Literature Review
(Zeithaml&Bitner, 2003)In food delivery business Service Encounter does not happen
frequently because in online food ordering and delivery business there is no direct interaction
with restaurants. Consumers usually rely on information updated on restaurant search engine
portals. Customer make their choices, perception by reading reviews and ratings given by critics
and seasoned customers. Sometime phone encounters happen, but that happens between food
ordering & delivery Service Company and customer. According to RedSeer Consulting firm
(www.redseer.com- Feb18)states that food delivery sector is continuously increasing 15% per
quarter.
William R. King , Jun He . (2006). Many researchers find TAM model (Davis, 1989; Davis,
Bagozzi, &Warshaw, 1989)very effective to evaluate the acceptance, attitude and behavioral
intentions of users towards new technologies. Mobile apps are most convenient ways for
ordering food. Due to rapid increase in mobile users, it has been seen that there is exponential
growth in online food ordering. Consumers find it very easy to search on websites or apps to
choose the food of restaurants they like. Reviews and ratings given by consumers on websites is
beneficial for new customers in purchasing decisions. Filters are also added on websites and
mobile apps to categorize and customize the order according to consumer’s need. In business
everyone is stakeholder. But most prominent stakeholder is the customer. Delivery time is the
most important and deciding factor in retention of the customer. Employees of the companies
also understand that delaying the order means there is a high probability of consumers switching
to other food ordering and delivery services. Food delivery companies highly understand the
importance of delivery time hence they provide live tracking order facility to know about
arriving timeof their orders. Tracking the order totally depends on the GPS (global positioning
system) that is delivery agent needs to activate GPS service in mobile or in vehicle so that
customer and consumer can track the parcel on his/ her mobile.
In Service sector relationship is a key to success, hence companies are more focused on building
strong relationship with customers. In Food delivery services, company does not take ownership
of food taste. That responsibility is taken by restaurant owners. The main concern of food
delivery service is to provide food to consumer’s door step and that too in committed time
framework.
VaggelisSaprikis. et. al (2010). The rapid increase of internet usage, as well as, the progress of
information technology have changed the way goods are purchased and sold, resulting to the
high growth in the number of online shoppers. However, a lot of differences regarding online
purchases have been revealed due to the various consumers’ characteristics and the types of
provided products and services. Therefore, understanding who are the ones consuming and why
they choose to use or avoid the Internet as a distribution channel, is a important issue for both
shopping portals and consumer theorists. Moreover, the reasons for using or avoiding online
shopping, as well as, the types of preferred products were studied. The research provides
interesting insights on the online consumer behavior, as the results show significant differences
between the two groups of respondents.
Chris (2011).Some company believes that some restaurant can promote instantly and customer
can book tables overnight But the fact in today’s scenario some restaurant are not able to attract
customer because there is huge penetration in Indian market especially in urban cities wherein
customer are more selective and people don’t have enough time to visit restaurant. In such case
restaurant owners make alliance with food ordering and delivery services to deliver food to
customer. Food delivery services also gives more visibility to restaurants.
Kimes&Laqué(2011). Online food Ordering service is a vital part of restaurant business. Some
food supply chain restaurants like Pizza Hut, Dominos, Mc Donald’s have created mobile apps
so that customer can place order through mobile apps. But since telephone is still most preferred
way of ordering food. Online food ordering service owns most of the restaurant data on their
websites, while telephone is restricted to the particular hotel or restaurant. Using mobile app will
provide more convenience to consumer.
Serhat Murat Alagoza and HalukHekimoglub (2012).The theory of reasoned action (TRA)
(Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1985) is used to
examine the relationship between behaviour and attitude. Technology acceptance model is the
combination of this two models. states that the attitude of the students differ according to the
ease of online food ordering system and belief of the safety also helps in building attitude against
online food ordering system. Belief can also be termed as trust which is important in creating
loyalty. Innovations and external influence also indicate some impact on attitude of the
customers. Innovation can be done in packaging of food which will be delivered to customer.
Online food delivery firms can use customized packaging to increase brand visibility.
