Digital food-service ordering grows to 1.9B visits in U.S. says NPD Group

Chicago – The use of mobile apps, text messages and the Internet to order food from a restaurant or other food-services outlets grew by 18 per cent last year and now accounts for 1.9 billion food-service visits, the NPD Group reports.

While currently more orders are placed using websites, orders placed using a mobile app are growing more strongly, according to the information company’s daily tracking of how consumers use restaurants and other food-service outlets.

Dinner is the meal most often ordered digitally, and families are the heaviest users of digital ordering, NPD said in a news release. Fifty per cent of digital orders come at dinnertime, and 35 per cent of digital ordering includes customers with kids. People under age 35 and those with higher household incomes are among above-average users of digital ordering. 

Deals and promotions play an important role in digital ordering, NPD reports. When consumers order digitally, they are twice as likely to order on a deal, and that deal is usually a coupon. Twenty-nine per cent of all digital orders used a coupon. Other top deals used were discounted price, daily special and combined item special.

Additionally, the ability to pay with mobile boosts customer satisfaction scores and encourages guests to visit for reasons related to loyalty.

“Digital ordering is now really all about the mobile app,” said Bonnie Riggs, NPD restaurant industry analyst. “Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable using mobile apps, if restaurants or food-service operators don’t have a mobile app, consumers may very well choose a restaurant that does.”