What the Emerge conference told us about food delivery
Food delivery has become a staple in many people’s lives over the past couple of years. Even before the pandemic, more and more people began to order takeout food rather than picking them up, or ordered groceries straight to their house instead of taking a trip to the store. In fact, Delivery Club, the leading food delivery company in Russia, believe that even without the pandemic, the food delivery sphere would be digitised in as little as 2 years. At first glance, this might seem like just another way for companies to get an extra couple of pounds from each customer. The truth is, there are benefits for both the restaurant or grocery store, as well as the consumer.
Join us, as we explore:
- The importance of food delivery
- The positive effects it has on restaurants
- The positive effects it has on consumers
- Why your restaurant should be delivering to customers
What delivery can do for your business
Firstly, and not surprisingly, offering delivery boosts sales for a number of reasons. Especially in such a competitive market, it’s important to keep ahead of the competition. If you’re not offering a service that many others are, you’re already falling behind. SberMarket’s Elena Ivanova discussed how ‘high-speed delivery is no longer an advantage in the USA and Europe, but rather is the new norm’. Ultimately, if a restaurant or store isn’t adhering to these norms, people are less likely to shop there when it offers less convenience than competitors.
Furthermore, offering delivery also has an impact on food sizes. On average, restaurants see a 20% increase in order sizes from online and delivery compared to dine-in orders, leading to greater revenue. That being said, delivery services also shape and change how customers consume a service. Igor Rozhkov, CMO of delivery service Samokat, explains ‘after 10-20 purchases online, the average check starts to change – it’s smaller, but the frequency of orders (purchases) increases’. This shows us how offering delivery can lead to more sales. Even if the purchases are of smaller orders, the average customer orders more food in the greater picture. More sales also lead to a greater amount of fees paid by the customer.
Finally, opening your store up for delivery leads to greater exposure for new customers to find you. Imagine you’re a hungry customer browsing Ubereats for lunch when suddenly you see a new store that has popped up that you like the look of. Especially as more and more people move to ordering food online rather than venturing out into town, chances are you might not have seen the new restaurant. Needless to say, increased exposure leads to more sales and more returning customers.
What delivery does for consumers
The greatest effects of food delivery can be summed up in a single word: convenience. When ordering online, there’s no need to plan ahead – orders can be made and changed as necessary and if you’re ordering to an event, there’s no need to have the food collected in advance. Additionally, as is the case with many grocery delivery services, as a customer finds they need something else from the store, they can add new items to a basket before the delivery time. This makes the process simpler and meaning they’re less likely to miss items.
On top of that, there’s no need to stand in a queue or deal with in-store traffic. In fact, the only negative here really is that the customer may need to wait a little longer if a courier is making several deliveries or there is traffic on the road. Still, taking these inconveniences away from the customer reduces stress and leads to a more pleasant dining experience.
Finally, according to Elena, ‘ordering online leads to fewer spontaneous purchases’. Consumers won’t be put on the spot when ordering online, and can thoroughly explore a restaurant or store’s goods while thinking about what they need or want. This leads to the customer saving money and ultimately means fewer disappointing reviews or refunds.
Further effects of food delivery
Beyond boosting sales or providing customer convenience, food delivery affects people outside the culinary profession.
Delivery requires couriers to deliver orders to customers. This means more jobs, not just as deliverers, but in popular third-party delivery services such as Ubereats or Deliveroo. Even beyond that, delivery provokes more work in things such as advertising and app management.
As you can see, delivery impacts the economy beyond restaurants and grocery stores. Opening up new third-party delivery companies and jobs, food deliveries are vital to some peoples lives.
Food delivery is one of the fastest developing areas in food tech. Though it has been spurred on greatly by Covid-19, a temporary scenario, the benefits are permanent. With more and more stores, restaurants, and even third-party companies delving into the world of food delivery, it’s safe to say that the momentum won’t die down any time soon.
Interested in discovering more about deliveries and food tech? Make sure to keep checking back every day as the next two weeks will be full of delivery news! For more information on how we upload, check out our descriptive post on Food Tech Digest.
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