(Lara Sowinski., 2012).When there is proper coordination between restaurants, food delivery
service. At the same time locality of the customer also plays vital role in delivering food because
if location is far away from restaurant then more burden comes on the food delivery service
provider.
Caroline Opolski Medeiros and ElisabeteSalay (2013).The cost, atmosphere, Freshness of
food and locality were the attributes most investigated by the researchers. The food quality and
taste were perceived as important by consumers for every types of hotels. On choosing fast-food
restaurants the price and tempo of service were the most important key factors. On selecting
other types of restaurants, the most relevant factors were the food quality and taste, followed by
attributes related to service. Price was shown to be deciding factor for the students, lower-income
people and individuals who take food less frequently. With respect to gender, women perceived
the preferences of their families and the safety of food as more important than men. Differences
in the degree of importance given to the selection factors were observed according to the meal
context. This review showed that research, applying appropriate methods, is needed to broadly
understand the choices of differing establishments by consumers.
Kamran Ahsanet. al (2013)In food ordering and delivery services cloud services are playing
very vital role in food ordering and delivery services such as customer service, relationship
management, supply chain management, etc.Due to technological moment food ordering and
delivery services wants to ensure that ordered food must deliver at right place at right time and to
right person.
Y Prabhavathiet. al.(2014). When research conducted on preferences and spending pattern of
consumers some factors were identified as affordability, social influence, healthy menu and
service quality. Lifestyle also plays a critical role in consumption of food and restaurant provide
satisfaction by improving the taste of food also relaxation with friends. In food ordering and
delivery services lifestyle may be a deciding factor in consumption of food but this delivery
service business is not limited to fast food. All type of food and beverages are available on food
ordering and delivery services. Taste will be most important factor in serving the food but in
online food ordering and delivery services restaurant owner is totally unaware about to whom his
order is going to delivered. As order will be delivered at consumer’s doorstep restaurant
ambience is not considered as key factor in food delivery services.
KrishniMiglani. (2014) identified some reasons such as urbanization, growth of working
women, younger population in urban areas and higher disposable incomes combined with
increased time constraints. Popular market trends are Internet sites made-for-delivery and mobile
apps. The growth of demand for take-away despite slowdown in Quick service restaurants (QSR)
dine-in suggests that consumer preferences are moving away from QSR dine-in. Tastes are
changing, eating out at Quick service restaurants outlets are no longer perceived as an occasion
in India. Dine-in trends are finer dining, or café outlets, whilst QSR is demanded in a fast and
convenient manner, preferably delivered to the doorstep. Quick service restaurants suppliers
must evolve with its new perception and cater to the increased demands of home delivery in an
innovative manner. Suggestion is given that individual brands to apply the new consumer
preferences such as refinement, health, hygiene and taste to win market shares and competing
with giant players. Social media outlets are not just limited to connect with friends but are
increasingly a mechanism for consumers to learn about food. The website is populated with an
abundance of blogs all talking about food in one form or another. Food is the major topic of
conversation on all social media platforms. Indian consumers have developed a strong affection
towards the online food delivery space, they like spending their time online browsing various
convenient options.
PratiksinhVaghela (2014). Customers has access to internet at office and home. Largely
customers are buying accessories through internet. Most critical factor for online shopping was
customers need to give credit card details and they cannot see products. The perception of
customer is online shopping (food and other accessories) is more expensive, its take more time
to deliver the products and they are facing problems while making online purchases. Online
shopping is becoming daily habit in today’s life. The study showed that customer believed that
online shopping is better option than manual shopping still they have belief that online shopping
is expensive, delayed in delivery of products and service. Most of the customers are facing
problems like return of bad / wrong product, confusing sites and ineffective customer service.
According to, customers most alarming barrier for online shopping are unable to verify product
personally, online payment security. In food delivery services people are facing similar
problems.
