Consumers Want It Now — And Delivery Services Are Responding

These days, you can get just about anything you want at just about any time — and it’s not just because the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic transformed everything about the way business is done and completely redefined the word “convenience.”

We’re in the early days of the Bring-It-To-Me-Now economy, and the emergence of digital payments has made the entire process more convenient. Sure, you can leave your house to do your grocery shopping or get your dinner, but you truly don’t have to if you know the right place to look.

It seems that more people than ever know exactly where to find and how to get whatever they need, with millennials leading the way on this new way of doing business.

PYMNTS’ research for the third edition of The Digital Divide: Delivery Service Aggregators And The Digital Shift, a PYMNTS and Paytronix collaboration, shows that multiplatform users — those who have used three or more aggregators for buying food during the last 18 months — are more likely to be millennials (34%), have high incomes (22% earn more than $100,000 per year) and possess a college education (20%) than the average restaurant consumer.

We also found that of the more than 2,500 respondents in our survey between Oct. 20 and 25, 2021, 54% of those who have used an aggregator prefer DoorDash. However, Uber Eats is the most popular aggregator among multiplatform users.

Ease and convenience are the top reasons for consumers to use both single and multiple delivery aggregators, with more than half (56%) of respondents who use three aggregators or more say they do so to obtain faster delivery. Almost half (47%) do so primarily for the discounts and offers.

Those who use multiplatform delivery aggregators gravitate toward quick-serve restaurants that have advanced digital tools to make ordering faster, preferring to never interact with another human being as part of the process.

Digital-first features at local restaurants, including ordering through mobile devices and QR code-based menus, are also important for convenience-focused consumers. Our research found that customers who use more than one digital platform to buy food from their favorite restaurants prioritize access to time-saving tools, even when dining in person.

Almost half (48%) of consumers use restaurant loyalty programs, which explains why more eateries are rolling them out. Partly because of the pandemic’s ongoing spread and partly because of cost-cutting, more restaurants are offering digital menus as the primary or sole way to find out what’s for dinner tonight.

Other digital means, such as mobile and online customer loyalty programs, have helped to increase customer engagement. Our research shows that the use of loyalty programs increased 4% in the past three months, with an uptick in those initiatives expected to continue well into 2022.

We’re not quite at the day when your meal comes in a simple-to-swallow pill, a la the Jetsons, but we’re certainly smack-dab in an era when consumers don’t have to do much to make sure we enjoy a delicious meal without truly working for it — as long as they have a way to pay for the convenience they seek.

Get the report: Digital Divide: Delivery Service Aggregators And The Digital Shift