Vegan and coffee are the two cuisine categories that have seen the biggest growth on the Uber Eats platform, MCA’s Hostech heard.
Between the end of 2019 and 2022, the number of vegan restaurants on the app grew by over 750%, according to Uber Eats UK GM Matthew Price.
The number of restaurants offering coffee was also up well over 4,000%.
Around 10% of all Uber deliveries happening across the sector are drinks, Price told the conference.
Meanwhile, he said the platform was number one for university students, with a distinct over index in the 18-24 age population.
Price said Uber’s strategy of entering the UK with a heavy focus on QSR and partnerships with some of the big quick service brands allowed the Eats service to scale rapidly.
Despite being the third of the three big delivery companies to enter the UK, Uber Eats is now the number two player in the country, he said.
Some 90% of the UK population can access the Uber Eats app, with an average delivery reliability of about 99.5%
When turning to delivery, he cautioned that it wasn’t a switch that could simply be flicked on.
“It takes partnership between the platform and the brand. We’re putting an increasing amount of emphasis on this,” he said.
Price said the company was taking an increasing role in working with policymakers and influencing how the broader food ecosystem evolves.
“We’re helping restaurants navigate a really complicated intersection of being affordable, being healthy and being sustainable.”
While the rise in food delivery during the pandemic has been well-reported, Price said those habits are now entrenched.
“There’s data out there that says about 28% of the population or more relying on food delivery apps now than they were in 2020.
“People aren’t just using food delivery apps anymore for restaurants. People are looking to apps for groceries for alcohol for pharma products. We’re quickly growing those brands on the platform as well.”
Price said grocery delivery was still relevant to foodservice operators as it created a higher value consumer in the Uber ecosystem.
“We’re seeing increased order frequency and more stickiness from consumers that come into the platform and order from both restaurants and grocery chains. You can quickly see that this ecosystem is expanding.”
Another way of creating more “sticky” customers was via Uber One, the subscription service which links loyalty with Eats and Rides.
“What underlines that is not only a platform to drive loyalty, but it’s a way to tap into the millions of consumers in the country that use Uber rides, and creates a very unique opportunity for us to drive cross platform usage.
“For restaurants, why this matters is these consumers are ordering more frequently, and they’re ordering larger baskets.”
The platform is also building an ad platform, with targeted advertising to help merchants get in front of the right customers.
“It’s pay per click, and the data is pretty compelling in terms of the ROI this can drive of putting money against advertising in a very contextually targeted way.”
Price also discussed Uber’s white label service, Direct. This allows merchants to add delivery into their app or website, so restaurants can maintain the direct relationship with the consumer.
“We’re all for that. We want to partner in helping you grow in the ways you want to grow.”
“It’s designed in a way that is very flexible and very adaptable to making it look and feel the way that you want it to feel.”
