The trend of online food ordering has literally transformed the global food market. This offers a plethora of advantages to users as well as restaurant owners. The key factors behind the growth of the online food delivery market is constant increase in users who are using online food delivery apps. As per Statista, more than 1.2 billion people use online food delivery apps across the world. This is the reason more businesses are stepping into the digital world to hit the market and investing in on-demand food delivery apps to target customers by bringing everything to their doorsteps with just a couple of clicks.
The raging trend of online food delivery services is increasing rapidly. This is why many business owners are embracing new trends in their business model and working round the clock to enhance user experience. The digital world has changed people’s habits and lifestyles and the usage of online food delivery apps will increase more in the future. Hundreds of selection in food items acts as a natural extension because online food ordering is a value for money for the users.
Food delivery companies act as an intermediary between customers and restaurants and there is no doubt that the sales and revenue of restaurants will also increase with so many enticing benefits in future.
The pandemic has severely affected many industries. This has forced many restaurants and bars to close across the country to measure social-distancing. So people rely majorly on food deliveries because of lockdowns and quarantine. So the restaurants have left with no choice but to sign on with the apps. Online food delivery apps are in the long run and it is quite clear that the pandemic has given the food market industry a big boost. Consumers can browse as many as restaurants in their area with their smartphones and have their food delivered to their door in under an hour.
The other reason for driving demand is the increasing number of restaurants. These restaurants are now offering home delivery services that previously did not offer including small town locales and fast food. Many food delivery services such as Deliveroo, JustEat and UberEats are offering these services by responding to the crisis and taking over the major market share.
In the UK, meal delivery spending grew from $200 million per month in 2019 to $800 million per month in Q2 2020
The pandemic has truly rocked the food delivery industry and delivery apps are focusing on meeting the growing demand of consumers staying at home. Let's see what will be the shape of the food delivery industry in the coming years.
Revenue of online food delivery market is expected to generate an annual growth rate of 10.3% and will cross $134,490m by 2023. Well, the higher demand has led to higher pricing. Major players of the online food delivery services are grabbing the attention of the market are takeaway.com, Doordash, Deliveroo, Uber eats, Domino's pizza, Grubhub and Just eat.The market is expected to reach $192.16 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 11%.
Technology has an enormous potential to change the food industry in the future. It is a crucial part of the food delivery market.
Consumers are benefiting from the growth of technology during the pandemic by staying at home.
Digital trends still have the potential to keep on growing, however, they have to face some challenges. Here are some food services trends to be aware of in future:
Despite the quarantine, consumers are motivated to help the online ordering system. Food delivery platforms should allow customers to place orders through all the possible channels like virtual assistants, smart devices, cars, social media, and so on.
— Food Ordering Via Tweet: You might wonder if I tell you that people can order pizza by just tweeting a pizza emoji to the company's twitter account. To order online, users just need to create their pizza profile on the company’s online delivery service. Then users have to link their account with their pizza profile to proceed further.
— Food Ordering Via Smartwatch: Another good thing is that people can place orders from Dominos through wearable devices like smartwatches. Apple and Samsung have introduced technology-oriented smartwatches to enable users to place orders quickly and simplify the overall process.
The speed of change in technology has tremendously driven the faster food delivery service, management in real-time customer relationship and marketing via smart devices. Food delivery companies can considerably speed up delivery by using drones, robots and even parachutes. So that they can no longer be limited by the labor force.
Luke Schneider, CEO of Refraction AI, and Matthew Johnson-Roberson, co-founder of Refraction AI, shared how autonomous food delivery will change in 2021 and beyond. This means personal delivery robots or other self delivery vehicles doing more deliveries will gain more regulatory wins and can be the largest sector for growth in the future.
Ghost kitchens may take a chunk of the market share lost by the restaurants last year due to covid crisis. Ghost kitchens are mostly serving uncomplicated comfort foods that enable food delivery business owners to expand their service at a minimal cost. You can say, it is largely inspired by what tech platforms say people are searching for on different apps. Ghost kitchens are not located physically but only exist over the Internet and accept orders online through websites and apps.The ghost kitchens are a good way for restaurateurs to experiment with innovative concepts and one can expand their business with lower operating costs. As it requires less staff and less space than a restaurant.
The rise of technology has brought a new service niche called crypto food orders. In this crypto food orders service, customers can order any kind of delivery with cryptocurrencies worldwide. For instance, PizzaForCoins accepts over 50 cryptocurrencies. Food delivery companies supporting crypto payments include Takeaway.com, Papa John’s Pizza, Feastly, Levy Restaurants, and Lobster Gram.
Although it is uncertain where the kind of delivery trends will go after this pandemic. But one thing can be learned quite sure. Businesses that failed to ride in the digital transformation need to find a way to adapt and keep up with ever-changing consumer demands.
Food delivery owners can survive by embracing technological advancements and survive or just face the reality of being left behind. Those who want to choose to embrace the new world of food delivery, can gain excellent rewards. These are not ordinary dreams.
Data source: businessofapps