Digital Ordering Trends: Customers are eating whatever they want, whenever they want

It isn’t news anymore that digital ordering is growing at an accelerated pace with more and more people around the world ordering food online with a few simple swipes on their smartphone apps. This shift has not just led to a substantial demand in online food ordering, but also initiated a major shift in the eating patterns of the tech-savvy generation.

Fast-casual and QSRs may see the most traffic at specific times of day, but breakfast, lunch and dinner times are no longer as defined as they once were. People are eating all sorts of food, at all times of the day.

It has been observed that 92 percent of working millennials indulge into regular snacking between traditional dayparts and are pretty flexible about what a meal should be and when it should be eaten. In a sense that lunch items are no longer just reserved for afternoons. You can easily find the generation of “creators” indulging into a full course steak during a.m hours and a boiled egg sandwich for dinner. Such simple generational changes have led to an increase in sales of restaurants and fast food eateries that straddle the lines between breakfast and lunch.

They are ordering more, all day long, mostly Online!

Morning Ninjas

Seattle, Washington DC, Monday morning: After an active morning, Cody Surge uses his smartphone to order Avocado Sandwiches, Pancakes and Black Coffee for himself and his wife. The restaurant’s mobile ordering app that he uses to place the order flashes an offer to buy stuffed garlic bread for just $2. Cody uses this offer to place the order. A couple with individual professional lives, repeat this pattern almost two-three times a week so they can spend a few pleasant mornings together without having to rush into preparing breakfasts and lunch.

Afternoon Fix

Post lunchtime, somewhere in Los Angeles, Kate is busy finishing up the presentation that she must submit before she leaves for home. Even though she had a hearty lunch with her friends at the office cafeteria, she decides to order a glass of smoothie to amp up her energy just before the presentation. The food ordering app on her phone gives her a dozen of choices of fast-casual restaurants that serve healthy smoothies all day long.

Evening Indulgences

After a long evening stroll, in Pasadena, California, Stephen and his friends decide to indulge in an appetizing Mexican meal from their favorite restaurant nearby. They open the restaurant’s website on their smartphone and order three big Mexican rice bowls with some tacos and quesadillas to go along with. At the same time, a few miles away, a group of students orders organic-salad using the same app. They use customer feedback to guide their selections.

Night Time Warriors

It’s 1.30 a.m in Boston and Jack is craving for some delicious Tacos. What’s better than ordering from the king of Tacos itself? The fast-food chain, Taco Bells, has recently introduced the after-dark program to target late-night peaks and Jack is one of their regulars. He simply opens the food ordering app on this phone, selects his favorite from the digital menu and checks out conveniently. Known to foster a culture of speed and maximum satisfaction, Taco Bells delivers the order in less than 30 minutes.

The Observation: One day, four people (and some friends), four different types of meals at four different times of the day — all selected and ordered online. All these characters are fictional, but their food ordering habits are real — and practiced by a large section of Millenials every day.

In the same study, we also concluded that no one really cared about the time or the type of meal they were ordering. The focus was more on what they’d like to eat or drink, rather than what they “should” be eating at specific times of the day. Plus, no one is really calculating if their desire to indulge at erratic hours of the day would affect their appetite for dayparts.

This change in the pattern is mostly due to the easy access to food ordering apps and the fact that the delivery has improved a lot in terms of presentation and turnaround time.

Be Online!

As a restaurant owner, being online is the only way to go when it comes down to making the most of this “cash-cow opportunity”. Having a strong online presence with the facility of the online ordering via website and/or mobile app is the only way to skyrocket your chances of boosting sales and increasing revenues.

Digital ordering and delivery are redefining how consumers order food. Since more and more people are choosing to work from home, the trend of ordering-in has seen tremendous growth in the last decade and is expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years. Restaurants that provide their customers the flexibility to order round the clock are the ones enjoying the larger slice of the pie, and those who are still contemplating whether to integrate digital ordering or not, are making significant losses every day and pushing their business towards failure.

Let’s take a look at some first-mover facts that prove that pursuing digital ordering is the ONLY way to survive in the industry:

Demand is Increasing!

People have moved on from ordering offline to ordering online because it is easy, convenient and transparent. Whether on a break, driving, or riding the bus, anyone and everyone can place an order quickly, round the clock and get food delivered at their chosen place, even before reaching the destination.

Millennium and Generation Z are more attracted to order in from restaurants and eating in fast-casual or quick-serve restaurants. As a case in point, online ordering remains one of the biggest categories in the crowded fast-food and QSRs industry, driving more than three million orders each month. The main difference between online and offline sales is that online orders are bigger and higher. For example, when a customer orders a pizza over the phone, he or she may just ask the restaurant to bring one XL pizza and a coke. But when the same person orders online, he/she can see the whole menu, as well as customization options. All of a sudden, people end up ordering things that they don’t normally think about over the phone.

All of these add up to more business and more revenue. Online ordering changes your business for the better.

The restaurant brands that are pursuing digital and confronting bottom-line benefits. It has been observed that restaurant that used digital as a growth strategy had seen on average, 5–15% annual growth, while those that didn’t have seen only 1–2% annual growth over the same period.

Faster growth is one big reason why a significant number of brands are getting into the digital game. On the other hand, the rising speed and falling costs of technology have enabled small brands, including food trucks to increase their bottom line. Across the value chain, third party digital ordering platforms are putting the latest innovations into the hands of businesses that may lack the ability to make large investments. Innovative online ordering platforms for restaurants provide white-label solutions for brands to attract and retain digital-savvy millennials and Generation Zers.

Conclusion

The changing urban lifestyle of an average American has dramatically favored the quick home delivery models to grow at higher rates. With Online ordering and delivery in their arsenal, restaurants are thinking more fluidly. Instead of segmenting their offerings into dayparts, they are thinking all-day menus and creative night time meals. Customers are ordering round the clock, and restaurant owners are taking advantage of this huge potential packing away the biggest share of the online food service pie.