The market for online food delivery is booming. Although the food delivery ecosystem started in 2014, the surge came about post-COVID. The market size of food delivery apps in India was $36.3 billion in 2023 and could reach $257.7 billion by 2032. This makes this one of the most promising sectors in India.
Several new launches show the innovation underway in the sector. For instance, fast-food chains, like Domino’s, use both their online delivery platform and a food delivery partner like Swiggy or Zomato to operate. Then, the recently launched Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) enables customers to receive fantastic discounts and at the same time, restaurants do not have to pay high commissions. In Mumbai, Waayu, another food delivery app, was released recently and it does not impose commission fees on restaurants.
Considering the increased demand and the industry’s extensive penetration, even in Tier-3 cities, the food delivery business seems set for expansion. However, the competition is fierce. So, what’s the way to get the best market share?
Let’s look.
Ideal customer for food delivery apps
Food delivery apps are a hit concept in metro cities where people have migrated from all over India.
A working professional would be among the most likely users of a meal delivery app. Many people relocate every year in quest of employment, and cities such as Bangalore see an influx of newcomers in comparison to outflow. Thus, the market is always flourishing adding more consumers every single year to the kitty.
The best candidates to target with meal delivery apps are busy professionals. They are the perfect customers because they need food delivered for every other meal. In a similar vein, although college students make excellent consumers, their lower levels of disposable income mean that they make a slightly smaller contribution to the value chain. Young parents who are unable to handle a busy schedule and give in to online meal delivery can be another ideal customer.
Reaching the ideal client, though, can become challenging with so many options. First and foremost, there is a lot of competition. Hospitality brands and food delivery apps will have a better chance of attracting more patrons if they can appear in the eye line of people in a tech park or an area with a higher proportion of rental properties or similar spaces.
Of course, the proper store location, excellent branding, and social media outreach all contribute to reaching the right customer base. There are many ways to build brand recognition, including advertisements and word-of-mouth. Reaching the right audience can be greatly enhanced by local advertising. This is especially true in the case of food, which has a clear timing element attached to metrics related to messaging effectiveness.
How polygon targeting can help bridge the gap
Currently, using a marketing strategy that can target the right people in the right place is crucial to expanding a brand’s market reach. One such method is polygon targeting, which uses a virtual polygon to mark the appropriate territories and target the right individuals. It becomes simple to cover a specific area with polygon targeting without wasting time and energy establishing a digital marketing campaign that doesn’t even reach the potential and ideal customers.
It is simple to map individuals who are in or have recently visited an area that the ideal customer frequents with polygon targeting. A business can now send push notifications to get their attention without compromising their privacy. This kind of marketing is very useful for focusing on the right customer base or ideal audience when they are in the right place.
Let us examine how targeting working professionals with polygon targeting can help close the gap between buyers and sellers.
It is simpler to send messages or ads to prospective clients inside the specified boundaries when using polygon targeting. With polygon targeting, it becomes as precise as drawing a digital perimeter around a specific area, similar to building a fence around a valuable property. Once a user enters the target location, their phone’s location settings enables personalized offers to be sent to them. For instance, let us say someone has a McDonald’s application installed in their phone and they work at ABC Tech Park. They will receive a notification from McDonald’s to place an order for food today, once they enter the geofence that the business has set up. Also, they will receive personalized offers according to their favourite meals, payday savings, and other factors. That is how geofencing operates.
Only when the necessary permissions are granted will these messages and push notifications function. Thus, only polygon targeting functions if push notifications are permitted; otherwise, the communication happens in other ways, let’s say email marketing. For food delivery apps looking to target working professionals, this kind of proximity marketing works perfectly.
This localized marketing is ideal for better penetration. Also, with this type of marketing, businesses can cut through the noise by targeting only specific customers in high-potential areas. It also allows correct resource usage where the chances of sales are higher.
Apps that deliver food must focus on users who can take action immediately, thus driving sales. We help advertisers thrive in the ever-changing digital landscape by fusing cutting-edge Programmatic Ad Serving & RTB technologies with analytics, consumer insights, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Contact us to learn more about your needs for a digital advertisement.