Yi Jin Lima, et.al. (2015).The relationship between purchasing intention and online shopping
behavior showed the positive relationship. The large effect of purchasing intention towards
online shopping behavior was consistent with previous studies that the intention was a salient
predictor of actual behavior to shop online. The second aspect was between subjective norm and
purchase intention with favorable and significant result. The result implied that university
students’ purchase intention was influenced by perception of the cultural background, families,
friends and advertisement.This research has shown an increased explanatory power of the
purchase intention and online shopping behavior compared to previous research. It also provides
guideline for future research to concentrate on the strengths and terminate the weaknesses. As
with any research there are some loopholes in the research like sample chosen was limited to
university students with higher education background.
Zulkarnain Kedah (2015) found that there a significant positive relationship between website
quality and website trust but also a significant positive relationship between service quality and
customer satisfaction. Furthermore, significant positive relationships are also found not only
between website trust and customer satisfaction but also between customer satisfaction and
loyalty. One important finding came across while research was conducted that there is direct
link between service quality and loyalty. Research also provides valuable insights for operating
online food ordering services. Loyalty also plays a vital role in any firm’s success which leads to
high profits and long term growth.
Zamarrud Ansari and Surabhi Jain (2016) states that people are habitual to ordering and
buying items online. The reduced cost of mobile phones and the rising standards of living have
expanded the size of this larger market. Broadly, there are three challenges any online Food
business will face. To begin with logistics in terms of timely delivery and optimizing the
resources will have to be taken care of. Next biggest challange is while integrating with the
number of restaurants, since every online food business has to ensure the quality of service by
training its people and also has to make sure that it receives its payment in time. But to get good
technical skills for that will be the third and the most difficult challenge. The, ost important thing
which a good online food portal should evaluate is the employees associated to firm. They must
see whether the employees will be able to excel on operational level and enhance the business.
ZetyShakilaBintiMohdYusofet. al (2016) stated that e-commerce is a aggregator and it is
necessary to focus more on service quality. Which is more customer centric. For future
conclusion e-commerce will be a major platform for the potential and prospect entrepreneur to
starting the business of food delivery service which connects between restaurant and the
customers.
S SSangle. et al (2016). Customer would be more delighted if online food ordering services
gives an option of delivery and confirmation email will be send to customer regarding order
status.. In current scenario every online food ordering and delivery service firm has mobile app
on various app stores and almost many people in urban areas carry smart phone. When order is
placed through mobile app, customer can track their order on mobile app itself because of GPS
which is already installed in every smart phone. App also shows the estimated time of the
delivery.
Z Ansari and Dr. S Jain (2016).Because of more women working professionals and smart
phone penetration these online food delivery services have identified the need and established
their business with the help of technology. Some researchers have drawn the fact that the
frequency of food ordering is higher than retail shopping. Restaurants are making earning high
profits because of these online food ordering and delivery services because of many reasons. It
helps restaurant to eliminate local competition as most order are placed through online portals. It
also helps to avoid long queue during peak hours and proper management of food to avoid
wastage..One important aspect that is never covered in research is the behaviour of the employee
i.e. delivery boy who delivers the food at customer’s door place.
H.S. Sethu and B Saini (2016).There are several external and internal components of food
delivery services. External components include cultural background, reference group. Socio
economic class, past experience, perception and attitudes. Many reasons lead to dissatisfaction of
consumers. These reason are security, graphical interface of websites or mobile, spam emails,
newsletters, etc. Recommendation of services to others indicates the commitment and brand
loyalty to the company .This happens due to value creation activities such as good past
experience, better offerings and delivery of order in stipulated time. Study was on specific age
group (youngsters) and is limited to local food delivery services. Other demographics may have
different views and different sets of perception which may indulge more accurate outcome about
understand the behavior of consumer. Also competitor analysis is also important to provide best
offers to customers. Other aspects like delivery charge and packaging of food are responsible in
creating value and retention of existing customer.
Mustafa Abbas Bhotvawala et.al (2016). As opposed to 'Delivery as a Service' companies,
aggregator delivery services generate a platform for consumers to navigate through a many
restaurants hosted on their websites, discovering restaurants and placing orders manually. The
study was based on the comparison of growth and operating strategies of four such food
ordering and delivery companies in a booming Indian market (Swiggy, Zomato, FoodPanda, and
TinyOwl). The market is expected to grow 40 % annually owing to a larger disposable income
from a wealthier middle class (also with long, erratic working hours). Growing incomes have
encouraged the creation of an increasingly health-conscious middle class, desiring meals which
may substitute nutritional values of home-cooked meals. Aggressive growth strategies have not
been as rewarding elsewhere in the food-service industry. However, the future seems brighter for
the online food industry, as India catches up with developed markets (where online food orders
take upwards of 30 % of market share).
