, too, without much doubt. For owners, sort of as credit cards once were, it's difficult for restaurants of all types to keep out of the pool.

But what it means is that restaurants can find a way of doing delivery work against their best interests and improve operations against reducing headwinds. And with any company, such hurdles differ. Identifying the biggest source of difficulty, whether it's giving up details or thinking about how food moves, or discussing if the cost can be carried on to the consumer, and so forth, are things that should be tackled up front.

CleverTap said increased rivalry has also taken the debate to a new stage. Consumers are not just waiting for delivery — they demand distinct interactions.

"Food delivery applications do not only need to give a customer ample interest to sign up, they do need to continue to entice them to repeat 'in - the-moment' purchases," the firm said.

Online Food Ordering

Below are some of the brands 'questions: How can we increase our consumer base and maintain growth?

● How long would it take to order the first meal from new users? ● What are the easiest approaches to keep potential consumers involved and make them brand advocates? ● Are we utilizing the right indicators to assess the impact of our initiatives on engagement? ● How do any of the industry's other features get it well (or terribly wrong)? ● How much personalization is too much personalization? ● Where it all starts: delivering a superior user service that goes beyond the restaurant's app's key value proposition.

It’s All about the Metrics

From the food-delivery network, business models have expanded. Aggregators, digital kitchens, applications for hotels, software for rewards and it's just about it. This gives a look at how genuinely revolutionary this business has been. Customers exploit flexibility at a fast clip. It is one of the side effects of the restaurant industry becoming over-saturated. There are more options these days than there are customers who segment the demand into nicely specified boxes. Guests will be searching for some experience. Perhaps they like speed and the affordability. For several quick-serves, selling all these items is a sprint, or attempting to satisfy a very particular sector more successfully than competitors.

Even when it comes to phones, benchmarking efficiency and development toward industry expectations is important for the marketers. "To transform your delivery app into your customers 'preferred partner, you'll need to provide them with a convincing customer interface that they can gain from across any point of the product lifecycle — from purchase to maintenance, and from offline as well as online purchases," CleverTap said.

Onboarding

Simply stated, a good onboarding experience contributes to increased product acceptance. This is alluded to by CleverTap as FTUX, or first-time user interface. It's not all that distinct from how infrequent consumers treat restaurants. It is important to offer the unforgettable moment on the first day. With applications, it allows clients to take crucial steps such as looking for restaurants, transferring food products from the menu to their cart and purchasing their first meal.

Online Food Ordering

Install to registration rate

What percentage of users installing the restaurant app create an account? Monitoring the install to registration rate can aid the user onboarding process.

Average time to register

How long does it take for a new user to register and log in to the app? This is a solid indicator of the value a new customer sees in the platform.

Here are some additional metrics to watch:

Average app load, or launch, time: The average time it takes for the app to launch or load on a user’s device.

Average cost per user registration: The average cost the brand incurs in getting a user to install and register on the app.

Crash rate: The percentage of app loads that result in a crash.

CleverTap offered up some tips.

Greet new users with a series of simple tips to help them get acquainted with your app.

Persuade first-time users to enable push notifications by offering value added services such as real-time order status updates.

Encourage users to allow geolocation sharing by describing how this helps them locate restaurants within their detected vicinity.

There are ways to improve user onboarding.

Talking about engagement

Understandably, user acquisition is only valuable and worth the investment if it’s anchored by an engaging user experience. Otherwise you’ve spent capital to bring customers into a system they’re just as likely to leave.

Average user engagement

Online Food Ordering

Engagement is measured by a combination of user actions, such as the first time they search a menu or order. CleverTap’s industry benchmark: 35 percent of new users order a meal at least once within the first month of installing the app.

Average transition time to next stage

Basically, are users transacting frequently on the app? Benchmark: Three days average time for users to order for the first time.

A tip: Build detailed user profiles and map them to relevant segments based on their preferred cuisines, meal times, and budget preferences.

Personalized user engagement campaigns can unlock repeat orders. They are often the foundation for true long-term retention. Restaurants have a unique ability over other apps to feature special offers via in-app notifications, along with delivery status updates via email messages or push notifications. Brands can track click-through rates to optimize message content, delivery times, user segments, and campaign strategies.

Monitoring retention rates from day one is a key way to measure app health.

For new users, CleverTap found a 22 percent day seven retention rate for new users, meaning that for every 100 users an app acquires, it loses out on 77 of those by the end of the first week. That makes the first seven days essential for a restaurant to deliver a valuable experience.

For loyal users (those who continue to stay with the app for over three months and have purchased something at least three times in the past 90 days), the rate was 65 percent.

