Off-premises business Restaurant delivery speeds into a new evolutionary chapter By Rick Zambrano
The current pandemic has infused momentum into restaurant delivery. At the beginning of the pandemic, 32 percent of consumers indicated that they had ordered delivery at least once per week. More recently, 73 percent of consumers had ordered restaurant delivery in the immediate past week and 27 percent had ordered thirdparty delivery in the same timeframe. These insights from a Technomic webinar and the firm’s COVID-19 updates shed light on a tremendous appetite for delivery, as Americans seek out safety and abide by CDC and state recommendations keeping them at home. Restaurants are differentiated by convenience or the experiential, suggests Technomic’s David Henkes, Senior Principal, Advisory Group. He points to the success of many
casual-dining operators during the pandemic as an indicator of how valuable off-premises business is to restaurants. “Going forward, the importance of having an off-premises strategy is vital.” “Technology is a pure enabler of online ordering,” Henkes adds. At the same time that consumers’ technology adoption is increasing, so too is their desire for the convenience of delivery. In a Technomic webinar, “Off-Premise Shift,” conducted by Principal Melissa Wilson, she outlined a “dual-demand” environment in which restaurants will be operating, as consumers are expected to continue using multiple formats of off-premises foodservice: drive-thru, delivery, pickup, and curbside pickup.
