Who Will Drive Restaurant Meal Deliver Too the Next Level?

Thirsty, hungry and you don’t want to cook.  Since 1999 when our own Grocerant Guru™ signed the first 7 national on-line ordering accounts in the U.S. restaurant sector for Cybermeals / Food.com your favorite restaurant meals have been as easy as Point, Click, and Eat.

Today, mobile menus, mobile ordering, mobile payments, are common place within the restaurant sector, convenience store sector and expanding fast into the grocery sector according to the team at Foodservice Solutions®.  

Companies the ilk of Taco Bell, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King and Starbucks are this year delivering, testing or expanding mobile ordering, mobile payments, or delivery.  Each is creating an integrated brand message and marketing platform to engage customers at home, work, or simply while just out and about.

The landscape in fresh prepared food delivery is evolving fast.  Amazon has been looking at home delivery for some time in the grocery category. Now it’s going head-to-head with ride sharing monster Uber for a stake of the restaurant delivery category.

Uber is testing its solution in LA while Amazon has used Seattle once again for a test of home restaurant delivery as it did for grocery delivery. Both companies may be on to something according to a study by funded grocery broker Acosta Sales & Marketing that found “ within a recent 30 day period:

• 86% of diners ate at a restaurant
• 71% ordered food for pick-up or carry out, or ordered from a drive-thru
• 66% brought home prepared foods from a grocery store
• 48% ordered restaurant food for delivery

Unlike with its other products, restaurant delivery by Amazon is fulfilled by the nearly 150 eateries signed up for the service. Amazon merely takes the order and takes a small transaction fee for its trouble. That might not seem like much of a service, but the key here is loyal customers. According to this article, “Amazon visitors each month spend 88% more money online than the average Internet user and make over $22bn in offline purchases.”

That’s a pretty nice customer pool to fish in.  Amazon recently received approval to test the use commercial drones for delivery, from the FAA, who knows what the future holds? Most experts say we’re quite a ways away from restaurant meal or grocery delivery from a drone. Are you looking a customer ahead?

Uber on the other hand collects a $3 fee from restaurant customers who can order from a list of establishments in the tony West LA, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood neighborhoods. The service, called uberFRESH, promises food within “in about 10 minutes” (vs. what they claim is 45 minutes ordering from the restaurant directly). Unlike with the Amazon model, consumers can order only a single dish and must meet the driver at curbside instead of door-to-door.

Since 1991 retail food consultancy Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Foodservice Solutions® Would you like a Grocerant Scorecard? Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant, twitter.com/grocerant or Facebook