How KSA’s Weather Drives the Rise of Food Delivery

How KSA’s Weather Drives the Rise of Food Delivery

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) boasts a vibrant culinary scene, but its summers pose a unique challenge for both restaurants and diners. Soaring temperatures often lead to a shift in consumer behavior, with a significant rise in the use of food delivery services. Let’s explore how KSA’s weather patterns influence the food delivery industry:

The Unrelenting Sun:

  • Heat as a Deterrent: KSA experiences scorching summers with temperatures routinely exceeding 40°C (104°F). This extreme heat discourages people from venturing out for dine-in experiences, particularly during peak lunch and dinner hours. Air-conditioned comfort at home becomes a major draw, leading to a surge in demand for food delivery services.
  • Seasonal Shift in Preferences: As temperatures rise, KSA residents often gravitate towards lighter, cooler dishes. Food delivery platforms cater to this seasonal shift by featuring summer-friendly menus with refreshing salads, cold mezze selections, and chilled desserts. Restaurants can leverage this trend by offering delivery-exclusive summer menus to entice customers.

The Convenience Factor:

  • Time Saved, Cravings Satisfied: With the heat limiting outdoor activities, food delivery services offer a convenient solution. Customers can browse menus, place orders, and enjoy their favorite restaurant meals from the comfort of their air-conditioned homes, saving valuable time and avoiding the hassle of battling the heat.
  • Expanding Reach and Accessibility: Delivery platforms bridge the gap between restaurants and a wider customer base. With scorching temperatures restricting movement, restaurants can expand their reach by partnering with delivery services. This allows them to cater to customers in neighborhoods further away, potentially increasing their overall sales.

Conclusion:

KSA’s summers present a unique opportunity for the food delivery industry. Understanding how weather patterns influence customer behavior allows restaurants to adapt their strategies and leverage delivery platforms to expand their reach and boost sales. As technology continues to evolve and personalize the experience, the future of food delivery in KSA promises exciting possibilities for both restaurants and customers alike.

How Delivery Helps Restaurant Chains Grow

Many restaurants finally took a step that should have been taken a few years ago. Their reluctance was overcome by the sudden need to expand their food delivery system due to the Corona pandemic. Hence, third-party delivery came on the scene.

Some of the biggest restaurant chains were skeptical about the move – even knowing it was going to happen eventually, but seeing smaller chains embracing a third-party delivery in their food delivery management system – at first, everyone was observing from afar.

Numbers Speak Louder Than Words

A real-life example, among many restaurants, is Carrols. Before Carrols launched its third-party food delivery system, the average check was $9 to $10. Now, the average check on delivery orders is $17. 

Another example is Del Taco. The current sales of its third-party food delivery system represent 6.3% of the chain’s overall sales compared to 2.2% the year before.

The Trend Will Continue

Many restaurant executives – during the Investor Conference in the USA – said that a third-party food delivery system had been vital for increasing their sales during the pandemic. They added that food delivery services has become necessary and that the trend is expected to permanently continue in the future as it leads to effective sales.  

The Challenges 

Growing any business has its challenges. With restaurant chains, the associated fees and commissions coming with a third-party ordering and food delivery system cost restaurants 30% per order. To help overcome this problem many restaurants choose to make use of the delivery systems through their own online ordering channels such as restaurant websites and apps. 

Pick-up & Takeaway Channels

For many restaurants, a third-party food delivery system remains among the lower-margin channels with pick-up and take away channels being the lowest in cost. This is why you find many restaurant chains playing both sides which in turn require a reliable online takeaway ordering system and a solid third-party food delivery system. 

Building and growing your own online takeaway ordering system is more difficult to do but is profitable in the long run. As you launch an online takeaway ordering system, you allow customers the opportunity to choose between food delivery and pick-up and takeaway options, thus reducing the pressure on your food delivery system.

The New Customers

One of the benefits of the online takeaway ordering system and the third-party food delivery system is bringing people into your brand and keeping them coming back. Data shows that – before the pandemic- 90% of first-time customers who had been offered a free delivery promotion ordered again.

Some restaurant chains find free-delivery to be worth it only for high-value orders. Many of those set a minimum purchase amount. This way, the free delivery expense is partially covered. 

Get your food delivery platform from Taker Go and increase your restaurant’s sales.  

TAKER Augments Its Proprietary Technology Platform and Launches TakerGo

Taker Go enables restaurants with or without a delivery fleets to expedite orders with an advanced on-demand delivery solution.

Saudi Arabia: 15 August 2020: Taker, a leading Saudi-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup that provides an online ordering management platform for restaurants, has enhanced its product capabilities and launched, TakerGo and advanced service that connects restaurants to on-demand delivery companies to expedite delivery of orders efficiently and swiftly.

TakerGo is an innovative service that helps solve a very complex logistical problem for restaurants with or without delivery fleets. A major challenge that prevents restaurants from growing online is delivering orders on time to their clients. TakerGo helps in solving this huge problem by partnering with different delivery companies such as Careem. All taker clients can benefit from this service; since it is a great solution for restaurants that don’t have a delivery fleet or those who do have their own delivery fleet but fail to meet the demand during peak hours. Utilizing TakerGo can reduce the average delivery time to 21 minutes per order. 

Abdullah Alsaadi, CEO at Taker said: “Our strategy, at Taker, is to regularly enhance our product by offering solutions to help our clients manage and grow their online sales. Many restaurants restrict their online orders due to the challenges they face when delivering orders. To bridge this gap, we decided to invest in TakerGo. Our new service will help us continue our growth and attract a new segment of offline restaurants who are still hesitant to go online, as well as solve a huge pain point for those without delivery services. TakerGo allows restaurants to accept any number of orders without worrying about delivery capacity which helps them gain back control over their businesses from aggregators.”

 Commenting on the announcement, Ahmed AlJabreen, Venture Capitalist, 500 Startups said: “We are proud to support Taker. Their hard work, commitment and dedication to improve their platform capabilities and offer significant solutions to help their clients is noteworthy. The launch of TakerGo is a proof of their understanding of the challenges that face their clients and their continuous work to provide solutions that further support them.” 

Taker is at the forefront of revolutionizing the online Food & Beverage (F&B) industry, a category that is rapidly developing and is worth billions of dollars globally. It is the most advanced management platform for restaurants of any size who want to open their online branch and scale up customer orders. The innovative services that Taker provides include taking everything related to creating a website and mobile application for restaurants. 

Restaurants that sign up with Taker can get their own branded ordering channels almost instantly. Furthermore, Taker also integrates its system with the restaurant POS systems and payment gateways and any additional add-on services. These significant features play a major role to improve efficiency, streamline the internal operations inside the kitchen and manage the increased volume of orders. 

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About Taker

Taker, is an online ordering management platform pioneering the future of the food and beverage (F&B) industry. Established in 2019, Taker offers the most advanced and powerful technology, allowing F&B businesses of any size to effortlessly manage the entire online ordering  process in one single place. 

With online food ordering and delivery becoming a global trend of the day, Taker supports restaurants to adapt with customers changing behavior and meet their service expectations. More than 500 restaurants have signed, up-to-date, including: Shawarma House, Alnadeg, Anoosh, 1/2M.  They have been able to leverage the state-of-the-art-technology, ‘consumer-level’ design and a revolutionary business model that is transforming the food ordering experience in order to expand their customer reach digitally. Taker is now poised to revolutionize the food industry with an end-to-end solution that works with great success. For any further information on Taker please visit our website: https://taker.io/