Consumer trends

APAC food delivery and Q-commerce insights

July 30, 2024
APAC food delivery and Q-commerce insights

Few sectors are transformed as much and as often by technology as retail. The biggest transformation so far has been the rise of e-commerce, with consumers opting for the convenience of shopping online. Today, 3 out of 5 consumers in Asia Pacific would rather shop online than in-store, with younger consumers or millennials most likely to purchase virtually.

The growth of e-commerce and food delivery platforms was catalysed rapidly by the COVID-19 pandemic. The global food delivery market tripled in value between 2017 and 2021. By 2021, food deliveries in South East Asia increased by 64% since the beginning of the pandemic. And this behaviour has stuck around long after the restrictions were lifted.

An even bigger appetite for speed and convenience

The convenience of e-commerce has given way to a whole new level. Consumers can now expect to receive food, groceries and even electronic goods with a wait time of just 15 to 30 minutes. For this form of rapid delivery, known as Quick Commerce or q-commerce, worldwide users are set to grow from 511m in 2023 to 788m in 2027.

The Quick Commerce market in Asia is projected to reach a revenue of US$96.20bn in 2024 and a projected market volume of US$155.80bn by 2029.

In a recently published trends report by foodpanda, it’s reported that foodpanda customers have a growing appetite to spend more on on-demand delivery, buying an average of 2 items per order for food delivery and 5 items per order for q-commerce. These numbers are the result of increases from 2022 to 2023 of 28.9% and 52.2% respectively.

These numbers go even higher when the weekend comes around, Fridays and weekends see the peak shopping periods with orders increasing by 10%.

This upward trend for spending on food delivery q-commerce platforms is only set to increase as it becomes an everyday behaviour for consumers across the region.

Different tastes for different places

So what are people buying? On foodpanda, the most popular items in food delivery across the region are burgers, fried chicken, pasta, rice noodles, and pizza. For groceries, the top 5 grocery items are fruits and vegetables, tea and coffee, eggs, beer, and mineral water.

But when you dive into different markets some more localised tastes emerge. Hong Kong customers order more than 10,000 bowls of rice noodles daily, while customers in Singapore and Malaysia order 30% more fried chicken than the APAC average.

When it comes to pandago, the delivery service centred on convenience and reliability for the delivery of everything from daily essentials to specialty items, the trends across the APAC region reveal a fascinating diversity. In Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Myanmar, medicine emerges as the most frequently delivered item. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, friendly shoppers regularly send diapers to one another.

Go deeper into our insights

Ready to tap into our audience of digital natives who love to shop and love convenience? Many foodpanda shoppers return to the app frequently and place multiple orders per month. They stick around too, with a high retention rate. We help brands unlock the power to convert these hungry shoppers into customers.

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