Data showed that only one in 10 of all newly onboard users order within the first week. This declines to one in 20 coming back to order. For loyal users, though, it’s four out of 10 transactions within a week and close to three out of 10 returning within the month.

It’s why it’s so valuable to court engaged and core guests through things like loyalty programs 7 and benefits.

Market Trends

7 Hot Trends That Will Change the Future of the Food Delivery Industry

#1 Millenials as key drivers

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Online Food Ordering

Millennials are the priority audience for food delivery services as they spend the highest share of their budgets on prepared food compared to other generations. With fast-paced lives, Generation Y is more apt to eat in quick-service restaurants and order food delivery. Technomic’s Generational report cites that in 3 out of 5 cases Millennials order food delivery or visit restaurants for takeout.

With bigger spending power, though, Millennials have higher requirements: effortless ordering, instant delivery, one-step checkout, gamification, and more.

To satisfy exacting Millennials, food delivery companies have contrived new ordering channels and delivery options.

#2 New delivery channels

Sixty-three percent of Americans abandon digital takeout orders if they have a poor customer experience, and 55 percent of US adults want an easier online ordering system. Given that, food delivery platforms should greatly simplify ordering and allow customers to place orders via all possible channels such as social media, virtual assistants, smart devices, cars, and so on.

2.1 Order by Tweet

Domino’s Pizza was first to conquer the Twitterverse and let people order pizza by just tweeting a pizza emoji to the company’s Twitter account. Of course, you might wonder how Domino’s can guess what kind of pizza you want and where to deliver it.

The deal is that before taking advantage of this service you need to make a “pizza profile” on Domino’s online delivery service. Then you can save your default order, called an Easy Order, and link your Twitter account to your pizza profile.

The initial idea of Fooji was to let customers order all sorts of meals via corresponding emojis. Once you’d set up an account, you had access to sixteen entree options and eight desserts, eight drinks, and eight sides. But what emojis represented those options? Each week the Fooji team chose delicacies from local restaurants to represent emojis. And a sweet bonus was that Fooji’s favorite meal of the week could be ordered with the fork-and-knife emoji.

The modern Fooji app has transformed into an experiential marketing platform allowing customers to get free products from food and alcohol to branded kits. Fooji sets up a call to action with emojis and hashtags to help fans connect with brands on social media. Fans post these triggers and participate in promotions. The luckiest receive giveaways delivered to their door within 60 minutes.

2.2 Order via a virtual assistant

Online Food Ordering

Domino’s hasn’t stopped with ordering by tweets. And the brand has even created a Pizza bot for Facebook messenger named Dom. Now customers can message Dom and request food with a single word or emoji. Dom also replies to customer inquiries about vouchers and the latest deals.

Grubhub has integrated with Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant. This new feature lets customers reorder any of their last three purchases on Grubhub. When a customer tells Alexa what they want to order, Alexa places the order and announces the estimated delivery time.

Just Eat has added Alexa reordering skills as well. Since the company supports the new Echo Show, customers can easily order food by voice, check the courier’s location, and change their orders on the fly.

2.3. Order with a smartwatch

Interest in smartwatches is increasing: in 2018, around 141 million smartwatches were sold. This is why many food delivery platforms have integrated with Android and Apple smart devices so that customers can order meals from their wrists in a few clicks. Domino’s was the first to launch a smartwatch app for Android watches that drastically simplifies ordering.

OrderUp has also introduced their latest update for the Apple Watch, allowing customers to place orders, track delivery statuses, and see the estimated time of arrival.

2.4 Order with a smart TV

Nowadays, people can even order food right from their TVs while laying in bed and relaxing. Papa John’s makes ordering pizza as fun and easy as streaming a movie. With Apple TV, you can browse the entire Papa John’s menu, build a custom pizza, see favorites and past orders, and check out in one tap. Papa John’s also presents exclusive Apple TV discounts for each order.

TVtakeaways, previously called foodnfilm, is directly integrated with Samsung’s Smart TV operating system. The new takeaway service is available on all Samsung Smart TVs sold in the UK starting with 2012 models.

“Our app provides restaurants and delivery companies with a new route to market while allowing users to order popular takeaway cuisine and other convenience items for the first time on the big screen.” - Leslie Golding, Founder and CEO of TVtakeaways.

2.5 Order from your car

A car is another smart device you can place your order with. Pizza Hut has partnered with Accenture and Visa to create an in-car pizza ordering system that lets drivers buy food

Online Food Ordering while on the road. Visa Checkout is integrated into the car’s dashboard so that customers can order food by voice and keep their hands on the wheel.

