The spread of the coronavirus and sweeping policy measures taken by various governments have led many industries into unchartered territories. We’ve seen tourism, airlines, electronics and many other industries hit by the COVID-19 crisis, but there’s been an unprecedented growth spike in the online food and delivery industry. As consumers globally have been either mandated to stay home or have chosen to do so, they have resorted to ordering food and groceries online.
As more countries implement mandatory social distancing and restrict the non-essential movements of public and business services, consumers have turned to on
line food and grocery delivery services to stock up on food and household items.
Demand for online delivery has risen in most markets impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. Food delivery business will likely benefit from the epidemic, despite its ride-hailing business taking a small hit. As the lockdowns last, , every online food and delivery business needs to analyze, prioritize and reinvent their marketing approach. Few questions you need to ask yourself to help plan and strategize your marketing initiatives.
How do I address my user base?
How do I leverage the traffic I am getting on my website?
How do I tackle new users?
How do I get new partners onboard?
How do I ensure business continuity with changing policies?
Answering these questions will give you some insights and action points which will help you redesign your marketing strategy. While you were busy answering these questions, we’ve come up with ready to use actionable strategies to ensure business continuity and growth for your business.
Safety is the keyword in every consumer’s mind. It has become imperative to adhere to mandatory safety instructions. Consumers are very concerned about the safety and hygiene of the product/food they order, the place they order it from and the person that delivers it. It has now become indispensable to assure your users that their food is hygienic and the product is safely delivered to them.
Use banners to communicate your safety standards and assure your users about how safe it is to order food or get products delivered from your business.
With changing situations during the lockdown, it is important to keep your customers up to date on your delivery policies that might affect their orders.
With changing situations during the lockdown, it is important to keep your customers up to date on your delivery policies that might affect their orders.
Have a rich user base that already knows the drill of ordering online? Engage with them on multi-channels and bring them back to your app with new contact less delivery options.
Are you experiencing an increase in your new user base with an increase in traffic? No problem! Encourage users across multiple channels and nudge them towards making their first purchase. You can build a journey and put your new users in an on boarding flow and engage with them on all digital touch points to guide them towards placing and order.
Providing customers with as much information as possible and helping them find the right product should be the number one priority for online businesses. It isn’t about making your products sell faster, it’s about guiding users to make the right purchase decisions faster.
Use Product Badging for Discounts, Product Quality and More
Customers are now extra cautious about the products and services they buy. Product badging serves as a great way to discover products and help users in quicker decision making. Adding product badges on your product listings helps customers to make an informed purchase decision.
Use Recommendations To Speed Up Product Discovery
Recommendations serve as a great way to tackle the new and existing users and help them spend more time on your website/app. It also helps users discover the products they need faster and make informed purchase decisions. Leverage recommendations on product pages for users to discover the right product for their needs speedily.
Governments and businesses are trying their best to communicate with customers and asking them not to fall into panic buying which results in hoarding essentials unnecessarily. It happened with sanitizers, masks, gloves, hand washes and toilet rolls. Many eCommerce businesses saw customers barrage into their offline stores creating havoc. It is important to guide online shoppers to avoid this kind of shopping behaviour with transparent messaging.
Use social proof to provide information on inventory of essential products
Use purchase progress to encourage customers to hit the threshold to avail free delivery
In the process of curbing COVID-19, consumers have restricted themselves from going to ATMs and banks. Abiding by health advisories and customer concerns, online food and delivery businesses have introduced contactless delivery of food and essentials. However, this is still an option for users to choose from and some users still continue to transact with cash.
As a responsible business, you need to ensure the safety of your customers and your own employees. Incentivize your users and encourage them to go cashless with their orders.
As countries go under lockdown, offline stores, restaurants are ordered to close. Governments have asked companies and businesses to enforce work from home. During these conditions, offline shoppers are switching to online services to supply their daily essentials and food needs. This trend is strongly felt among online food and delivery services.
Send Post Delivery Surveys to Collect Feedback
New users are a great audience to collect feedback from as they are not biased about your online experience. This will help you improve your service standards and strengthen your brand value. It also helps in building a seamless user experience right from the first purchase.
As new users get used to your online services, you encourage them to download your mobile app. Incentivize your users with free delivery or discount on their first app order to encourage them to download your app. Use smart banners on your web pages to convert your web users to mobile app users.
Despite uncertain times, you are receiving higher traffic than usual.This might be a good opportunity to run tonnes of experiments on your website to get great insights from customers and optimize experiences across channels.
Building a Safer Community and Long Lasting Relationships
More users are practicing social distancing and doing their bit to stop the spread of COVID-19. As an online food and delivery business, it is also your responsibility to help them practice this with ease as your services have become a vital asset for the society during these challenging times. While you are servicing your customers, it is important to ensure the safety of your employees who work harder during these times. Offer your users orders that fulfill the safety and hygiene regulations, get to know them and continue to serve them. They will remember how you made it easier for them when everything gets back to normal.
During these times try to build deeper relationships with your customers and act on the idea of going digital. No one knows how long this pandemic is going to last. With changing policies and operational restrictions, you need to constantly adapt to the changes that come your way and ensure business continuity.
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