On a cold Friday evening, Mrs. Amoako returns from work and realizes that she has been so busy and forgot to get groceries. It doesn’t matter anyways because all week, her children have been craving for fufu with goat meat and soup. It’s already 5:30PM and as tired as she is, she cannot possibly cook. Thankfully, her husband Mr. Amoako loves fufu and will eat it whenever it’s offered to him.
She now remembers how her colleague Frank orders for his lunch online and gets it delivered in a few minutes. There is one challenge however. She has no idea if she can order local meals online too so she calls Frank and he confirms that there are affordable local restaurants online that she can order from. After downloading the app and filling in her details, she orders for fufu with light soup and goat meat for the whole family.
Delivery agent : ‘’Hello, my name is Paa Kwesi and I am at your gate with your order’’
Customer : ‘’ Hi Paa Kwesi, I will be out in a second’’
A few minutes later, the order is received and her problem is solved.
In a world that has been hardly hit with a pandemic that threatened to stay for a long time, there has been a dying need to find ways and means to stay safe, save money and make better use of time. In times past, the headache of finding food, spending hours in traffic and waiting at the restaurant to get your preferred meal was normal. With little developments, certain restaurants provided an avenue where customers could call to order ,then come in to pick up their orders.
Even at that point, customers still had to spend time and money moving from home to the restaurant while waiting for long hours for the order to be prepared. In today’s world, online food delivery has come as a blessing to all. Below, Jumia, Africa’s leading online food delivery service looks at some of the benefits of ordering food online at a time when the world is still recovering from the covid-19 pandemic.
For sometime now, e-commerce has proven to be the solution to many of the world’s challenges. Online deliveries now provide so many benefits for both the consumers and businesses.
For consumers, top on the list in the context of Covid-19 will be safety. With physical contact being one sure way of contracting the deadly virus, it has become imperative that many consumers switch to online food delivery. The adoption of contactless delivery and payments provide the assurance that there is minimal to zero risk of getting infected. You sit at home or in your office and with a few clicks on your smartphone, you can get your favorite meals delivered to you. The delivery agent can drop it at the door , take a few steps back for you to pick it up, sanitize and pay online. With platforms such as JumiaPay, customers now go through the entire process without any physical contact with the vendors or delivery agents. Hence being safe.
Another very important benefit of online food delivery is time saving. The old adage says “time is money”. It is important that customers save as much time as possible when getting their preferred meals from their favorite restaurants or local “chop bars”. Online food delivery makes it possible for you to plan your day so well. When preparing for an event, you can order your meal and use that waiting time to iron, do your make up and get other things done. By the time you are ready, the food should be at your doorstep.
This is a relief and in sharp contrast to some years back when you had to drive or walk all the way to the restaurant, wait for a while to pick up your order and then come back home to still take care of other things before getting ready if you have somewhere to go. There was extra time being wasted back then. Ordering online through e-commerce platforms such as Jumia has helped change such things. In addition to time saving, convenience is another very important benefit of online food delivery. Why will you go through the traffic in town and move up and down just to get your cravings sorted when you can sit in the comfort of your home or office and still get it delivered? That’s the power of e-commerce.
Globally, covid-19 really hit everyone hard. From emotional to psychological issues, the world has had to deal with a lot since this pandemic began. Financially, it has been very challenging too with many people finding new ways to make money while others have resorted to saving the little money they have. One of the many benefits of online food delivery has been cost saving. When you order online, you can access the many deals and discounts that online food companies offer. Various campaigns such as ‘’Food Festival’’, ‘’Black Friday’’ and ‘’Jumia Anniversary’’ also come with very heavy price cuts which make it the best option for consumers. Apart from deals and discounts, generally staying at home and paying a small delivery fee is more economically viable than driving through traffic to and from the restaurant.
On the other hand, for the sellers and restaurants, online food delivery serves as a great and very lucrative option to sell their food. According to many restaurants, their sales dropped dramatically when many cities were on lockdown. With restricted movements, many Ghanaians couldn’t go to their favorite restaurants to eat. The food vendors were running at losses, cutting down on staff and struggling to keep their restaurants running. With online food deliveries, they are assured of hundreds of consumers who are willing and able to buy food frequently and consistently. Food vendors who utilize online delivery services are now doing well and stabilizing their businesses with a couple even expanding their operations and employing more staff.
The benefits of online food delivery in today’s world cannot be overemphasized. E-commerce companies are coming up with technologies and innovations that ensure that consumers get the best value for their money. Safety, convenience, cost and time saving have become basic needs for the online consumer. This means that the future is bright for ecommerce and the online food delivery industry.