Helge Wurdemanna. (2016).The common approach when developing new applications for
handling foods is to use previous experience of technology for similar foodstuffs. Empirical
experience is acceptable for a characterized approach, a more structured approach is developed.
The key development is an explicit way of classifying products, so that there is no discussion
about the allocation to a certain group. The product description characteristics were chosen
according to the needs of processing the different kind of products. Parameters such as
temperatures were excluded because the temperature cannot be changed and if the temperature
changes,
the
consistency
of
the
food
product
will
be
event which means the type of food ordering process falls into another category. On the other
hand, a definition needed to beestablished that extracts food ordering processes from other types
of food processes. By discussing common and used automation for ordering processes and by
linking these to certain food categories, gaps can be identified. These gaps represent manual
ordering processes that exist, but have not been automated. The outcome of the research is hoped
to provide a theoretical basis and leading edge methodologies to underpin all physical structure
creation tasks.
Girish Deore1, Pranav Shete (2016).Online food ordering has been adopted by majority of
restaurants offering delivery of food. The customers using online food ordering have been
showing gratitude with the technology and marked that online ordering has met the expectations.
The advantages of online ordering are improved order certainty, enhanced yield, and improved
customer relationship management. These will probably cancel out the costs and operational
threats for most restaurants. Saving and convenient. Survey has found that when a consumer
prepares a mind to purchase online food he or she is affected by multiple factors. The main
crucial identified factors are time saving, and convenience. People compare prices in online food
delivery website and apps and then review all feedbacks and rating about product before making
the final selection of the dish. Thus the restaurants have to make proper strategies to increase the
consumer’s level of trust on them by getting feedbacks, encouraging the customers to share
reviews about their food and also to create awareness of their presence in online food market by
displaying the merchandise of the online food delivery website, app or portal.
NehaParashar and SakinaGhadiyali (2016). Intangible products comprises of various
hospitality services where in there cannot be any transfer of possession or ownership, and they
cannot be sold but come into existence at the time they are consumed or bought. The research
was conducted on different apps that are available either by aggregators or by restaurants
themselves for various purposes like delivery, pointing system, in house app ordering, etc.
Consumer behavior is the study of how individual customers, groups or organizations select,
buy, use, and dispose ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the
actions of the consumers in the marketplace and the underlying motives for those actions.
Researcher explains that how consumer has shifted the behaviors with the involvement of
technology and how customer archives satisfaction by using various applications.
Alexandra Rodney. et al (2017) states that women bloggers inspire the make different type of
food items. On many case prominent personalities are taken to influence cooking at home. This
paper presents illuminates food blogs’ paradoxical combination of idealization and lack of
interest in food preparation. The research is strictly limited forwomen.
Juan C. Correaa (2017). In urban areas Online food delivery services rely on urban
transportation due highly dense traffic in cities. These services exploit user-generated contents to
promote collaborative consumption among its members. Researcher has evaluated the impact of
traffic conditions (through the use of Google Maps API) which is the key performance indicators
of online food ordering and delivery services. From the overall research it is found that traffic
conditions exerted no practical effects on transactions volume and delivery time fulfillment, even
though early deliveries showed a quality issue association with the number of comments
provided by customers after receiving the orders at door step.
Ng SooRyue., et. al (2017) states that there are several factors that restaurant owner should be
aware off. There might be a problem where customers face a problem because of technological
awareness. Customers may be reluctant to order food through websites or mobile apps. These
factors may have direct impact on customer perception. Research also found some positive
impact on restaurants with respect to increase in revenue, more exposer and wider reach to
customer, convenience, etc. When interviewed to restaurant owners, they encountered many
issues regarding aggregators. Order is not delivered on time because of heavy traffic and every
citizen has to follow traffic rules except some emergency services. Every restaurant owner is
equipped with order tracking machine which is been provided by food delivery service firms.
