THE COVID-19 pandemic has caused a seismic shift for the food and beverage (F&B) industry where food deliveries and takeaways now exceed dine-ins even post lockdown by contributing a whopping 85% of total F&B orders for the last three months of 2021.
This is according to aggregated data gathered over the one-year period of 2021 from Web Bytes’ point of sale (POS) system, Xilnex on a random sampling of 1,100 F&B brand outlets, including fast-food restaurants, chain eateries and bubble tea shops.
The study also saw a sharp jump of 90% in May 2021 when the lockdown began and the momentum continued even after the lockdown was lifted. Dine-in, on the other hand, did not resume to pre-lockdown levels and continue to see a downward trend and contributed to only 10% of total F&B orders from Oct to Dec 2021.
“Although COVID-19 standard operating procedures for eateries have gradually eased, dine-in sales are still far from being back to pre-pandemic levels,” commented Web Bytes Sdn Bhd CEO Ooi Boon Sheng.
“The data gathered from our F&B customers’ transactions shows that consumers in Malaysia have adapted their lifestyle and are getting increasingly used to takeaways and food deliveries.
“This information is vital to help F&B operators make informed decisions on how to better manage their business and adopt strategies and tactics to cater to this new customer behaviour.”
Ooi went on to stress the importance of F&B businesses leveraging analytics and embracing proactive retailing with data-driven POS to drive proactive and not reactive decision-making which is crucial to the continuity of today’s F&B businesses.
According to the study, online food ordering has also seen an explosive growth since the beginning of the pandemic and consumers were becoming increasingly savvy with scanning QR codes and accessing weblinks for their food orders.
“The pandemic has accelerated the urgency for F&B businesses to adopt an omni-channel approach, to allow their customers multiple ways to order and make payments, whether in-premise by scanning a QR code, or online or through third party food delivery apps.
“It is imperative that they deploy omni-channel and integrated POS systems that can help them streamline their operations and provide a seamless and consistent experience to their customers as well as maximise efficiency of their staff,” added Ooi. – March 31, 2022
