Impact of COVID-19 on Food Industry and How E-commerce is helping

Impact of COVID-19 on Food Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the food industry globally. Governments across the world have imposed complete shutdowns for restaurants and bars that have also directly affected other industries like food production, wine, beverages farming, etc.

The seated dinner restaurant market in the US has declined by 83.01% as of 31st May 2020 (year-over-year analytics by Statista).

The pandemic has not only changed the food and beverage industry but also drastically changed the eating habits of people. Below are some facts and figures that help us understand the changing eating habits of people in the US in 2020 since the pandemic.

We all know that the food industry is one of the hard-hit industries by the COVID-19 crisis. Studies have shown a great fall in the open restaurants and bars but not on the whole food, dairy, and instant food products.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the buying behavior of customers too. There was only a specific range of customers that preferred buying online while the rest chose to look and feel the product physically at the brick and mortar retail shops. This even continued until these physical shops ran out of stock when customers overstocked for essentials during the lockdown.

How E-Commerce is helping brands to revive

At present customers have no choice but to opt for brands that are supplying their needs through e-commerce. Research says that customers now tend to buy products they need or want irrespective of the brand they prefer. That means the customers you once counted as loyal are no longer the same and they can go to any other brand that gets the product delivered safely.

Before the COVID-19 crisis, businesses focused on getting a wide range of products, from essentials to luxury. Talking about food especially, customers looked for a wide range of offerings, right from types of dairy products to a variety of cuisine in restaurants and different types of beverages.

Looking at the current situation, luxury is not what customers want, but their interest has shifted to what is much needed. Moreover, the focus is on what are the safety measures taken by the providers and how hygienic it is.

While the dine-in restaurants are shut, take-away meals are a boom. Research says that customers are preferring more home-cooked meals and are surging towards buying whole food products or canned ready to cook ones.

Businesses that have understood the need of the hour are making their move to e-commerce and are coming up with more online features. Brands are now focusing on delivery hygiene like contactless delivery and are being innovative with it.

For example, Swiggy, India’s top food delivery app recently introduced “THE GENIE SUNDAY POTLUCK” where customers can choose the participants in the potluck, their family and friends, cook delicious food at home and by using Swiggy’s Genie they can get it delivered safely to each other’s houses.

Swiggy was thoughtful enough to understand that customers are missing the regular get-togethers they had before the pandemic but also was innovative in introducing the idea of a socially distanced potluck and yet enjoy the food cooked by their loved ones.

Article source: https://article-realm.com/article/Finance/6625-Impact-of-COVID-19-on-Food-Industry-and-How-E-commerce-is-helping.html