Grubhub, UberEats, and Just Eat have set new milestones while capturing a lion’s share in the food delivery market. A new entrant or a startup owner can find it hard to withstand the intensifying competition and keep pace with the ever-changing expectations of customers. There, the latest market trends and integration of technological advancements can lend a helping hand for food delivery startups.
Before moving forward, let’s go through some interesting facts about the online food ordering-
- Food orders placed via smartphone and mobile apps will reach $38 billion by 2020
- 34 percent of consumers spend at least $50 per order in online food delivery
- 60 percent of restaurant owners have accepted that online delivery can increase sales
- 33 percent of consumers are willing to pay a higher fee for faster delivery
Here are the top seven food delivery trends that shape the future of a restaurant business in the year 2020 and beyond.
Read Also: How Mobile App Benefits Food Delivery Startups?
Top Trends that Drive the Future of Food Delivery Industry
- Rise of Big Data and AI
Technological advancements have started getting mainstreamed across all the industry sectors and the restaurant sector is no exception! Think of big data and AI. The food delivery business can track the customer’s behavior like preferences, emotions, deliver time, customized offers, and the like.
Food delivery systems like Uber Eats and Zomato use AI for improving user experience. Many food delivery apps use big data and combine it with AI to bring automation in the delivery processes to provide a smooth experience to their customers. In the coming years, we can certainly expect that Big Data and AI will be integrated into the food delivery app in a big way!
- Payment based on Cryptocurrency
Though this trend is in the nascent phase, blockchain-based cryptocurrency may replace other ways of digital payments. Customers will order online using the app and make the payment using cryptocurrency. The biggest benefit of cryptocurrency payment is it eliminates the risk of fraud at any stage of payment. It can be a unique feature in the food delivery app to enhance the customer experience. PizzaForCoins app accepts over 50 cryptocurrencies. Other apps that promote crypto food orders are Feastly, Levy Restaurants, and Lobster Gram.
- Serving Millenials
Millennials are always a target audience for food delivery services because they can spend the highest share of their budget on restaurant food as compared to other age groups. An official Generational report from Technomic has revealed that Millennials order food delivery or visit restaurants in 3 out of 5 cases.
However, restaurants may find it difficult to serve Millennials because of higher expectations while ordering and getting delivery of orders. They also want one-step checkout, gamification, and even social media integration in the app. The food delivery app development company has to put more effort to meet the needs of Millennials effectively.
- Cloud-based Kitchen
This is completely a new concept for delivery-only restaurants. Interestingly, this format does not need any physical space and the restaurant owners need not spend on interiors or infrastructure. Here, the owner registers another restaurant on the food ordering system or platform. The restaurant owner can also register two accounts on the food delivery app. The restaurant can accept orders from both the accounts and the same kitchen of the restaurant will be used for preparing food. Here, only one kitchen is running, which is known as a cloud kitchen. This concept gains ground swiftly across the world because the owner can earn more profits from the same place while saving big on renting space.
- Advent of AR & VR
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are in vogue and started mainstreaming in the corporate world swiftly. Companies run marketing campaigns using AR and VR technologies. Advancements of AR and VR can expand brand awareness, increase sales, and give other benefits to the companies. Talking about the restaurants, AR and VR-based features can work wonders for increasing mobile-based food ordering. Just Eat has recently launched an AR-based feature to make the food ordering process funny and unique.
How about showing your customers that burgers, pizza, and other yummy foods floating into their mouths? This can certainly increase social engagement as customers willingly share this on their social media accounts. In a way, AR and VR technologies will play a vital role in the future.
- New Delivery Channels
Poor customer experience accounts for abandoning digital takeout orders by 63 percent of Americans. Having said that, social media channels, virtual assistant, wearables, and even smart TV can be new food delivery channels for tech-savvy customers.
Just do not treat it as science fiction- in the world of advanced food ordering system, people will start giving orders from car and even through their eyes! Pizza Hut has collaborated with Accenture and Visa to offer an in-car pizza ordering system. It facilitates drivers to buy food while on the road.
- New Niches for Food Delivery
Just like giving orders, restaurants also come up with unique delivery options. These options aim at improving customer experience and reducing operational costs. Restaurants can deliver food items more rapidly and accurately. Top modern delivery options include robots, drones, and parachutes.
Just Eat and Starship Technologies have joined hands to develop moving pavement droids for food delivery in the UK. These droids have six wheels and they can move at up to 4 miles per hour for delivering takeaway in the radius of 10 miles. Domino’s UK franchise tested Domicopter back in 2013 for pizza delivery. Domino has set a record of delivering two pizzas to a New Zealand couple by drone in less than 5 minutes in the year 2016.
Smart devices and advancements in emerging technologies like AI, IoT, AR, and VR have opened the doors of new opportunities for the food delivery sector. Many startup owners want to come up with innovative apps to beat the increasing competition. Here, it is fair to mention that while keeping all these futuristic trends of food delivery app development, one should focus on providing excellent delivery services.
