BentoBox and The Infatuation Release Second Installment of the Restaurant Delivery Consumer Trend Report

Delivery and takeout business continues to rise for restaurants as 78% of diners resume their pre-COVID dining habits

BentoBox, a website, e-commerce, and marketing platform for 12,400 restaurant locations worldwide, in partnership with restaurant discovery platform The Infatuation, released the second installment of its Restaurant Delivery Consumer Trend Report, as part of a year-long study tracking how U.S. consumers’ delivery and takeout habits evolve through COVID-19 recovery effort.

The Q2 survey features insights from 1,020 U.S. diners, ages 18+, who dined out at least once per week prior to the pandemic. The report indicates that while diners are eager to return to their normal routines and have far less hesitancy to dine in-person, their delivery and takeout ordering frequency remains unchanged.

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Top Three Key Trends:

1. Takeout and delivery routines are here to stay, despite optimism for reopening:

• • 78% of diners are ready to resume their normal dining habits, an 18% increase from Q1 (66%), which coincides with a 64% decline in vaccine hesitancy among diners from Q1 (25% to 9%). However, despite increased optimism for the recovery effort, delivery and takeout ordering remained consistent, and even saw slight growth quarter-over-quarter.
    • 85% of all diners ordered at least once per week (84% in Q1)
    • 60% of diners ordered takeout or delivery 1-2x per week, a three point increase from Q1 (57%).
    • 88% of diners who frequently order takeout/delivery (4x+/week) are increasingly confident they will maintain their current habit, from 83% in Q1, showing that pandemic ordering habits are becoming the new normal of how diners engage with restaurants.

2. Ease, convenience, and industry support remain core influences of ordering habits:

• • As delivery habits persist, creating a seamless, user-friendly ordering experience is paramount for restaurants to compete in the new landscape of pandemic recovery.
    • 75% of diners surveyed (+2 points from Q1) order takeout and delivery for its convenience.
    • However, while the simplicity of online ordering is generally associated with third-party marketplaces, only one in four diners (23%) would be loyal to a third-party marketplace for its convenience (28% in Q1).
    • When deciding whether to order directly through a restaurant versus via a third-party marketplace, ease of ordering (45%), promotions and discounts (41%) and delivery and service fees (34%) were other top considerations made among diners.
  • While ease and convenience is a top priority, diners are increasingly eager to show their support for local restaurants in their community.
    • One in two diners (51%) cite support for local restaurants during pandemic recovery as a motivation for continuing ordering habits (+2 points from Q1).

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3. Age is a factor in how likely diners are to continue their takeout and delivery habits:

• • As the recovery effort takes shape, diners aged 25-49 are most likely to be “super users” of online ordering and takeout (3+/week), while the youngest (18-24) and oldest (65+) groups of diners favor light-to-moderate frequency or no frequency at all. Among all diners, four in five (80%) are very or somewhat likely to continue their current ordering frequency, with diners aged 25-49 being the most confident that they will continue (84%).
    • Diners aged 25-49 are most likely to be takeout and delivery “super users” ordering takeout and delivery over 3x+/week. 32% of diners aged 25-49 ordered at this frequency, outpacing diners aged 18-24 (23%), 50-64 (13%), and 65+ (9%).
    • Diners aged 18-24 are shifting towards a light/moderate order frequency in favor of returning to in-person dining. The number of heavy delivery/takeout consumers in this age bracket was halved since March, with a migration to light-to-moderate consumption (9% to 5%). This group is also 20% less likely to be confident they will maintain ordering habits moving forward, with only 64% of the group very or somewhat likely to continue ordering frequency.
    • Diners aged 65+ are growing fatigued of delivery and takeout. Interest has fallen to below pre-COVID levels, with more than one in three (36% from 31% in Q1) currently placing no orders at all. 71% of diners over 65 are likely to continue these ordering habits moving forward (-9 points below all diners).