This Might Be The Next Best (and allergy friendly!) Food Ordering App Concept
In a time when technology has come to represent convenience by offering greater choice, improved services and time saving wins, it is rather ironic to state that often the opposite is also true. How is it convenient to order food that you can’t eat? How is it well-planned that allergy friendly choices are a pain to order?
Food ordering apps or mobile order-ahead apps, have skyrocketed by killing two birds with one stone. On the one hand, they have been able to grant customers a time saving advantage by offering a quick and easy process to order food. On the other hand, restaurants were given more clientele and more sales without major added costs. Lien (2017) states, “Thanks to delivery apps, restaurants can serve more customers with far lower costs by opening “ghost” kitchens without any dining areas”. To this we can add reduced staff costs from skipping on the delivery part.
When the top leaders in the industry including Just Eat, Deliveroo and GrubHub were able to achieve a combined market evaluation of more than $15 billion (CAD) in 2016, it is hard to negate that this isn’t where the industry is heading to (Hirschberg et al. 2016). However, the market is shifting and consumers are pushing for a new direction.
What are consumers eating?
Perhaps one of the biggest news stories happening in 2017 is Amazon buying Whole Foods. It sparked some controversy and it definitely caught me by surprise. Amazon, the biggest E-commerce mogul, has placed its eyes on the organic market and decided to go big. Consumers are becoming conscious about the food they eat and that it is precisely the newer generations who are demanding these healthier choices. The Organic Trade Association argues that Millennials, are partly responsible for the surge in organic sales and that failing to recognize this is a huge mistake.
Recently, I came across a news story revealing that McDonald’s is jumping on board the mobile order-ahead app train. It is understandable to think that quick service restaurants are perhaps more generally suited to offer this option. If the service can get any faster that would be fantastic, right? This may be why many other fast food chains are available in other food ordering apps across the world.
But, what if I am a health-conscious Millennial wanting to order food online and I don’t want to eat McDonald’s?
What is the problem?
There is a big underserved group of hungry individuals waiting for a smart individual willing to drive towards this opportunity. There is a lack of presence of health encompassing food choices that are of high quality and are effectively catering customers with diet restrictions.
“If they have variety options given to people who have allergies that would make the experience amazing…and when I mean options I mean QUALITY substitute or alternative” — AQ, student from Centennial College.
The main issue at hand as reflected by a colleague, is that a consumer with food restrictions or diet preferences often has limited choices, poor choices or even no choices at all. This creates frustration, discomfort and discouragement. The end result is consumers choosing to eat their own food at home.
What does this underserved group really want?
The simple and easy answer might be more choice; but different choice. Consumers like AR with food restrictions and preferences are used to doing their research and asking beforehand if they would benefit from a pleasurable eating experience.
There is often a greater emphasis on allergy friendly choices, greater availability and better quality as opposed to lower price, faster service and fancier options. This mismatch of criteria importance might be why someone in today’s society like AR has not downloaded yet one of these apps on their smartphone.
What (better) app can we design?
There is a highly differentiated market that doesn’t want to eat McDonald’s or Pizza Pizza or Subway. This same market might be attractive to people that prefer to eat healthier choices, and this same market might be attending to consumers with a food allergy. According to Food Allergy Canada, one in two Canadians know someone with a food allergy and almost 40% of Canadians check food labels. This market is big enough for a new app just for them, don’t you think? At least, AR agrees.
- What if there was a food ordering app where categories focused on common allergies instead of cuisine types?
- What if food recipes singled out common allergens?
- What if small restaurants focusing on organic food ingredients populated the choices available?
- What if consumers with food restrictions or allergies were the target market?
- What if I could get recommendations based on my food allergies?
I say that we would have many more happy and healthy people with full bellies and big smiles if we answered all these “what ifs”.
#IMMT714 #designthinking #foodapps #interactive #foodallergies
References
Food Allergy Canada. (n.d.). Food Allergy Key Facts Sheet. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from http://foodallergycanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/Food-Allergy-Key-Facts-Sheet.pdf
Hirschberg, C., Rajko, A., Schumacher, T. & Wrulich, M. (2016). The changing market for food delivery. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/the-changing-market-for-food-delivery.
Lien, T. (2017). How food delivery apps have changed the game for restaurants. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-app-restaurants-20170313-story.html
Organic Trade Association. (2017). Today’s Millennial: Tomorrow’s Organic Parent. Organic Trade Association survey signals big new wave of organic consumers on the horizon. Retrieved February 9, 2018, from https://www.ota.com/news/press-releases/19828
