The Future of Online Food Ordering: Trends and Predictions for 2023

Thanks to the internet, ordering food online has become incredibly effortless. Many online platforms allow you to order from your favorite restaurants. You can deliver your food to your doorstep with just a click from your mobile device. This became commonplace during the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic because restaurants could not allow dine-in to prevent large gatherings.

The only convenient alternative was ordering food online, which they could do from home while maintaining a safe distance. Despite the end of the pandemic and the return to normalcy, online food ordering remains a norm you can't overlook.

In this article, we'll discuss the new emerging trends in online food ordering and what to expect in the future.

Online Food Ordering Trends In 2023

Millennials Spending More on Online Orders

Studies reveal that most consumers who order food online are millennials, with bridge millennials (born between 1980 and 1989) spending the most—an average of $32.

The bridge millennials grew up in an era when the internet was in its initial stages. They have seen the internet emerge, and the sale and purchase of products shift from brick-and-mortar to online platforms. So, they make the most of these platforms and spend more on ordering online than other generations.

Big Data Influencing Delivery Patterns

The use of big data has been instrumental in shaping the online food delivery industry. Online restaurants continuously monitor and adapt to consumers' evolving tastes and dietary preferences to enhance their services.

For example, GrubHub analyzed data such as time, location, and other factors to identify the meals that males and females preferred. The analysis revealed that both genders most commonly ordered pizza.

GrubHub used this information to provide a personalized experience to its users. Similarly, other online delivery platforms like Uber Eats, Foodpanda, and food companies using their own online platforms rely on big data to enhance their services.

Food Waste Apps Continuing Their Growth

Unfortunately, people worldwide waste about 931 million tons of food, equivalent to about 17% of the world's food supply.

However, the evolution of technology has allowed us to tackle this issue. Many mobile applications have emerged in recent years that collect wasted food from restaurants and supply them to their customers. This prevents food from getting wasted and helps reduce hunger worldwide.

Online apps designed to reduce food waste have become increasingly popular, with 14 million users in Europe alone downloading these apps last year. Some of the most popular food waste apps include Too Good To Go, Food Rescue Hero, Karma, and Imperfect Foods. These apps coordinate with restaurants by allowing them to sell their surplus food to customers at a reasonable price. Customers can then pick up the meal from the restaurant or receive it at home.

Rapid Increase In Ghost Kitchens

A ghost kitchen, also known as a dark kitchen, cloud kitchen, or virtual kitchen, is a type of restaurant that receives orders for meals online and delivers them to customers. These kitchens do not offer dine-in or walk-in services. The concept of a dark kitchen is rapidly growing, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many restaurants have begun to adopt this model.

Now, it has become very common for people to prepare meals at home and sell them online through third-party apps or even by setting up their own websites. Consumers also find it convenient to place orders through dark kitchens and avoid waiting in queues for their meals.

The number of dark kitchens is increasing very fast. In fact, China currently has the most ghost kitchens in the world at 7500, followed by India at 3500, the U.S. at 1500, and the U.K. at 750. 

Technology aside, the survey found that 78% of respondents were willing to incorporate dark kitchens into their business offerings, with only 22% still deciding whether to do so. The worldwide dark kitchen industry is currently valued at $60 billion and is expected to continue rising.

Restaurants Launching Their Own Delivery Platforms

Third-party delivery applications like DoorDash, Foodpanda, Uber Eats, and Just Eat Takeaway have been dominant players in the global food delivery market for years.

However, this dominance is slowing down as an overwhelming 64% of consumers still prefer to order food directly from restaurants. To capitalize on this, various famous restaurants and fast-food chains have launched their own online ordering platforms.

Brands like Little Caesars, KFC, Domino's Pizza, Chipotle, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Tim Hortons allow consumers to order meals directly from their websites and mobile applications, which receive millions of downloads annually. Moreover, these apps offer various points and rewards that allow customers to get discounts on placing orders, increasing app usage and customer loyalty.

Future Predictions

Wholesale Food Distribution To Occur Online

Along with food-eating consumers, wholesale food distribution companies and restaurants benefit from eCommerce.

Pepper is an online food ordering platform. This platform has streamlined the food supply chain by connecting distributors and restaurants online. Restaurants can order online from their wholesale distributors. This platform allows distributors to find new customers. Sales reps of these wholesale distribution companies can allocate their time to other tasks instead of focusing on administrative tasks. These benefits have helped Pepper to secure $16 million in funding in just two years.

It has paved the way for many distributors, restaurants, and grocery stores to embrace the digitization of the food supply chain. After Pepper's success, more online platforms for wholesale food distribution are expected to emerge.

Delivery Via Drones And Robots To Increase

Driverless food delivery via drones and robots has become a reality and is very popular. It's a cost-effective way to deliver food and groceries without hiring drivers. These machines are faster and can reach remote locations very easily.

Uber Eats has been a pioneer in online autonomous food delivery, launching its first drone in 2019. This experiment has succeeded, allowing other platforms to follow in its footsteps. An example is DoorDash, which recently began delivering food via drones in select locations such as Australia.

The online drone food delivery platform Flytrex facilitates food ordering via aviation drones to various suburbs in the U.S. Flytrex recently got approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to expand its delivery radius from one to two nautical miles. It allows Flytrex to serve up to 100,000 customers across the U.S. in cities and the countryside.

Along with drones, autonomous food delivery via robots is also on a fast track to growth. Uber Eats has partnered with ServeRobotics to initiate the delivery of groceries and meals to customers via sidewalk robots.

This trend is becoming popular among grocery stores, restaurants, and consumers. In light of these trends, experts predict that the autonomous food delivery market will grow to $51.38 billion by 2028.

Ordering From Metaverse Will Become More Common

The concept of ordering food in the metaverse is under much exploration and has a bright future. This revolutionary concept was first experimented with by Domino's Pizza in 2021. The fast food chain partnered with the online virtual world platform Decentraland for this experiment. The one-time event allowed a lucky user to buy a pizza from Domino's Pizza booth in Decentraland. The user could buy pizza with Ethereum cryptocurrency or the in-game Mana currency. And that lucky user would receive a pizza at home in real life.

Another instance is Chipotle, which recently partnered with Roblox. The first 100,000 users who successfully rolled a burrito in the Chipotle Burrito Builder would earn Burrito Bucks that they could exchange with a code to order burritos in the real world from Chipotle's online website or mobile app.

As a result of these successful experiments, multinational fast food chains like McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's have also set up virtual restaurants in the metaverse, with more restaurants following suit.

About 38% of Metaverse users prefer integrating their restaurant orders and purchases into this world—an impressive figure for a world that has yet to fully develop. Given these trends, CBS Insights expects Metaverse to become a crucial online food delivery channel by 2030.

Final Thoughts

Online food delivery platforms and eateries continually adapt to changing consumer eating trends and the evolving technology landscape. 

They strive to provide customers with a seamless food ordering experience using the latest technology and big data. You can stay ahead of the curve and take advantage of these trends by integrating your restaurant with Deliverect Restaurants, our online tool that helps improve customer service and simplify order processing.