Dubai: Food delivery time, costs are main challenges for restaurants in post-COVID era

Dubai: Food delivery time, costs are main challenges for restaurants in post-COVID era

Pandemic legacy has hugely impacted consumer behaviour of restaurant delivery, say experts in the food sector, with food delivery services currently leading the online marketplace crossing pre-Covid times.

Speaking on the second day of the Gulfood, in a session titled ‘Delivery is king, but is the kingdom getting crowded?’ Tapan Vaidy, CEO, PJP Investments Group (AE) says, “the UAE is actually the 27th biggest market in the world in e-commerce with a predicted revenue of Dh12 billion in 2023. Of [this], two million is [the] food business, and this is expected to grow to 3.3 billion by 2027 – we are talking about 15 per cent CAGR.”

Shedding light on how the ‘cost of delivery’ is one the biggest challenges, veterans in the food industry note, “Delivering consumer experience using the tech that they use is one of the main points.”

“But just think about how the business model has evolved. We started on deliveries. That's when we launched everything. In the 80s, people went to restaurants but in the 90s, operators started home delivery for them. This was a completely new incremental revenue channel, and they just wanted to deliver and grow their business there. That same set of operators now would