Why Food Delivery is Everywhere
Have you ever tried to order food online? The definition of a food delivery service is that people order their food via a mobile phone or the Internet, and the courier will pick up the order in a restaurant and deliver it to your doorstep. Take two food delivery platforms in Taiwan for example. Foodpanda, the biggest food delivery platform in Taiwan, is actually founded in Germany in 2003. It cooperates with more than 1,000 restaurants in Taiwan, which gives their customers more choices for food without going out. In addition, Uber Eats, another widely used platform for users, is founded in Canada, and its origin is Uber. With the increasing of the rises of the food delivery services and the improving of technology , more and more people want to prepare or have their three square meals in more convenient ways. In this article, we will discuss three reasons why food delivery goes viral in Taiwan.
First, during the pandemic year, more and more people don’t want to eat out or are sent into quarantines, which definitely stimulates the economy of food delivery. With the outbreak of the confirmed cases, more and more people choose to order food delivery, so as not to be exposed under the threat of the virus. According to a survey conducted by Mirai Business in 2020, the number of Foodpanda’s consumption in Taiwan was the highest in April 2020. In addition, the number of people who were in isolation or quarantine was increasing in April as well. Therefore, we could infer the growth of the food delivery economy in Taiwan is possibly related to the outbreak of coronavirus.
Next, more and more people want to use online food delivery because they do not want to spend too much time lining up for one meal especially when they are as busy as a bee. Under this circumstance, food delivery turns out to be the best choice for those who are snowed under. For businessmen who have an extremely short break during their lunchtime, they can order their meals in advance. Hence, they can have their meal without waiting for a long time or under the extremely freezing or hot weather. As for the aspect of mothers who need to take care of their new-born babies, food delivery indeed helps them a lot. These stay-at-home mothers have to juggle with countless house chores and every emergency that their babies throw on them, and thus, these services can be the best helper to those who have their hands full with everything.
The third reason for the rise of the food delivery platform is the discounts. The platforms might provide their users coupons, vouchers, or even free shipping, which is absolutely appealing to their potential customers. The essence of these preferential programs is not material itself but the consumer psychology. Consumers expect to get extra bonus or even free shipping on the Internet, and shop keepers want to promote their goods as many as they could. Thus, the food delivery platforms use the same marketing strategy to draw their consumers’ attention and to pique their potential customers’ interests. Besides, though we know the prices after a “special discount” provided on platforms are actually higher than we pay on the bricks-and mortar, people are still willing to pay! The main reason that drives the consumer’s buying behavior is they pay more attention on how many discounts they could get but not how much money they really pay, which is totally related to the consumer psychology.
As for the three reasons mentioned above, food delivery is undoubtedly beneficial to those who don’t want to eat out, who don’t want to wait in line, and who want to get the extra discount. Though the food delivery industry is a kind of outcome due to the outbreak of the pandemic, the economy created by this service is still growing and affects our daily life without a doubt. Nonetheless, for every plus there is a minus. We still don’t have complete employment regulations for food deliverymen in Taiwan currently, which might be the Achilles’ heel in such kind of economy. Thus, in my point of view, we should embrace the big change in the delivery system in this era, while on the contrary, we should not count on the platforms too much.
Sources
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