Mobile apps for food delivery are embarking on price cuts, moment marketing tactics and a shared kitchen model to attract customers and boost services as the competition in the 35-billion-baht business intensifies.
According to Kasikorn Research Center, the food delivery market's value is expected to reach 33-35 billion baht this year, up 15% from a year earlier. It accounts for 8% of the Thai restaurant market.
"Food delivery via mobile app will continue to grow and tap into the offline food market," said Waranan Chaungcham, head of Line Man business development and marketing for Line Thailand.
The market has intense competition, with price cuts for delivery to attract customers, she said.
Since February, Line Man also charges a fixed flat delivery fee of 29 baht within six kilometres, as opposed to the previous practice in which charges depended on the distance.
Ms Waranan said Line Man uses big data analytics and listens to feedback to analyse user behaviour.
Line Man has launched "moment marketing" tactics such as special menus offered in specific periods to help attract more orders.
During the last Mother's Day celebration, orders increased by 170% compared with normal days.
Line Man had 1.5 million users as of January, but the number is still much lower than the 44 million Line users.
Some 50,000 restaurants in Bangkok, Samut Prakan and Nonthaburi have been associated with Line Man. A further 3,000 shops in Pattaya joined the company's delivery service in August.
Line plans to cover 25% of provinces by 2020, mainly in major cities.
Tarin Thaniyavarn, country head of Grab Thailand, said Grab has made a soft launch of GrabFood Walk, which caters to users ordering food within a one-kilometre radius of their location. Deliverymen would walk to them without using motorcycles.
This provides an opportunity for those without vehicles to earn extra income, Mr Tarin said.
Grab also plans to offer a "cloud kitchen" that lets restaurants prepare food in a shared cooking space to ensure quick delivery and freshly cooked meals sent to customers.
In the first four months of 2019, Grab had 4 million orders, compared with 3 million in the same period a year earlier.
Wongtippa Wisetkasem, food business director for Get, said online food delivery service is now intensely competitive. She pointed to discounts on delivery fees and food prices as the cause.
By 2020, Get estimates that online food delivery will account for 10% of the eating-out market, compared with 2-5% at present, Ms Wongtippa said.
Get is also seeking a location for a cloud kitchen, which is expected to launch this year, she said.
In January, Foodpanda launched its own cloud kitchen project, called Krua by Foodpanda, which is intended to better serve market demand and boost business opportunities for restaurant partners.
The project has gathered seven popular restaurants under the same roof at the Curve Neighborhood Center in Soi On Nut (Sukhumvit Soi 77).
"The idea to open the kitchen in On Nut is to bring more choice to Foodpanda customers in the north of Bangkok because consumer demand and the number of restaurants are high in this area," said Floris Bos, chief commercial officer of Foodpanda Thailand.
Krua will serve as the first kitchen project of the company, as Foodpanda looks to roll out more kitchen projects across Bangkok soon.
