Today’s modern connected consumers hold the power to summon virtually anything with just their phones — whether it’s clothing, furniture, a ride or even a Christmas tree. And when it comes to food in particular, the expectation to have their favorite dine-in meals delivered directly to their door is now more demanding than ever.
According to a 2017 survey by Morgan Stanley, 43% of consumers who ordered food for delivery say that it replaced a meal at a restaurant. Delivery sales are expected to reach $220 billion in 2020. Online orders took a bigger share of the delivery market compared to phone orders. And 18% of orders placed online were through a delivery service website or app.
On the consumer side, third-party platform-to-consumer delivery apps are undoubtedly a win-win — they can order from a wide range of restaurants in just a few clicks and swipes on their phone, pay for their food online and have it delivered directly to them. But how are these apps affecting the restaurants that use them for their business? Here a few ways third-party delivery apps are impacting restaurants.
Increases Reach
By utilizing a third-party app for their delivery service, restaurants have the opportunity to connect with a wide range of customers. Third-party delivery apps can offer restaurants a high level of reach. Using Uber Eats as an example, more than 1.5 million users have downloaded the app on iOS and over 2 million have downloaded it on Android. Although numbers like these don’t predict the precise amount of reach a restaurant will actually achieve as it’s dependent on location, it does showcase how many people use apps like these to place a restaurant order.
Offers the Opportunity to Build Long-Term Customer Relationships
A report from Mintel revealed that 31% of Americans use third-party delivery services at least twice a week. This can give restaurants the ability to build long-term relationships with customers who may end up ordering from them on a regular basis.
Grows Sales
With the opportunity to reach more customers and serve them more regularly, working with third-party delivery apps can potentially lead to an increase in revenue. According to an article published in Nation’s Restaurant News, third-party delivery service has been found to raise restaurant sales volume by 10% to 20%.
The increasing demand for delivery and popularity of third-party delivery apps means that any restaurant should look closely at working with these providers. They offer a significant amount of customer reach and the opportunity to create regular customers, which at the end of the day, can mean more sales for restaurants. And with third-party delivery apps forecast to hit 44 million U.S. users in 2020 and 60 million by 2023, there’s no better time than now for restaurants to capitalize on this market.
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