Food delivery has long been present in urban societies. Consumers are now used to having the option to call food delivery services — whether from a fast-food chain or a Chinese restaurant — whenever they don’t have time to eat out or cook meals at home.

  • More customers will use third-party food delivery platforms from 2020 onwards
  • Consumers turned to food delivery apps during the peak time of the pandemic
  • The food delivery industry set to reach $182 million revenue volume by 2024

Looking at the current shape of food delivery, it has evolved along with the widespread use of smart hand-held devices. Online delivery platforms’ smart mobile apps offering an upgraded food delivery service, started to surface one after another.

UAE-Supermarket-purchase

Online food delivery platforms enhanced traditional delivery by adding extra features. Current food delivery advancements allowed customers to conveniently view the menu, compare prices among a wide array of choices, and even track real-time delivery man’s location.

Local food and beverage (FnB) establishments partner with these food delivery platforms to upgrade their delivery with the same enhanced food delivery experience. Food delivery platforms like UberEats, Deliveroo, Grab Food,  are expanding the reach of delivery services.

Based on Statista’s global food delivery market insights, consumers will prefer to order their food from food delivery online platforms (Platform-to-Consumer) rather than directly contacting the restaurant or using the restaurant’s own app (Restaurant-to-Consumer). As a forecast, starting 2020 onwards, customers will be inclined to order from food delivery-focused platforms.

Global-food-delivery-market

Revenue in the online delivery sector is projected to reach $136 million by the end of 2020. With an annual growth rate of 7.5%, the industry is seen to reach a volume of $182 million by 2024.

The market’s largest segment is platform-to-consumer delivery, with a projected total market volume of $71 million in 2020. On a global scale, China is expected to raise most of the revenue-generating $52 million in 2020 alone.

platform-to-consumer-delivery

The illustration above presents the forecasted online food delivery service revenue growth. The peak 31% growth rate in 2020 reflects the surge in food delivery. Experts expect consumers to prolong the habit and loyalty in ordering food on specific platforms driven by the COVID-19 stay-at-home reality. When people stayed at home, and while dine-out is not a safe option, food delivery became the ultimate way to feed people’s restaurant cravings during the pandemic.

According to SensorTower Intelligence, UberEats was the most downloaded food delivery app worldwide, achieving 6.7 million installs in February 2020. Brazil and the United States were the countries where this app was installed with 20% and 19.3%, respectively.

Top-food-delivery-app

Grab was the second most downloaded food delivery app worldwide, with 3 million installs. Grab catered to the South East Asian market where downloads from Indonesia records 38% and Vietnam far at second with a 16% market share.

Joining the two companies on the rank are Domino’s, iFood, and Foodpanda as part of the top five most installed food delivery apps worldwide for February 2020.

Both Uber and Grab companies are also well known in providing mobility-as-a-service companies before expanding and venturing into the food delivery business. Like its transportation-focused applications, these companies leverage GPS on its app interface to allow consumers to track the delivery in real-time without blindly enduring the waiting game.

For a lot of consumers, the innovation these platforms provided were utmost insightful and convenient. Adding attractive promotions and reward programs on delivery apps made customers stickier in using a certain platform.

According to Mckinsey, the rate of loyalty to using digital delivery platforms has been incredibly high since 2015. Researchers found out that about 77% of the online delivery platform users world would continue to use the same platform and show loyalty. Looking at the statistics, 7 in 10 people would prefer to use the same food delivery service.

new-delivery-platforms

A great number of food delivery platforms online made it easy to order meals from a wide array of choices just within the consumer’s fingertips. The convenience was already felt, and delivery platforms had already made their place in most urbanized communities and here to stay as a permanent fixture of society.

Due to restrictions in mobility, people will resort to delivery apps and digital entertainment during the pandemic season. As a result, food delivery services will enjoy an uphill journey during the digital economy boom — all alongside online shopping platforms like Amazon, and streaming services like Netflix.

In the meantime, while there is a population of customers who refrain from stepping out of the four corners of their home, many food businesses will need to serve their customers through food delivery.