Issues also arises when machine is breakdown or stops working. In such case restaurant owner is
not able to track the order of customer hence late delivery may occur. Restaurant owner also
suggested that the food delivery service firms should provide immediate replacement or repairing
of the machine. Expensive food delivery cost is also major reason in creating perception of
customers. As food delivery services takes the responsibility of delivery food to customer’s
place, many customer have ambiguity whether food delivery service provider is delivering late
orders or it is a restaurant owner who did not provide food on time. Due to shortage of man
power, many orders are given to one delivery boy. Hence order are delivered late.
ÇanakkaleOnsekiz Mart Üniversitesi and GökçeadaMeslekYüksekokulu (2017) did research
in Turkey and found that fast food habits are limited to nearby areas of university campus and
major metro areas in town. Some issues have also came up regarding customer identification
while placing an order through food delivery service websites and have led to false order placing.
Some major giants in fast food have hygiene issues and due to many orders delivered food is
neither fresh nor hot. The research was limited to Turkey. Other countries have different
regulations related food industry and perception of consumers will be different.
V Kanteti(2018). The untapped market in food delivery service is home cooked food. This is
where the true opportunity lies. Online food delivery firms have truly transformed the way
restaurants are doing the business. Nevertheless packaging cost will always be crucial part for
low priced orders as online food serving is an option for daily consumed food. Due to nuclear
families in urban cities and fast moving life people do not have enough time to cook food at
home, hence this opportunity lies.
.
S Rathore and M Chaudhary. (2018).The consumer perception regarding online food delivery
differs from person to person. The perception is also build on personal opinion. Mostly young
population is more attracted towards online food ordering services as compare to elder people
This is due to lack of awareness regarding technology (mobile apps). Also consumers are keen
towards those food delivery services which provide heavy discounts and cashback offers. To
identify actual behaviour of consumers’ large geographical area with proper segmentation may
help companies to target customers in more appropriate way.
Need of the Study
Due to large number of restaurants registered on food-tech websites, consumers are confused and
there is a huge ambiguity in the minds of customer regarding online food ordering. If we
consider demographic profiles most of the working class and teenagers prefer to order food from
mobile apps and websites. It is very important to have user friendly interface of websites and
mobile apps with elucidating metadata and crystal and clear information. There are many factors
which can affect loyalty of customers towards food-tech companies. Some factors are delivery
time, packaging, UI (User Interface) and UX (User experience) of mobile apps and websites, etc.
Customer engagement creates value for the firms. Some online ways of engagement are
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Food-tech companies take a lot of efforts on
engaging the customer. Some tradition ways are newspaper ad, ads on TV, Radio. There are
many food delivery services available in the market. Customer is always in search of offers and
discounts. Hence to provide right offer at right time can retain the customer from going
somewhere else. As delivery time plays a vital role in creating loyalty with consumer,
simultaneously time also affects in keeping food fresh and pure during the time of delivery.
Innovation and creativity are the keys to success. Some companies provide table booking facility
to customers if they plan to visit restaurant which will help firms to generate profits and
customer convenience. As this is an emerging sector lot new things are expected to come where
consumers will be delighted by new innovative and creative ways.
Online food ordering and delivering services firms are creating huge profits but simultaneously
consumers are becoming unknowingly disloyal. There may be several factors like delay in
delivery time, freshness and purity of food, User interface of websites and mobile apps, better
offers and discounts from rivals, etc. Companies should be more focus on analyzing attitude and
perception of consumers. Consumer engagement is also important to keep consumers updated.
Many food-tech companies keep on informing customer regarding new offers by social media
network sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube etc. But the impact of these
marketing and promotional strategies on consumers seems different which is creating ambiguity
in minds of customers. User interface of mobile and websites also pays a vital role as these are
the platforms from where orders are placed. Some seasoned customers feel that the reviews and
ratings updated on websites are scripted just because some restaurants needto be more visible on
websites.