Food Delivery Apps are all the rage right now globally in the year 2022 as evidenced by the popularity of UberEats, DoorDash, PandaExpress, and GrubHub in the US and Canada. In Europe, there’s Just Eat, Deliveroo, and Foodpanda (also popular in Southern Asia). 

Our agency specializes in creating food delivery apps. Our team of experts will develop your food delivery app as per your requirements while ensuring peak app performance and excellent after sales services such as app maintenance and updates. Please contact our sales team for further information. 

Food delivery has seen excellent growth globally over the past few years. Thanks to technology and the rise of smartphone apps and their usage, customers have benefited enormously and this presents a huge business potential for the food service industry comprising of restaurants, food delivery startups & established food delivery companies. 

In addition to technology, a very big contributor that accelerated the use of food delivery apps was the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020 and the early part of 2021. People needed to eat but were in quarantine due to strict lock downs around the world. So, naturally we started using food delivery apps to have our food come to us, thus driving the growth of food delivery services. 

This growth is backed up by data as well. According to Bringg.com, a company offering cloud based food delivery logistics solutions, research done by Morgan Stanley (an American Bank) estimated growth of sales from online food delivery will be as high as US$220 Billion by the year 2023. Deutsche Bank is estimating that the online grocery space which is worth US$24 Billion will surge to US$120 Billion by 2025. 

Going forward, what is driving this growth aside from the obvious factors of technology and the post pandemic boom? The answer lies in the trends or patterns that have emerged in the recent years. 

Let us now have a look at the upcoming trends for the year 2022 that are key factors behind the tremendous growth of food delivery apps. These are; 

1. Tech Giants coming into the Food Delivery Market
2. Increased Restaurant Deliveries
3. Delivery of Online Groceries
4. Alternate Delivery Methods such as Robots or Drones
5. Virtual/Ghost Kitchens
6. Contactless Delivery
7. Food Delivery Management Software
8. Rise in Food Delivery Subscriptions

Hop in and let’s have a look at each of these! 1. Tech Giants coming into the Food Delivery Market

Back in 2017, the e-Commerce juggernaut Amazon purchased WholeFoods which is a multinational supermarket chain offering organic food items. Ubereats had previously launched in 2014, which is a online food delivery platform by the popular ride sharing company Uber. Google has also integrated food delivery services into its search, maps and Google Assistant since 2019. 

The fact that tech giants are approaching and investing into food delivery services speaks volumes about the growth of this industry, and rightly so. The beauty here is that these giants may create more commercial opportunities for small vendors that may be able to use their services as well driving revenue and growth of the overall food delivery niche. 

2. Increased Restaurant Delivery

Given the revenue potential and from the heat of competition by the rise of food delivery services and apps, restaurants are ramping up their delivery game. Major restaurant chains are now using their own delivery services or using third party food delivery management services and software to keep up with the competition to avoid loosing out on revenue. 

In the US, Chick-Fil-A began deliveries in 2019. Another popular US Chain, Panera Bread, started doing their deliveries in 2016. Established fast food players such as McDonalds, KFC and Dominos already have brilliant delivery services. 

3. Delivery of Online Groceries

The COVID-19 pandemic fueled the growth of this trend. Logically, looking back and as stated, we couldn’t go out to buy our groceries because of strict lock downs. So, naturally we started getting our groceries online and that has stuck since. It’s a simple way to get your daily groceries since you don’t need to get into your car, drive to a store, take time to buy your groceries, then bring them home and then cook them! Sounds very cumbersome, doesn’t it? 

Wholefoods, now owned by Amazon, is such an online groceries provider for many markets in the developed world. It is more than obvious to see why the use of online groceries shopping has exploded. 

4. Alternate Delivery Methods such as Robots or Drones

Tech giants and food giants alike are using new and emerging technologies to streamline the delivery experience to ensure that food gets to the customer in time. 

Amazon and Dominos Pizza have started to use drones for deliveries. Drones can fly faster at around 80 Km/h carrying a payload of 5Kg over a distance of 5Km as used by Zomato, a food distribution firm. 

DoorDash uses robots to literally deliver foods to your door – the robot carrying your food remains locked during transit time so that your food stays secure. When it arrives, it sends you a text message and the food chamber unlocks, and you can then approach the robot and retrieve your food. (Upperinc.com)

The idea behind using these technologies is to cut delivery time since traditional methods like delivering food by car takes longer due to distance, speed and traffic limitations. 

5. Virtual/Ghost/Cloud Kitchens

These are kitchens that are fully operational with a complete staff of chefs but they exist solely for food delivery services. That is, there is no dining area and you can’t visit them for a meal. They receive orders, prepare meals and pack them for deliveries, that’s it! All you need is a kitchen premises and some trained staff and you’re good to go! 

The benefits of using these kitchens are obviously much lower operational costs and higher profits in the long run. 

A European startup, Keatz, produces food for Ubereats and Deliveroo. Kitchen United provides meal for deliveries across 4 states in the USA. Both these companies have raised millions in startup funding. Ready to eat dishes in lesser time is the main driving force here. (Spdload.com) 

6. Contactless Delivery

Remember how COVID-19 taught us to maintain a distance of at least six feet to avoid infections? A further guideline was to avoid touching such as no handshakes, no hugging, and not even touching our own faces. 

So, naturally when it came to food, even though the food was well packaged, some people chose to have food left out on their doorsteps when it arrived, that is, the delivery process became completely contactless. The delivery app/service would simply notify the customer that their food has arrived and they’d pick it up. 

Some people still prefer it this way and food delivery services have kept this option for the wary customer. GrubHub, Ubereats and Foodpanda have maintained this. 

7. Food Delivery Management Software

With the rise of food delivery apps and services, and to help scale these to larger levels such as very large populations, software to manage and monitor food delivery services has also seen a rise. 

Companies such as Shipox, provide data driven food delivery services such as automation of the delivery process. 

McDonald’s spent US$300 Million to acquire a big data firm in 2019 in order to measure, analyze delivery data, and improve their performance just so that they could stay ahead of their competition. (Bringg.com)

In short, using food delivery management software can help your startup or big company to efficiently streamline the entire food delivery process and gain feedback/insights to improve future performance. 

8. Rise in Food Delivery Subscriptions

One word can describe this factor, Millennials. The Millennial Generation (people born in between 1980s and 2000s) prefer more of a fresh approach when it comes to food and are more inclined to staying in and having a personal dining experience rather than taking the time to go out. This trend has also been observed by the alcohol industry as Millenials prefer more of a craft beer as opposed to something readily available to the masses. 

Online ordering and food deliveries are a perfect match for such users. Food companies now provide fresh pre-packaged food in a box containing raw or semi-raw ingredients for, say, an entire recipe. All the consumer has to do is order the box, and then proceed to open it and enjoy preparing their meals. 

The idea here is that this saves the customer a lot of time as opposed to going out and buying all the ingredients separately & individually. According to the US Food Information Council, 55% of Millennials prioritize convenience over taste. Adding to this trend is the rise of more health aware consumers that give preference to vegan, organic, gluten-free and ethically sourced foods. (Bringg.com)

Conclusion – Food Delivery Apps: Trends of 2022

The rest of the coming year 2022 seems like a very exciting time for the Food Delivery App Industry. Future insights are showing a very bright, positive and progressive period where growth should be guaranteed for this niche since the trends in this article are providing a handsome outlook. 

The main challenges will lie with increasing customer demand, complex logistical challenges, geographic and consumer preferences, and ensuring timely, transparent delivery. 

Which food delivery app have you used recently to satisfy your food cravings? Do you have a favorite food delivery app? Let us know in the comments section.