SWOT Analysis (UberEats)

Strength –  Fast delivery, customers get their food delivered within 10 minutes –  Flexibility in food delivery service from instant lunch or dinner deliveries for select dishes or full-menu options from restaurants. –  Separate driver base handling UberEats deliveries to avoid overlap with regular Uber drivers, while providing them the flexibility to switch between the two. –  Flat delivery fee and no hidden service charge ensures consistency and transparency in pricing.

Weakness –  Limited selection of restaurants that’s attributed to the company’s growth phase. –  Customers need to switch to Yelp to know about the restaurant’s reviews. –  Though BiteSquad’s website is heavy with text, one of the pros is the integration of Yelp to the restaurant listings. –  Uber Instant Delivery menu items are prepared in advance and stored in the drivers’ vehicles. Sometimes UberEats has few customers that drivers have to throw away food at day’s end.

Opportunity –  Operating in 19 cities worldwide –   Learn from other market players’ mistakes to innovate –  Allow customers to place orders a few days in advance. This would help in assessing the demand patterns for food from each restaurant. –  Provide customers the flexibility to get their meal delivered at their convenient time. BiteSquad allows customers to schedule delivery at a specific time.

Threat –  Competitive food delivery industry, UberEats is a new entrant, trying to get users to download yet another food-delivery app could be risky. –  Companies like Postmates are moving aggressively by developing partnerships with Starbucks, Chipotle.

( https://blogs.ubc.ca/yaelapt/)

This blog really catches my attention as it talks about an important part of people’s daily lives, which is food, and also addresses a problem that concerns people the most, the food delivery especially during rainy season.

UberEats, a new food delivery service offered by the globally-known transportation service company Uber, is flourishing in the competitive food delivery market.

In Yael’s blog, she has addressed some of the key reasons of UberEats’ success, such as Uber’s strong brand image and special values offered in its food delivery service. It is true that UberEats does have lower delivery rates and faster delivery speed than Postmates, Grubhub and other food delivery services.

However, to many customers, ordering food from UberEats used to be a limited experience. There were limited service area and food choices. No customization of food makes customers who cannot stand onions on their salad or other preferences frustrated. Even worse, being a part of the Uber app, makes it feel like a small side project of a company that’s staked its reputation on transporting humans, not sandwiches.

Once sliding over to UberEats, customers see little fork and knife icons, rather than the cars that are around them when they use Uber to get a ride somewhere.

The company pays extra attention on customer reviews and keeps upgrading its UberEats service. In March 2016, the company has broken a product out into its own standalone app and that limited-selection UberEats was gone. In its place is Uber’s GrubHub killer.

While the new UberEats allows instant lunch or dinner deliveries for select dishes or full-menu options from restaurants. Moreover, UberEats offered two different ways to order food. Customers could order food from any of the restaurants on the app or from one of the pre-set lunch options that Uber would deliver in within10 minutes. These new functions of the new UberEats app make food ordering more convenient for customers and satisfy a greater number of customers with various preferences and needs.

With my personal pleasant experience of using UberEats, I really wish UberEats could reach a larger crowd and bring convenience to more people. From my point of view, since most UberEats’ customers are tech-savvy, who own mobile devices or use social media. It is important that UberEats communicates its brand effectively to these tech-oriented customers. Thus, UberEats should spend most of its marketing budget on online marketing.

Fig 6. #of Facebook users who like the various brands.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well”, said a celebrated writer. With UberEATS you can now eat a dish from your favorite restaurant at the comfort of your home / workplace without stepping out! #UberEATS

 Fig 7 and 8. Sample social media posts

UberEats could develop its customer base by expanding its social media presence on different channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, and sending email newsletters monthly to share newly onboarded popular restaurants and special discounts. With the effectiveness of these marketing efforts, I believe that UberEats can attract more customers.

I’m ready to order!

 

(450 words)

 

References:

1) https://blogs.ubc.ca/yaelapt/

2) http://www.businessinsider.com/why-uber-launched-uber-eats-2016-3; Uber’s GrubHub killer is finally in the US — here’s the inside story on its big bet on food; Biz Carson

3) https://www.quora.com/How-popular-is-UberEats-in-London; How popular is UberEats in London?

4) http://www.businessinsider.com/ubereats-is-convenient-but-overpriced-2015-6 What it’s like to order a $15 burrito through Uber’s food delivery service;Alex Heath

5) http://qz.com/664552/uber-is-killing-off-its-instant-food-delivery-option-in-new-york-city/ Uber is killing off its instant food delivery option in New York City; Alison Griswold

6)https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/68814480/UberEATS%20Market%20Analysis%202016.pdf Market Analysis 2016, Monisha Monikantarajan, July 2016