2.6 Order with your eyes

Pizza Hut has found one more way to shock its customers. The company has released a digital menu that reads customers’ minds. Of course, this new feature doesn’t literally read your thoughts.

The new menu, Subconscious Menu, is built on eye tracking technology by Tobi Technology. Subconscious Menu collects data on eye movements, detects customers’ eyes focus, and suggests the best pizza ingredients for you out of 4,896 possible combinations in just 2.5 seconds.

This isn’t science fiction. It’s a world of advanced food ordering systems. Obviously, technologies impact delivery services as well.

#3 Modern delivery options

Food delivery companies are no longer limited by the labor force. They can considerably speed up delivery and lower operational costs using robots, drones, and even parachutes.

3.1 Delivery with robots

The evolution of AI technologies is giving rise to self-driving delivery cars and robots. For instance, Just Eat and Starship Technologies have developed moving pavement droids to deliver food in the UK. These six-wheeled droids can move at up to 4 miles per hour and deliver takeaway in a 10-mile radius. To navigate, the droids use a GPS signal and cameras. Once a droid has arrived at its destination, the customer needs to enter a code.

Eat24 in collaboration with tech startup Marble and Yelp have created autonomous delivery robots about the size of an office copier. These robots use cameras, Lidar sensors, and high-resolution 3D city maps to determine the most accurate route and avoid bumps with pedestrians, pets, bicycles, and other machines.

3.2 Delivery with drones

Drone food delivery started with Tacocopter carrying tacos in the San Francisco area. Then we saw Burrito Bomber in 2012 and the Domicopter being tested by an independent Domino’s UK franchise in 2013.

Online Food Ordering

After a number of trials, food temperature tests, and negotiations with the government, Domino’s delivered two tasty pizzas to a New Zealand couple by drone in less than 5 minutes in 2016.

“They can avoid traffic congestion and traffic lights and safely reduce the delivery time and distance by traveling directly to customers’ homes. This is the future.”- Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director Don Meij

There are even on-demand drone delivery services like Flytrex that can cover logistics for you. Flytrex offers an advanced online dashboard where you can define the flight route, arrange automatic preflights, and obtain detailed reports.

3.3 Delivery with parachute

Have you ever heard about Jafflechutes? If you want to get your Jaffles ‒ a kind of toasted sandwich ‒ delivered by parachute, visit Melbourne.

Melbourne’s first float-down eatery lets customers order toasties via PayPal. Then customers just need to wait in the drop-off location marked with an X at the specified time and have fun catching their food.

So far, they only have two items on the menu: cheese and tomato toasties called Drop It Like It’s Hot and cheese and ham toasties called Gust of Wind. This delivery approach can both entertain customers and reduce logistics costs.

#4 Embracing new niches

Many food delivery services have focused on a special niche. We’ve already seen food delivery platforms that appeal to vegans and companies that deliver strictly burger boxes or farm-grown food or healthy smoothies.

Being in a niche can help food delivery startups to break through the entry barriers and fight off the intense competition. As an owner of a food delivery business, you should keep an eye on new niches that are gaining traction, including fighting food waste, pet food, and virtual kitchens.

4.1 Food waste apps

Each year, one-third of the food produced worldwide gets wasted. Food waste apps tackle this problem and help to save the planet. They help restaurants and grocery stores to get rid of leftovers and supply people in need with low-priced food.

Online Food Ordering

Food for All is one of these apps. This service offers unsold meals from local restaurants, cafes, and delis with a 50 percent discount. This way anyone can grab a delicious dinner for $3. You just need to place an order and pick up your food at a fixed time.

Another example is Food Rescue US. This volunteer-driven platform actively participates in food rescue movements. Food Rescue US tries to end hunger across the country and provides over 50 million food insecure Americans with fresh, usable food from restaurants and grocery stores that have it in excess.

4.2 Pet food apps

The pet industry is quite lucrative: industry revenue reached $72.13 billion in 2018. Sixty-eight percent of American families own a pet and over 40 percent of US consumers buy pet food online.

Home delivery of pet food is especially popular with parents and Millennials, who find it a convenient, customizable, and healthy way to treat their favorite friends. This demand for pet food has spurred a number of pet food delivery services.

Monster Pet Supplies released its pet food delivery app in the UK to provide a hassle-free shopping experience for pet owners. Now pet parents can order food for their beloved animals in just one click. The app also offers free delivery and order scheduling for repeat delivery.

