Technology is ingrained into almost every facet of our lives, and the food and beverage industry is no exception. Home delivery apps are shaking up the industry globally as well as locally as the number of consumers ordering food online in Vietnam skyrockets.
To better understand the impact home delivery is having on restaurants, and whether those businesses need to offer delivery services, we teamed up yet again with Decision Lab, the boutique digital marketing research firm, to break down the data from their innovative Foodservice Monitor tool.
Time to talk numbers
Already in 2017, Vietnam has shelled out an impressive US $210 million on online food deliveries—a significantly large number. Added to that, the market is expected to show an impressive annual growth rate of 33.6% over the next four years. That equates to a total market volume of US $669 million by 2021. To give these numbers a bit of context, the global revenue accrued from online food deliveries so far in 2017 sits at US $43 billion. This suggests that Vietnam is being exposed to global developments in how we eat.
So, do restaurants need a delivery service to survive?
Clearly, the amount of people ordering food online in Vietnam is on the rise. So it would make sense that offering delivery services can increase revenue while helping restaurants to connect with a wider base of customers. Another factor to consider is that people are statistically proven to choose places to eat that are near their homes. In fact, data reports from Decision Lab show that convenience of location is the number one driver when consumers are deciding where to eat, even trumping quality, cleanliness and cost. As food delivery cancels out the question of proximity it could have huge benefits, especially for restaurants that only have one location.
To sum up, it’s safe to say that not offering online delivery won’t kill your business (for now at least), but for businesses with one location, especially if that location is inconvenient, you will most likely lose out on some serious potential profits and customer connections.
Are people ordering food online in Vietnam or calling in?
The drastic expansion of the online sector of the food and beverage industry is of course driven by the increased availability of smartphones, tablets, delivery apps and websites. As a whole, online ordering accounts for 43% of the total deliveries made. However, this means many people are still ordering via offline methods, such as making takeaway orders at the restaurant or by calling the them directly, which accounts for the remaining 57%. But remember that the present situation is dynamic—online orders are seeing significant growth, and are expected to surpass offline orders in Vietnam by 2020. This points to huge potential that is already evidenced by the US market which pulled in US $9 billion last year.
Seven of the best food delivery sites
There are plenty of sites and apps to choose from for delivery in many of Vietnam’s big cities, namely Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang. If you haven’t tried some of these, give them a go.