On-Demand Delivery Boosts Brand Loyalty

Insight from Devaraj Southworth points to an intriguing consumer trend in the works in the growing on-demand space. In a nutshell, consumers don’t particularly care how companies get orders to their doors as long as it’s quick and the order is the proper brand.

Southworth knows a thing or two about on-demand consumers. He is the cofounder and CEO of Thirstie, a leading national on-demand liquor, wine and beer delivery company with a content-driven eCommerce platform.

“On-demand delivery channels are well on their way to commoditization, meaning they’re competing to get you the specific product you want the fastest and for the lowest price,” said Southworth.

Whether by drone, by land, by sea, by box truck or by a national system of pneumatic tubes — consumers are just interested in what’s on the label.

“Consumers care more than ever about what brands they’re consuming,” Southworth said. “They won’t just buy any bottle of whiskey — it has to be their whiskey, and they’re proud about their attachment to their chosen brand. The explosion of eCommerce and on-demand is training consumers to be brand-specific but channel-agnostic. We’re moving from the on-demand era to the on-supply era.”

In a nutshell, what this means for on-demand distributors is that once the novelty of app-based delivery wears off, consumers will stay loyal to providers who are reliable and certain — but, largely, who carry the particular brands the consumer wants.

Consider the Amazon Dash button phenomenon. Well over 200 brands have buttons as of now — and they’re basically the epitome of brand loyalty. Would consumers be as enthused if Amazon were to swap out their button offerings with generic products? Probably not. Consumers choose a Glad button because they want Glad, not just any old trash bag brand Amazon might have stocked somewhere. And they want it at the literal push of a button.

For the on-demand market, continued success in the face of brand-minded relies on creating as many partnerships with as many local and regional distributes as possible, along with partnerships with major brands.

“The local liquor shops might not have the brand they want or they might live somewhere where local delivery isn’t feasible. But this is no problem when the partnership circle includes regional distributors, local retailers and the brands themselves,” said Southworth.