Breakfast delivery: a changing market
New online platforms are capturing customers and markets across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East as they compete to deliver restaurant meals to the home. There is little real knowledge about the market dynamics, growth potential, or customer behavior for these new Internet platforms, despite their sizeable investment and high valuations. Already, five of them are worth more than $1 billion each. The McKinsey report offers insight into this rapidly changing market based on research conducted over a period of six months in 16 countries around the world.
Currently, the market is shaped as follows
It is estimated that the envio de desayunos market is worth €83 billion globally or about one percent of the total food market and four percent of food sold through restaurants and fast-food chains. Overall growth for the next five years is estimated at just 3.5 percent in most countries, with a mature market.
It is traditional to order food from an area pizza parlor or Chinese restaurant and wait for it to be delivered to the customer’s door. However, many other kinds of restaurants, particularly in urban areas, now offer delivery as well. The traditional category accounts for 90 percent of market share, and almost three-quarters of those orders are still placed by phone.
Digital technology is however reshaping the market just as it is in so many other sectors. Online shoppers who prefer the convenience and transparency of online shopping through apps and websites increasingly expect the same when ordering dinner online.
Online breakfast delivery in two tiers
The void has been filled by two types of online platforms. There are two types of players: “aggregators” and “new delivery” players. Aggregators emerged roughly 15 years ago; new delivery players appeared in 2013.
With both apps, consumers can browse a wide variety of restaurants’ menus, review them, and place orders with just a single click. Customers place orders through aggregators, which route them to restaurants, which deliver them themselves. These aggregators are in the traditional-delivery category. On the other hand, the new players provide delivery for restaurants without their own drivers. They build their own logistic networks.
Inaggregators
Traditional breakfast delivery services have been replaced by aggregators, which offer access to multiple restaurants through a single online portal. By logging into the app or the site, consumers can compare prices, menus, and reviews from their peers. Aggregators are paid a fixed margin on the order, which is paid by restaurants, and restaurants handle delivery. Consumers are not charged an additional fee. These aggregators report EBITDA margins of 40 to 50 percent as a result of their asset-light business models. In this subcategory, although investment is still pouring in (Delivery Hero and Foodpanda, for example, took in €100 million in new investment each in 2015), most of the consolidation has already been completed. Foodpanda, Delivery Hero, GrubHub, and Just Eat are among the global players. Their focus varies by region. A national level, there tends to be two or three dominant competitors, mainly due to their ability to build large user bases. Consolidation continues to advance in many markets. We anticipate this share will grow rapidly going forward, since McKinsey research shows that just 26 percent of traditional delivery orders are currently placed online.
An opportunity to deliver new products
Breakfast delivery can be extended to a new group of restaurants and customers through this opportunity. A new generation of delivery players is expanding the market rather than competing directly with aggregators. New delivery poses at least a potential threat to the aggregators because even lower-end traditional-delivery restaurants are likely to migrate to new delivery because it is more cost-effective to outsource logistics.
Two sources of consumer demand drive the growth in new delivery. One is to replace eating out. The new delivery service provides customers with restaurant-quality food delivered right to their homes. Depending on the city, some platforms even feature Michelin-starred restaurants. Secondly, as a substitute for home-cooked meals.
