The delivery market within the food industry has experienced an exponential amount of growth over the last couple of years. With a new Lumina Intelligence report (2022) acknowledging the use of delivery as ‘habitual to consumers’. The report also indicates that the market is forecast to grow by £0.7 billion in 2022 to a value of £13.3 billion! The use of delivery within the food industry has increased drastically due to the pandemic. With Lumina Intelligence stating that 12% of UK adults order delivery at least once per week.
It’s important to understand this new delivery phenomena, as it doesn’t seem to be disappearing anytime soon as food delivery continues to grow. It’s now more vital than ever that your food business offers delivery as well as takeaway, click and collect and sit down, marketing options for your target audience. To open up even more opportunities and return for your business.
How the pandemic has informed the delivery shift
Undoubtedly, the pandemic had a big impact on the way we use takeaway services. People could no longer go into their favourite restaurant and enjoy a sit down meal with friends and family. Before the pandemic, takeaways had always been a popular and convenient way to enjoy some good food. However, collecting your order from your local takeaway was made difficult due to Covid-19 so food businesses had to adapt, and now that the pandemic is over, consumers are still using the convenience of delivery just as much as they realise they enjoy spending more time at home.
The most important thing for food businesses was to spread the word that they now offer delivery. It’s important to remember that before this, local takeaways hadn’t opened their offering to delivery or promoted it that well, as they were making profits from eat in or collection. With these options stripped away, it became essential for businesses to communicate to customers their delivery options through strong food delivery marketing and encourage delivery sales.
Clients are reaping the benefits
We’ve worked with some of our own clients pre, during and post the pandemic who wanted to leverage on the food delivery market and we help them use food delivery marketing to their advantage to drive awareness. From ensuring that the Bay Fish and Chips, a fish and chip shop based in Scotland, had a branded app where customers could place orders online during the pandemic. Through to post-pandemic work we’ve done for clients such as Simpsons Fish and Chips and Alandas who have continued to push their delivery services, finding that it is an easy way to gain attraction and widen their demographic.
Are you marketing your food delivery service? 
Offering delivery opens up new marketing opportunities for your food business, there are multiple ways to effectively market your food delivery services:
- Using social media to promote the fact you offer delivery and keep customers informed
- Creative campaigns are a great way to incentivise orders
- Delivery captures client data and allows you to communicate with them via strategic email marketing
- Give your ordering and delivery systems a prominent place on your website.
If you have a food business and want to create or enhance your food delivery marketing get in touch with us we’d love to help market your business the right way.
