While humanity has faced quite some significant problems like child mortality, poverty, losses due to natural disasters, and so on, the ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease [COVID-19] has become a serious problem nowadays. The coronavirus outbreak started by the end of 2019 and developed into a global pandemic by the end of Feb 2020. Besides impacting the human race, the viral disease also affected almost every sector of the worldwide market, be it travel and hospitality, retail, or even the education industry.
The restaurants, cafes, and hotels, which are also a crucial aspect of the travel and hospitality industry, suffered huge losses due to this viral outbreak. As hundreds of millions of people are strongly urged to stay at home to help limit the spread of COVID-19, the restaurant industry has been among that hit hardest and almost immediately by the pandemic. According to Statista, the restaurant industry suddenly collapsed and suffered a 100% loss by the end of the third week of March. And, this collapse not only proved harmful for the business owners alone, but it also impacted a significant fraction of the people who were totally much depended on the restaurants and hotels for satisfying their daily food needs. As several countries put a complete lockdown, the visitors and the needy people who were unable to prepare their food and who were totally dependent on the restaurants are now helpless because of the complete shutdown.
Hence, the need for a comprehensive system began to arise that could potentially solve the problems of both the common public and the people engaged in the restaurant business. Online ordering is one such system that has the potential to resolve the issues of the present time. With an online delivery system, a person can seamlessly order their food online, without even stepping out of the house. Besides benefiting the common public, it will also serve as a valuable tool for the restaurant owners and the staff that are engaged with the food business. That way, the economy of the place will certainly not decrease, and the hunger problem will also be reduced to a significant percentage. So let us learn more about the online food delivery system and how it can combat the present-day issues.
Online Food Delivery Services & Its Importance
Before digging deeper into the online food delivery services and how it can benefit the people during these hard times, let us take a look at the market trends. According to sources, the predicted market value for online food delivery systems worldwide is expected to be $122,739m in 2020. Also, the revenue of these online systems is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2024) of 7.5%, resulting in a market volume of US$164,002m by 2024. However, the chances are very high that these statistics might change due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. Statista, a leading research site, predicted the growth of online food delivery services after the outbreak of coronavirus, let’s have a look at it.
After looking at the above graph, we can clearly say that the growth of the online food delivery services rose to a much greater extent during March, i.e., during the lockdown condition. That’s majorly due to the shortage of grocery supplies and the inability of the consumers to reach out. Hence, we can say that the online delivery system is the perfect solution for present-day problems.
Which All Companies Are Offering Online Food Delivery Services
On the verge of a corona outbreak, and to help people overcome the problem of hunger, many big companies that were either serving offline food or were already into the online services have enhanced their services. Let us take a closer look at them.
1. DoorDash
DoorDash, an online delivery app, started to test their drop-off options for contactless delivery. They are soon going to roll out the contactless delivery options for the people that are either trapped in big complexes and for the visitors shortly. Moreover, they are also enabling the customers to leave instructions for drivers in the app, with a picture of the place where they want food delivery. That will surely enhance their services and will solve the food problem of a majority of the people.
2. Postmates
Postmates, a San Francisco based online delivery firm, has also introduced non-contact delivery options in its app for all 4200 US cities to solve the food problems. The company said that they are making both the customers and the fleet comfortable and are paying great attention to the sanitization while delivering the food. Three choices are being offered to the customer in the Postmates app; delivery at the door, delivery to be left at the door, or meet the customer outside.
3. McDonald’s
Many offline stores like McDonald’s and Starbucks are also now going digital to serve food to the people stuck in complexes and residential areas. They have broadened their contactless food delivery services to serve the people and solve their hunger problems. In fact, these types of services by McDonald’s and Starbucks are not only available in the USA but also in many other parts of the world, including China.
Useful Features of Online Food Delivery Service
Let us look at some features of the online food delivery system that are beneficial for both the common public and the restaurant owners.
1. Order Management
The order management facility is quite essential in streamlining various aspects of the orders. The restaurants can know what a person has ordered along with the customizations he has opted for.
2. Inventory Management
This module efficiently tracks and manages all the inventories of the restaurant with an automated inventory management system and eliminates the stock-out conditions.
3. Online Menu
It helps you to bring your business online seamlessly by offering an online menu of your restaurant via a versatile system for modifying menus and managing it according to inventory.
4. Billing
The restaurants can manage their bills more efficiently with a user-friendly billing system for generating and delivering invoices and track payments.
5. Payment Platform
This feature enables your users to pay online using the secure in-app payment method that integrates options like e-wallets and cards.
6. Coupon Codes
You can offer attractive discount coupons to your users and can provide them special discounts during specific periods to engage them efficiently.
7. Home Delivery Requests
Efficiently manage and track all the home delivery requests and serve the customers in real-time using this online feature. You can also go for contactless delivery utilizing this feature.
8. Location Search
Find the best delivery routes using GPS enabled navigation systems to ensure safe and on-time delivery of the food item.
Preventive Measures To Take Care While Online Food Delivery
As an eatery business owner, you need to consider building up an online delivery application during the hours of Covid-19 to help the residents of your area. However, one should also concentrate on the accompanying preventive measures while serving the customers. As we are, for the most part, mindful, coronavirus, being a contagious disease spread much faster through contact. That suggests an online delivery service; you need to limit human contact. At the point when an individual is requesting on the web, he/she could raise the worry about the cleanliness and hygiene of certain things. Hence, if correct preventive measures are taken, the companies can reduce and eliminate the chances of catching the disease. Also, if you are already taking all the essential precautionary measures, then it is best to inform your potential client about it. Advise them about your representatives’ without viral working philosophy. Likewise, ensure that you examine the quality costs with your potential clients to assimilate trust in them. Here we have listed down some preventive measures that one must consider before serving the food to customers.
1. Use smart technologies to know what are the trends of the present-day scenario.
2. Leverage contact-less delivery options to ensure that none of the people catches the virus while delivering the food.
3. Ensure that you have a proper inventory management system so that you eliminate stock-out conditions and can adequately serve the customers.
Final Words
At the end of this article, we can clearly say that the present-day conditions are a more significant threat to humanity. The outspread of such contagious disease has proved to be very dreadful for human survival and its existence. Hence, we need to act smartly and should follow all the necessary measures to protect ourselves and our near ones. Also, as human beings, our first duty is to protect and help people that are in problems during these hard times. Hence, the best way to do that is to leverage the technologies that are available to the human world. Online delivery services are one such robust service that can help reduce the hunger problems of the people up to a much greater extent. So think about it and make the best decisions to help humanity.
