Food portal: Breaking stereotypes, one meal at a time

Deals, discounts reveal massive increase in online sales.

KARACHI:
Pakistanis have traditionally shown that they are fans of dining out – restaurants across the country earn at least $1 billion in annual revenues, according to industry estimates.

But this trend seems to be changing as the number of people who order food online increased significantly when offered exuberant discounts on their favourite food, show statistics compiled by foodpanda.pk.

The online food ordering portal recently ran a three-festival marathon – namely Karachi Pizza Festival, Nationwide Fast Food Festival and the Chinese Festival – at 50% discounts and special deals from more than 120 restaurants in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. These festivals revealed interesting figures about food preferences for online deals, a $15-million plus market.



The Great Karachi Pizza Festival – one-day digital food marathon for the biggest city of Pakistan – significantly affected other parts of the country to inspire pizza orders from foodpanda on the same day.

The number of pizza orders increased 6.5 times in Karachi compared to orders received on an average day. Interestingly, other parts of the country were also influenced by the festival, witnessing over 1% increase in the number of orders.


In case of the Fast Food Festival, orders increased 4.5 times, 3.4 times and 1.9 times in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad respectively.

Deals and discounts on full menus also allowed customers to order Chinese and traditional food items, which were a significant part of the festival, according to the findings of foodpanda. Orders for dishes like Biryani, Tikka, BBQ and Karahi were also received from these cities, it said.

The statistics also revealed that Chinese cuisine didn’t account for significant weight in daily order average, according to the company. However, the festival increased orders for Chinese food 18.3 times in Karachi, 19 times in Lahore and 5.2 times in Islamabad, it said.

These figures also show a striking comparison of other cuisines with traditional food. The figures of Pizza also goes to show a greater market for expansion, concludes the food portal, noting that the acceptance of such digital food festivals can set a base for similar activities in the near future.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2014.



 
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