4.3 Apps with a virtual kitchen

UberEats has come up with the concept of a virtual kitchen: the platform lists new eateries and meals only available in their app. UberEats decided to help restaurants avoid the high operating costs of opening a new physical space and provide convenience to partnering restaurants by allowing them to use their kitchen space to prepare extra meals.

For example, Uber Eats could allow a salad cafe to also offer sandwiches with minimal changes to the ingredients in-store. This cafe could become a virtual sandwich cafe in the Uber Eats app while staying a salad cafe at their physical location.

UberEats has already transformed a sushi restaurant ‒ Rice Cafe ‒ into Poke Cafe, a virtual restaurant serving Hawaiian poke bowls.

This concept is beneficial for food delivery platforms as they can save costs and focus more on product development and data analysis to identify and offer the most popular cuisines in specific areas.

#5 Augmented and virtual reality

Online Food Ordering

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have become magic wands for driving new customers to many food delivery services. Companies use AR to refresh their marketing campaigns, expand brand awareness, boost sales, and even hold virtual training for their employees.

5.1 Advertising services

Just Eat launched an augmented reality feature to promote food offerings in a new and funny way. This feature was available through Facebook Messenger. Customers could use their cameras to see burgers, pizza, and other foods floating into their mouths.

The campaign gathered over 100,000 interactions, 10 percent of which resulted in orders.

5.2 Virtual training

KFC is one of the companies using virtual reality to train new employees. The company created a virtual training escape room called The Hard Way where cooks are trapped in the secret lodge of Colonel Sanders. To escape, they have to fry chicken. KFC used this virtual training to help new cooks learn closer to the brand’s personality.

# 6 Crypto food orders

The rise of blockchain technology has brought forth a new service niche: crypto food orders. Customers worldwide can order any kind of takeaway or delivery with cryptocurrencies. PizzaForCoins, for example, accepts over 50 cryptocurrencies. Among other food delivery companies supporting crypto payments are Feastly, Takeaway.com, Papa John’s Pizza, Levy Restaurants, and Lobster Gram. By using cryptocurrencies for orders, companies can eliminate fraudulent activities and enhance the overall food ordering experience. Customers aren’t limited to a particular payment option and can pay for their orders even with relatively unknown cryptocurrencies.

#7 Big data

Big data is helping to revolutionize food delivery services and make them as efficient as possible. Food providers collect and analyze a huge scope of data including

● road traffic;

● the impact of temperature on food;

● the impact of market trends on stock consumption;

Online Food Ordering

● customer purchasing history;

● items currently in the shopping bag;

● reviews and comments on social media;

● posts customer share on social networks;

● and so on. … This information helps food delivery companies accurately estimate the delivery time, monitor customer emotions on social media, and immediately react to complaints, personalize food offers, and more.

Grubhub, for instance, analyzes data about millions of orders to come up with the most appropriate meal recommendations for each customer. Doordash employs big data to manage inventory and to predict the number of couriers required for a particular day, expected demand for a specific cuisine, and food preparation time.

Just Eat examines hundreds of thousands of customer records to understand what customers want from their service: what types of food they’ll order, when, and how often. Big data has 8 contributed to the company’s 50 percent growth in the UK market. Restaurant Online Ordering Statistics

For savvy restaurateurs that rely on data to make important business decisions, we have 22 9 statistics that will give you some insight into just how powerful online ordering is.

1. 60% of U.S. consumers order delivery or takeout once a week. 2. 31% say they use these third-party delivery services at least twice a week. 3. 34% of consumers spend at least $50 per order when ordering food online. 4. 20% of consumers say they spend more on off-premise orders compared to a regular dine-in experience.

5. Digital ordering and delivery have grown 300% faster than dine-in traffic since 2014. 6. 70% of consumers say they’d rather order directly from a restaurant, preferring that their money goes straight to the restaurant and not a third party.

8 https://rubygarage.org/blog/food-delivery-trends-2019 9 https://upserve.com/restaurant-insider/online-ordering-statistics/ 27

Online Food Ordering

7. 57% of millennials say that they have restaurant food delivered so they can watch movies and TV shows at home. 8. 59% of restaurant orders from millennials are takeout or delivery. 9. 33% of consumers say they would be willing to pay a higher fee for faster delivery service.

10. 87% of Americans who use third-party food delivery services agree that it makes their lives easier. 11. 45% of consumers say that offering mobile ordering or loyalty programs would encourage them to use online ordering services more often.

12. 63% of consumers agree that it is more convenient to get delivery than dining out with a family.

