According to data reported by Statista, in 2020 the global online food delivery market reached $136.4B. This impressive growth has been supported by the increasing penetration of the Internet worldwide, the growing adoption of smartphone, and increasing consumer preference towards buying from online platforms. Companies in the online food delivery market benefitted also from logistical problems that occurred with the pandemic, as restaurants were forced to stay closed and people rewarded online service providers to buy food directly from their homes.
At the base of the fast increase in the online shopping industry, there is the acceleration of digitalization and innovative high-tech solutions. Technologies like self-driving robots or drones introduced online foot delivery companies to new opportunities becoming a critical point of differentiation in the competitive marketplace.
For example, the big giant Walmart invested in Cruise, a zero-emissions, self-driving, and high-tech vehicles startup to develop a low-cost and scalable business model. Cruise helps Walmart not only in optimizing its delivery service, but mainly in answering the new customers’ demand for a safer, cleaner, and accessible delivery service complying with the Covid standards. Cruise is currently using its self-driving vehicles to develop the Cruise Origin, a fully driverless robotaxi expected to enter production at GM’s Factory Zero plant in 2022.
Another example of disruption in the online food delivery market is provided by Domino’s. By partnering with the autonomous delivery vehicle startup Nuro, Domino’s customers in Huston can have their pizza delivered by an electric, self-driving vehicle without requiring human interaction. Thanks to artificial intelligence technology, customers can place an order from their local store by using their smartphone and have the food delivered to their homes by an autonomous car.
This is a big revolution for the food retailer industry because it turns on a series of innovations on multiple levels, such as IoT and 5G technologies, which provide the connected network through which Nuro can move.
Thanks to the acceleration of digitalization, the online food delivery market are experiencing a disruption as it has never done before. Technological advancements such as robots, autonomous vehicles or drones, are offering a large spectrum of opportunities while providing customers with an easier and more accessible purchasing experience.
Continuous improvements in autonomous driving are helping optimize the food delivery process, and even more, companies are migrating from traditional delivery channels to shift into high-tech delivery solutions. All these technological developments anticipate an important growth of the food delivery business, providing companies with all the tools and support to easily address this transformation.
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