With the increase of food delivery services, such as Talabat, Carriage, Deliveroo, UberEATS, Zomato and more, one can immediately point out the strong competition going on. Although this makes it more convenient for customers since they have a variety of options, but how do these food delivery apps affect the owners of restaurants? Are they forced to use these services, to increase their revenue? And if they did use these services, is it good for them?
Well, restaurants using the third party services pay between 20% to 30% of the order as a commission. So let’s say and order cost about 10BD, the delivery company takes between 2.5 BD to 2.5 BD from the merchant and another 500 to 700 Fils from the consumer.
Additionally, there has been no concrete reports of restaurants in the Middle East with regards to these food delivery services increasing their revenues. Restaurants could be experiencing a macro shift of consumers online, but they’re paying quite a lot for it – which means that they getting the same or even less business but are still paying 20% to 30% of their revenues to food delivery apps.
The food industry in the Gulf is rapidly increasing, new restaurants open nearly on a monthly basis, and it does get quite frustrating when we can’t find those new restaurants on delivery apps, especially with traffic and parking being a hassle out there. The tech industry is doing a great job at providing customers with convenient and efficient services, but is it having a positive effect on the businesses that it’s affecting? That’s always a debatable point.