In today’s ‘need it now’ economy, perhaps it’s not surprising that Australia is turning into a nation with a low tolerance for waiting, particularly when it comes to food.
Digital ordering, defined as any order placed through the internet, a website or mobile app, now represents 177 million visits and a 31 per cent change versus a year ago, according to the latest CREST trends report released by global research company, The NPD Group.
A lot of pressure is placed on the foodservice industry to meet consumer needs, and zero waiting times is one of the more recent requirements as we shift towards digitalisation within the foodservice industry, says Gimantha Jayasinghe, Deputy Managing Director, APAC, at The NPD Group.
Mobile app ordering big winner
Unsurprisingly, with the increasing mobile lifestyle of Australian consumers, mobile app ordering (37 per cent traffic share of digital orders) has become more popular than website ordering (34 per cent).
Mobile app ordering is proving a big winner with consumers. Thirty-seven million foodservice orders are now placed via this method.
With all roads pointing to customer satisfaction, it comes as no surprise that tech-savvy customers are effectively dictating the success of modern foodservice venues.
Simple reorder option benefit
Mr Jayasinghe continued, “Not only is this area growing at a phenomenal pace but also it’s providing the highest consumer satisfaction in terms of speed of service. In addition to cutting out the waiting time, a lot of mobile apps allow simple reorder options, which speeds up the process even more.”
Predictably it is millennials (45 per cent) that are driving this pre-ordering trend, followed by the 35-49 age group (25 per cent) and under 18s (23 per cent).
Major QSR chains that have invested in their own mobile apps for pre-ordering have experienced significant traffic gains over the past year, with the category growing 49 per cent compared to last year. In addition to the main QSR giants, the pre-ordering of coffee for pick-up in-store is a segment to watch.
Consumers that live in metropolitan areas account for most mobile pre-ordering visits (88 per cent) in contrast to rural areas (12 per cent) and men use mobile pre-ordering (64 per cent of visits) more than women (36 per cent).
More than two-thirds of digital consumers (69 per cent) report ordering directly from the eating place, broken down into app/website ordering (42 per cent) and kiosk ordering (27 per cent). Self-serve kiosks, which are relatively new to the industry, have managed to capture two per cent of the foodservice traffic already.
“Mobile pre-ordering is really increasing as working consumers grab coffee on the way to work or drop into a restaurant to quickly pick up dinner for their family on the way home,” Mr Jayasinghe said.
“To stay ahead of the curve and to ensure customer satisfaction, foodservice providers need to consider mobile apps if they haven’t already.”
