In the previous decade, food delivery has become a very competitive industry. The key aspect driving this massive market is the busy and fast life of people worldwide. Furthermore, the recent COVID-19 outbreak has increased people's reliance on online food delivery platforms. Moreover, various food delivery platforms such as Ubereats, Doordash, Swiggy, and others are developing new trends to shape the industry. But what does the industry's future hold in 2022? Watch out for these emerging tech trends that food delivery needs to adopt in 2022:
For those who are unable to provide in-house ordering and delivery services, third-party food delivery apps like UberEats, Door Dash, or Foodpanda, will continue to be an important solution. However, given that many customers prefer to order directly from restaurants, we can expect to see restaurants to follow the trend of major fast-food chains in investing and building their own apps and integrated online platforms. Despite the 'distance,' this digital proximity enables restaurants to stay connected with their customers.
- Ghost kitchen
Call them ghost kitchens, virtual kitchens, or dark kitchens, but these operating spaces are changing the game. These mystery kitchens are commercial kitchens that don't serve meals to diners but allowing restaurants to focus on what they do best: preparing food swiftly and effectively. Since delivery demand is gradually increasing, bolstering the notion that ghost kitchens are a cost-effective operation, gives these cooking facilities an advantage over traditional restaurants. Due to lower rent and labour expenses, the return on investment for ghost kitchens is usually higher, resulting in a low risk and high reward situation. This imply that these specialized kitchen help restaurants to meet delivery orders faster while also expanding their delivery options.
- Hyperlocal Food Delivery
Hyperlocal food deliveries are those that come from a local restaurant and are delivered within a neighborhood, such as a specific block in a city. However, hyperlocal deliveries can get difficult owing to the pace at which they need to be executed and scale. But by using sophisticated hyperlocal food delivery solutions businesses can improve their delivery turnaround times and create quick routes that drive multiple pickups and drops. These further increases their delivery profitability and customer satisfaction.
- In-house delivery
By integrating delivery services into their POS (point-of-sale) systems, restaurants have more control over the customer experience. This leads to higher customer satisfaction. And with so many restaurants seeing the advantages of in-house delivery, we expect this trend to gain traction in the coming months.
- Contactless ordering for ceaseless success
Keeping the safety of customers and delivery personnel in mind, food outlets are embracing innovative food delivery platforms to drive seamless contactless deliveries. Here the delivery executives use modern food delivery platforms to offer customers a picture of their order being put outside the door. The customer receives their order and pays via secure digital payment networks.
- Food Delivery through Crowdsourcing
Online food delivery demands tend to be unpredictable and severe. As a result, managing delivery executives and devising methods that boost delivery profitability becomes tough. Therefore, food outlets can use crowdsourcing to outsource deliveries to temporary and part-time delivery executives based on cost, productivity, and proximity to customers. Crowdsourcing is progressively gaining traction as a cost-effective and scalable delivery method.
- Drone-delivered packages
Online Food delivery by drones is one of the coolest technologies as via drone you can make a larger number of deliveries in less time. Furthermore, it reduces the inconvenience of being stuck in severe traffic.
In addition, you can add several more features to the drone to enhance it, such as a payment system, an insulated compartment, voice controls, and so forth. Drone-delivered food has the potential to minimize delivery costs by reducing manual intervention and reducing fuel use. Regarding this food delivery trend, it can help your brand expand faster.
Technologies is continuing to impact the food delivery sector, whether it's supercharging your point-of-sale with integrated technology or increasing artificial intelligence on food delivery platforms. Adapting and adopting emerging technologies can help restaurants keep ahead of the competition. Hence a comprehensive food delivery platform is required to ensure that businesses get the most out of this type of food service. For this you can reach out to mobile app development companies that provide cost-effective yet good mobile app services.