The food service industry is rapidly catching up with today’s smartphone culture by creating apps in order to enhance their consumers’ experience. Online purchasing has been a staple of the food service industry for years, especially for businesses that specifically rely upon home delivery. More recently, the advent of third party delivery services has opened up an entirely new business niche. By specializing in providing a delivery service from venues which otherwise don’t, companies like Deliveroo are rapidly gaining popularity and expanding to multiple countries. While the modern day food delivery industry is mainly based in online platforms, the use of smartphone apps can truly give a company its competitive edge, allowing it to reach more customers and retain its existing consumer base in an increasingly competitive environment.
Existing companies within the food service industry have long been taking advantage of apps as a business platform. These have resulted in wild success for well-known organisations, like a Starbucks, which rolled out theirs in 2011. The platform rapidly began to produce results, and transactions done via the app’s instant payment capability accounted for approximately 21% of the company’s revenue by 2016. The app also offers such features as a rewards program and in-app ordering, which add extra levels of convenience and benefit to the customer. While Starbucks is hardly a small startup, their app’s success is an excellent example of how the platform can not only boost revenues, but also enhance the consumer’s experience and become an integral part of its business model.
Third party delivery services have also begun to make use of smartphone technology. A niche unto itself within the food industry, third party services are rapidly becoming widely recognized and expanding throughout multiple countries and regions. Based in the UK, Deliveroo has expanded its business to various countries and also provides employment for potential deliverers in the same vein as ride services like Uber or Lyft. The main attraction of Deliveroo’s app lies in its basic services. It displays a wide selection of menus from local restaurants, so all the customer has to do is select their meal, pay, and wait for delivery. However, it’s the app’s extra features that can give a company their competitive edge within this rapidly expanding business. Not only can you order directly from your smartphone, Deliveroo also allows you to track your delivery’s progress on a map and receive notifications on its status. While these may seem like small additions, it’s additional features like these that makes an app better than the next competitor’s, and that can not only keep the interest of existing customers but also expand a company’s consumer base.
In today’s smartphone society, which often ends up focusing on instant gratification, ability to access a service directly from your smartphone is extremely convenient. Using apps to easily connect to the consumer adds an extra level of accessibility and convenience, and many companies have benefited from the results. What started as a small niche industry is rapidly becoming a booming business, and third party delivery services need to capitalize on features like smartphone apps in order to capitalize on a growing market. While this may at first seem like a simple matter of convenience, with the right additions it can easily become a significant advantage over the competition.
