Food delivery business - growing and growing

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Gaybutton
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Food delivery business - growing and growing

Post by Gaybutton »

I often use the food delivery services myself. Some of my favorite restaurants are far from where I live or in locations where it is difficult to find a nearby parking spot or the weather is bad or I simply don't feel like going out to eat and don't feel like cooking at home. Some restaurants have their own delivery service. I have not used Grab yet, but I have used Line Man and am very satisfied with it. Once you register it has your location and telephone number. When I have ordered through Line Man, the app tells me approximately how many minutes my order will arrive. There is a map, similar to Google Maps, that shows the restaurant location, your location, and the delivery driver's location, so you can easily follow the progress and will know exactly when the driver will arrive.

There are options to pay the driver by cash or order with a credit or debit card and just give the driver a tip if you so choose.

It seems to be an up and coming industry and I'm seeing more and more delivery drivers every day. I suppose the only people who dislike this are waiters in restaurants. If you don't go to the restaurant, the waiters don't get a tip.
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GrabFood in biggest-ever marketing push

by Suchit Leesa-nguansuk

26 Aug 2020

GrabFood will deploy its biggest-ever marketing budget this year to retain its customer base, boost food orders and draw new users as key rivals receive strong financial support and realign their business strategies.

The marketing splurge reflects intensifying competition in the third quarter.

"Grab sees the potential of the food ordering business in Thailand, which continues to grow as the pandemic has changed people's behaviour to use such services, while mobile internet penetration has reached 80%," said Chantsuda Thananitayaudom, marketing head of Grab Thailand.

There is still room to grow in the food ordering market, valued at 35 billion baht, when compared with e-commerce, estimated at 300 billion baht.

During the lockdown from March to May, GrabFood gained new users with orders surging by three times from the pre-pandemic period.

GrabFood covers 35 cities with three cloud kitchens. The service has a plan to expand with an additional two or three cloud kitchens soon.

Grab has 80,000 restaurant partners and 100,000 driver partners.

According to Ms Chantsuda, Grab's revenue from ride-hailing service was on a par with food ordering service in 2019. But this year the pandemic has depressed ride-hailing service by 90%, while the usage of food ordering and parcel delivery has risen.

To boost GrabFood services, Grab is investing the largest amount of marketing budget this year in a new campaign, Free Your Hunger, from Aug 24 to Oct 4.

The campaign offers a wide selection that comes with 100 signature dishes from 75 restaurants. It also offers free delivery service in a radius of three kilometres and 50% discounts through 30,000 deals.

The campaign is intended to double GrabFood customer numbers and sales by restaurant partners.

Ms Chantsuda said food ordering remains unprofitable but continues to grow, and more customers are needed.

"Most of the GrabFood users are 20-39, and we aim to attract office workers and university students to our platform," she said.

Referring to competition in the segment, Ms Chantsuda said GrabFood attempts to achieve a balance among stakeholders in the platform, including the platform itself, drivers, restaurants and consumers, while rivals may try to put the burden on customers.

"We retain the gross profit sharing fee [commission fee] of 15-30% collected from restaurant partners," she said.

GrabFood reduced incentive payment for GrabFood drivers in 27 provinces, excluding Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani, to maintain cash flow. But the base fare for drivers is not changing.

Key rival Line Man recently merged with restaurant review platform Wongnai. Line Man is in the process of reorganising and has yet to launch a major campaign.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/19 ... eting-push
Daleinpattaya
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Re: Food delivery business - growing and growing

Post by Daleinpattaya »

I am wondering if all these services require that one have a smart phone .... like iPhone .... I only have the old fashioned Samsung cell phone .... naturally with no internet connection.
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Re: Food delivery business - growing and growing

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Daleinpattaya wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 12:11 pm I am wondering if all these services require that one have a smart phone .... like iPhone .... I only have the old fashioned Samsung cell phone .... naturally with no internet connection.
The short answer is yes, although several restaurants and fast foods such as KFC also have online ordering or calling in orders verbally over the phone.

The days of telephones being solely for the purpose of talking to someone are long gone. To me, sticking with an old fashioned cell phone is like sticking with a manual typewriter rather than a word processor.

There are plenty of perfectly adequate inexpensive smartphones available these days. I suggest getting one, learning how to use it, and sending the cell phone to either the Smithsonian or the British Museum . . .
traveller123

Re: Food delivery business - growing and growing

Post by traveller123 »

Daleinpattaya wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 12:11 pm I am wondering if all these services require that one have a smart phone .... like iPhone .... I only have the old fashioned Samsung cell phone .... naturally with no internet connection.

+1 I fear that I am not going to be able to resist for much longer.
The cell phone fits easily in my shirt pockets the smart phones look too big to do this.
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Re: Food delivery business - growing and growing

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traveller123 wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 5:08 pm The cell phone fits easily in my shirt pockets the smart phones look too big to do this.
Well, I guess you'll need bigger pockets . . .

But let's stick to food delivery. If we need to start discussing phones, let's please start a new topic.
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Re: Food delivery business - growing and growing

Post by ceejay »

There have been some strange effects arising from the lockdown. I was recently at Kellys's, a once popular fish and chip shop in Ruam Chok Plaza (Chiang Mai, on the border between Muang District and Sansai). The owner was telling me that, during the lockdown, they were doing quite well through Grab and Food Panda but, since they have been able to re-open as a restaurant, their business has fallen off a cliff. Very few customers eating in, and the online business has largely evaporated. I struggle to think of an explanation for that.

Others took advantage of the opportunity. Pern's, a well know gay owned Chiang Mai restaurant, had already announced closure when the lockdown began. They re-opened as an online only business and, by all accounts, did well. Now the lockdown has ended, the closure really has become permanent. They have been selling off and/or moving out their equipment.
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Re: Food delivery business - growing and growing

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ceejay wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 1:16 pm Very few customers eating in, and the online business has largely evaporated. I struggle to think of an explanation for that.
he only thing I can think of to explain it would be during the lockdown only a few restaurants were open for take-away and/or delivery. Once the lockdown ended, now there were many more restaurants open to choose from.

Meanwhile, the food delivery business in Pattaya seems to be doing very well. Why that business would be doing well in Pattaya, but not in Chiang Mai - I have no idea.
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Re: Food delivery business - growing and growing

Post by ceejay »

An update. I went to Kelly's today and they were doing much better. The place was full (admittedly it is small). It just seems to have taken a while for their business to start to recover.
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Re: Food delivery business - growing and growing

Post by catawampuscat »

we ordered from Grab today from Family Mart. There’s a 100b. discount if you spend 200 or 250baht. and a 1 baht delivery charge.
You can even order condoms and lube from Family Mart.
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