Careem’s controversial AED1 per minute of delay on food delivery is sending out the wrong message, Deliveroo’s General Manager for the Middle East said in an interview with Arabian Business.
“Personally, I think a marketing campaign that is centred around delays has implications, implications in consumers’ minds, and maybe wider in the network. I’m aware of some of the backlash but I don’t think too much about their campaign,” Anis Harb, General Manager Middle East at Deliveroo said when asked about his thoughts on the initiative.
Earlier this month, super-app Careem announced that it was offering AED1 for every extra minute of delay in food delivery, with a maximum payment limit of AED10 per order. The money would be transferred to the customer’s account in credit through the Careem Pay wallet and is only valid until June 8.
The initiative has since received backlash as many began to worry about how this would affect delivery drivers, both financially and in terms of safety. Many people took to Twitter to criticise the move, stating that the initiative promotes reckless driving and some have even called it a failed idea.
The company has since clarified its stance in a statement explaining that Careem will pay for the delay, and not the Captains.
“We don’t believe it’s the right message to send out and I don’t think it’s something that we want the Deliveroo brand really too closely connected to as well. The whole idea of just delays and implications… I think it’s something that we have veered away from in the past,” said Harb.
“I can’t comment on how it would affect drivers. I don’t know how they’re incentivising what’s happening with delays, that’s for them to clarify. So no comment on that.”
Unleashing potential: Deliveroo’s bold expansion strategies
As the company continues to improve all aspects of its marketplace, which has expanded a great deal in the last two years to now include not just restaurants, but grocery stores, sustainable packaging services, and food bank initiatives – all of which have provided a significant boost to homegrown businesses. It also successfully expanded to Kuwait and Qatar, with plans to continue to boost local brands.
Deliveroo has had an exceptional couple of years. It ended 2022 with almost 19,000 restaurants, recording a 20 percent growth year-on-year and doubling its growth over the past few years.
In addition to forming partnerships for sustainability, humanitarian, charity and food security initiatives, Deliveroo has spent the last two years enriching its offerings and venturing into other regional markets.
“We’re continuing to explore markets. We have lots of conversations with folks within existing markets, but also across the Middle East so we’re keeping a close eye,” Harb said.
“We are extremely committed to the region and we are always on the lookout for complementary businesses that will help us expand so it doesn’t necessarily need to be geographical expansion.”
Harb said that Deliveroo is looking into “multi-vertical” expansions within their existing markets in the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.
Changing consumer behaviour
The online food delivery space has seen a massive shift in consumer behaviour, as the public reliance on e-commerce continues to boom post-COVID.
“We’re seeing spending habits change a little bit,” he said. “At the start of the year, with the world kind of at peak inflation, we saw a little bit of consumer tightening. It pushed us to think more about how we can create more value for consumers so we’ve enhanced all of our sort of promotion mechanics on the app.”
The e-commerce space is rapidly evolving, and so are consumer needs. With the advent of digital platforms, there has been a significant shift towards online grocery shopping in the UAE, with both partners and consumers embracing the convenience and accessibility it offers.
The rapid delivery-only grocery service HOP expanded its services within Dubai earlier this year.
“The grocery penetration we’re seeing is changing fast. More and more partners are moving online, so the shopping trend is changing. We have our HOP, which is our kind of grocery infrastructure, which is faster delivery and more reliable. We have a kind of two-way playing space. We particularly noticed, one thing on grocery in particular, was actually the rise of kind of direct to consumer brands that are doing very well.
“For example there’s a brand called Humantra doing super well now on the platform. And it was something that people just ordered directly but now they’re ordering it through our platform. So we’re starting to see more of the kind of specialist kind of brands do well. So we think that’s pretty exciting.”
Another notable trend has also emerged: sustainability, from the consumer side all the way through to brands’ packaging.
Sustainability has emerged as a major consideration, with consumers placing increased importance on eco-friendly packaging and a desire for transparent information on health-conscious options. To address these evolving preferences, Deliveroo has taken proactive steps, such as establishing a dedicated Packaging Store to provide restaurants with access to environmentally friendly supplies.
In addition to helping restaurants on its platform offer consumers more eco-friendly cutlery options, Deliveroo was the first brand of its kind to offer the option to opt in or out for plastic cutlery with their deliveries in the UAE, resulting in the reduction of thousands of orders with unnecessary plastic cutlery.
This demonstrates Deliveroo’s ability to stay agile and attuned to consumer preferences, effectively anticipating and meeting their expectations.
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