13. Americans who have not used a third-party restaurant delivery service say fast delivery (31%), restaurant selection (28%), low order minimums (27%) and first-use coupons (26%) would motivate them to try it. 14. 60% of restaurant operators say that offering delivery has generated incremental sales. 15. Orders placed via smartphone and mobile apps will become a $38 billion industry by 2020.

16. Pizza chains reported an 18% increase in customer spend from online/mobile orders vs. phone orders.

17. Working with a third party delivery service has been found to raise restaurant sales volume by 10 to 20%. 18. Delivery sales could rise an annual average of more than 20% to $365 billion worldwide by 2030, from $35 billion.

19. 43% of restaurant professionals said they believe third-party apps—many of which withhold data—interfere with the direct relationship between a restaurant/bar/pub and its customers. 20. Customers who place an online order with a restaurant will visit that restaurant 67% more frequently than those who don’t. 21. It’s estimated that mobile orders will make up close to 11% of all QSR sales by 2020.

Online Food Ordering

22. Visits to U.S. restaurants where guests paid by mobile app increased by 50% from 2017-18.

Key Trends in the Food Delivery Industry

With a drastic increase in demand for delivery and takeaway services forecasted, restaurateurs must get ready to adapt. Is the restaurant industry ready for such a structural change?

How shall restaurateurs adapt to food delivery trends?

Here are some recommendations based on the expectations of customers concerning food delivery services in 2030.

Selecting a restaurant for delivery/takeaway service

When choosing the ideal provider for delivery and takeaway services, customers are likely to use search engines, ask friends or relatives, use evaluation websites for reviews and order their meals on an application. They will also be inspired by social media and make their final decision according to their current mood but also based on their past experiences and budget.

Key points for mobile food businesses: use search engine optimization and delivery applications as main tools. Make every customer experience unique and monitor reviews regularly. Pay attention to “instagramable” (highly recognizable or unique) food.

Smartphones are the future of food ordering

Customers in 2030 will order mostly through their smartphone and, as a second choice, through a computer.

Key points for mobile food businesses: focus on smartphone applications to enable food ordering, ensure that the restaurant’s website is mobile-friendly and give the option to order food online.

Food trends for delivery/takeaway: discovery of world cuisine, healthy food and customization options

Customers of delivery services mainly seek to discover a new type of cuisine or to eat healthily, unlike those eating at a restaurant who mainly choose pleasure-oriented meals. They are not interested in traditional cuisine and are concerned about sustainability while they also expect personalization options, ranging from ingredients to size and even preparation

Key points for mobile food businesses: focus on world cuisine and healthy options, offer food that can be transported easily and sustainable options such as organic and locally sourced

Online Food Ordering products delivered in reusable or compostable packaging, and enable ordering through smartphones.

Environment for eating

Eating delivered or takeaway food is expected to be mostly a solitary occupation for consumers in 2030. The majority of respondents prefer the food to be delivered, mainly at home, while the workplace is also gaining in popularity.

Key points for mobile food businesses: delivery at home is the most popular trend while there might be an increased demand for corporate delivery.

Preferred payment options

In 2030, consumers expect to pay as soon as they make their food choice and prefer fixed pricing. Credit card or contactless payment are their ideal methods of payment, while payment by biometric control could be an evolution for 2030 (14% of respondents consider this option, according to the survey).

Key points for mobile food businesses: fixed pricing paid upfront with a credit card or contactless payment is what consumers expect to be offered in 2030.

What’s the food delivery customer profile?

Food mobility is around the corner and in order to rightly adapt to it, restaurateurs should get to know their customers.

Customers for delivery and takeaway services are mostly younger people up to 35 years old 10 who could be students, managers and full-time employees.

Conclusion

The online food delivery is a service that allows the user to order food from a desired food outlet via the internet. This can be done either by going directly to the website and placing an order or by using a mobile phone application. The introduction of online food delivery system has been a convenient addition, which has not only reduced long queues, but has also decreased the waiting time for ordered food delivery. The online food delivery system has already been adopted throughout the globe and its performance has been relatively good. The key players in the industry have been relying on partnerships and acquisition as the prominent strategies to help boost their growth in the market. The global online food market is driven by rise in internet penetration coupled with increase in the working population and

10 https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/food-delivery-industry-trends 30

Online Food Ordering surge in the food & beverage industry. The online food delivery market is also supplemented by growth in mobile phone dependency. However, unwillingness of big food outlets to adopt this system along with the potential technical and infrastructural issues hinder the growth of this market. Moreover, too much competition and lack of loyal customers also act as a threat to this market. Technological breakthroughs and infrastructural improvements, especially in the 11 emerging nations are expected to drive the growth of the market in the future.

11 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/online-food-delivery-market 31