Restaurants Get over it Worrying about Delivery Cost

Today, 81.7% of consumers want a dinner without having to cook from scratch according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Back in the day that meant going to a sit-down restaurant, today it increasing means getting dinner at a fast food drive thru. In fact, today 83.2% of all restaurant occasions occur at a fast food outlet.  

Today, grocery retailers understand that consumers simply do not have the desire, skill-set, or time to cook from scratch.  Let alone the desire to go to a grocery store and shop? Why would they?

In an effort to become more relevant with Millennials and Gen Z consumers that have a full life experience embracing technology. Grocery retailers are selling fresh food faster online.  Now that Millennials are the primary grocery shoppers with growing family’s restaurants risk losing more dinner occasions as Online food and beverage sales are expected to increase 32% annually.  So, why go out when grocery stores can deliver a meal for less?

According to Packaged Facts online sales of food and beverages in the U.S. reached $17 billion in 2018, making the U.S. the second largest food e-commerce market in the world with 15% of global sales. Through 2023, food e-commerce sales in the U.S. are forecast to increase 32% per year. As the availability of online grocery shopping expands and consumers begin to embrace online shopping for its convenience compared to shopping in-store, sales are expected to rise dramatically.

Let’s see what Packaged Fasts found and why E-commerce in the U.S. has been quick to develop due to:

·         cultural preference for convenience

·         a highly developed network of stores and malls

·         consumer tendency to spend significant amounts of time online

For online grocery shopping specifically, the combination of three elements helped create a perfect environment for growth in the U.S. between 2013 and 2018:

·         increased mobile/smartphone usage

·         improved website and mobile app interfaces

·         expansion of crowdsourced business models to delivery and shopping

There is no room for complaining about the cost of restaurant meal delivery according to Johnson.  There is room for evolving your business model to empower consumer choice, while lowering your cost of goods.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/