Zomato, Freshmenu, Swiggy, Faasos, Box8 — Who Wins The Food Tech Fight?
In 2014, food tech industry was considered as the next big thing. In 2015/16, when the TinyOwl incident popped up, food tech was considered as the last industry to invest.
Enter 2017, the food tech startups have matured in their business model and hence now it’s time to start predicting the top guns in this industry.
I’ve ordered food frequently using the apps of these five brands — Swiggy, Faasos, Box8, Zomato, and Freshmenu.
From my own experience of using these five brands for a long time, of late I realized that there is a predictable pattern in my food ordering process. To put it in Nir Eyal’s reasoning — “A habit has been formed”.
Faasos
Among these five brands, the first brand that I started using was — Faasos. In 2015, I used it extensively for a long time, because of which Faasos upgraded me to their “Elite” membership.
What made me going back to Faasos repeatedly was their “quick serve” food. Are you in a hurry? Then, Faasos kicks in.
Box8
2015 was the year when Box8 gained popularity. I started ordering from Box8 on regular interval. Initially, usage of Box8 was more of an experimentation to figure out their food quality and variety.
The strikingly unique promise of the brand was — their delivery upto 1 am, and 38-minute delivery time.
Whenever I reach home late (post 10 pm) from office, the only brand that comes to my mind as a backup for food is — Box8. Till date, I did not have any service issue in any of their delivery to me. Want food late at night, or a reliable service, then Box8 does the job.
Freshmenu
Freshmenu, the company that prepares and delivers exotic dishes to home, mushroomed in 2015. I experimented Freshmenu few times and felt their pricing to be pointing north. Exotic food remains exotic only for few minutes from time of preparation. So, time to delivery is a critical parameter.
I didn’t like their quality in 2015, their app also had many glitches — sometimes I just couldn’t order from the app. In 2016, I resumed using Freshmenu to check the pricing and quality parameters. This time, the app was better, food quality was improved, and the pricing was decent for some items.
There were service hiccups sometimes and their call center audio quality is aweful. But, what made me going back to Freshmenu repeatedly was their daily changing menu (creates a curiosity of whats new) and consistent quality service. Everyday, Freshmenu is a new restaurant.
Zomato
I also experimented food ordering from Zomato. I would have ordered about 10 times from Zomato app, and 80% of the time the service was pathetic. When the bad service repeated without any improvement, I stopped using Zomato and used them only for what they are good at — restaurant discovery.
What a product manager should “NOT DO” can be learnt from Zomato’s food delivery implementation.
Even after escalating the service issues all the way upto the company’s founder Deepinder Goyal, nothing improved except for a courier packet I received the next day that had all-zomato-branded materials as a service recovery. When a customer is irritated by your service, will you send the customer your company branded diary, notebook, coffee mug, badge, et al? Brilliant customer understanding there, Zomato. Since that day, I deleted ‘Zomato food delivery’ from my mind.
Swiggy
In 2016, yet another brand I experimented was Swiggy. I’ve ordered extensively from Swiggy. Initially, there were service and inventory hiccups (what’ listed on app will not be available in restaurant), but I continued my experiment with them. Reason? The value delivered was more than the inconvenience created (sometimes). In the recent times, the delivery service has improved significantly. The service has become reliable like a landline’s dial-tone.
Pattern formed
Fast forward to 2017, I’ve stopped using Faasos due to their hike in pricing and almost same menu on all days.
Zomato food delivery was out of my mind long ago.
Now, I use only three apps — Box8, Freshmenu, and Swiggy. Based on last two years of food ordering experience, below pattern has emerged:
- During weekdays: Whenever I order lunch in office, it is always Freshmenu. Reason: The food comes in a bowl that’s easy to handle at office, and the delivery is both fast and reliable.
- During weekdays: Whenever I order dinner before 10 pm, it is always Swiggy (when it is not surging). When Swiggy is surging, then I always order from Freshmenu.
- During weekdays: Whenever I order dinner after 10 pm, it is Box8. Reason: They deliver upto 1 am.
- During weekends: Whenever I order lunch/dinner, it is always Swiggy. Reason: You are in exploration mood for restaurants around you. Variety wins in food. Even if the delivery is delayed a little, you are ok because you are not in a hurry most of the time.
So, the past two years of my food order experimentation has resulted in above three 100% predictable pattern.
Interesting insights
- Among Freshmenu, Swiggy and Box8, the company to which I have paid the most is — Swiggy (though this is the last app I adopted).
- Among the three brands, in my view, the only brand that passes Freecharge founder Kunal Shah’s delta four theory of product adoption is — Swiggy
- Interestingly, among all the five brands discussed above, the only brand in which I have not used a promo code to buy is — Swiggy. Reason for not using promo code — it’s simple, Swiggy is not into discounts.
Unlike Freshmenu, Faasos, and Box8 that are into both food preparation and delivery, and hence competing with every restaurant in the locality, Swiggy just does the latter which is more valuable to an end user.
The closest competitor to Swiggy could be Zomato. But, once Swiggy cracks the inventory sync, data accuracy, restaurant/food discoverability, and delivery service efficiency, the market is theirs, entirely.
