Sunday, November 6, 2016

Is Meal Delivery the new Platform for Success


Consumers do not want to go grocery shopping, cook from scratch, and then do dishes as regular readers of this blog know.  Today restaurant meals, grocery stores fresh prepared meals, and convenience store meals are all offered for sale or delivery from third-party food delivery aggregator services according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®. 

Steven Johnson our own Grocerant Guru® back in the day help consolidate, edify, and expand the restaurant deliver service sector (RDS) with Ford Smith the founder of Pet Smart, Food.Com, and EZ2Get.com where the headwinds and undercurrents of change were predicting strong growth ahead for the RDS sector. 
Those same headwinds and undercurrents continue today.  In fact a new study by Mintel found  that “87 percent of Americans who use third-party food delivery services agree that it makes their lives easier, and nearly one third (31 percent) say they use these services at least twice a week.”

The RDS sector is still relatively small.  Mintel found that only “12 percent of Americans say that they have used a third-party delivery service in the past three months. Among non-users, three in 10 (30 percent) say that they would rather order delivery directly from the restaurant itself, citing concerns over price, as more than one quarter (27 percent) believe that delivery fees are too high. What’s more, some 23 percent of non-users say they live in an area where these companies do not operate.” Thus the opportunity for growth.

The urbanization of America is driving Millennial’s in a new environment for most that is from the ‘suburbs to cities’. Caleb Bryant, Foodservice Analyst at Mintel stated that “Millennial men living in urban areas, indicating a need for these companies to attract a more diverse consumer base. Delivery cannot compete with the entire restaurant experience, but third-party companies can work at increasing the incidence of restaurant delivery by highlighting the benefits of having food delivered directly to the consumer,”

So what’s important today to customers when it comes to meal delivery according to Mintel:
1.       Fast delivery (31 percent),
2.       Restaurant selection (28 percent),
3.       Low order minimums (27 percent)  
4.       First-use coupons (26 percent) would motivate them to try it. However,
5.       There may be no convincing the older generations, as more than half (53 percent) of non-users age 55+ say nothing would motivate them to use these services,
6.       Despite hesitation from some non-users, restaurant delivery users tend to have positive perceptions surrounding delivered foods as two thirds (63 percent) agree that it is more convenient to get delivery than dining out with a family.
7.       Three in five (61 percent) consumers say that restaurant delivery apps are easy to use,
8.       While over one third (34 percent) believe restaurant delivery is faster than picking up food themselves.

Many of you who are regular readers of this blog remember Foodservice Solutions® 65 Inch HDTV Syndrome.   Well Mintel research reveals that “dinner and a movie” is taking an untraditional spin as two in five (41 percent) consumers, including well over half (57 percent) of Millennials, say that they have restaurant food delivered so they can watch movies and TV shows at home…

Adding to the perceived convenience factor of food delivery, the leading reason restaurant delivery consumers have restaurant food delivered is so they don’t have to leave their home (56 percent).”  The team at Foodservice Solutions® maybe early to sport a new foodservice trend, but when we do you just might wat to pick up the clues we leave. 


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, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

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