Traditional Restaurant and Grocery Industries Now Seeing Competition From On-Demand Services

July 26th, 2016 by Fiedler Group

In a marketplace that has seen disruption with on-demand private car service and mobile ordering via apps, it’s not surprising to see a host of new foodservice companies now offering non-traditional meal-delivery services.

Traditional restaurant storefronts are now seeing competition from companies offering already-prepared meals as well as ready-to-cook meal kits.

The coupling of smartphone push-for-convenience and consumers’ desire to eat healthier foods is in part responsible for the uprising of these new company product offerings.

And due to the convenience offered by these companies, consumers are no longer relegated to eating a healthy meal in their homes — wherever they are, delivery services now bring healthy meals to them.

In a cyclical environment where traditional bookstores fell to eReaders and digital book providers only to see those same digital book providers then open their own brick and mortar book storefronts, experts are now considering what the impact of meal-delivery services on the restaurant and grocery industries.

Samir Bhavani, vice president at 1010data, believes traditional restauranteurs should now consider offering some form of delivery serivce — whether executed in-house or through a 3rd party partnership.

This is a difficult extension for some restaurants who simply want to focus on making great food, rather than the delivery of it.

The same type of disruption is now hitting the grocery industry, where companies like Blue Apron mail subscribers fresh ingredient meal kits — effectively reducing shopping times, equating to greater convenience.

Yet, despite the sexiness of new delivery services, the reality is that the business segment is still comparably, quite low — delivery accounted for 1.7 billion of 61 billion total restaurant visits last year.

So while the current figures for the new concept are low, its adoption rate is higher than other avenues — total restaurant traffic grew 1 percent while delivery traffic grew 9 percent.

To learn more about Fiedler Group’s expertise in the food service industry, please contact us today!