What do people do during a pandemic? Well, for the past year, we’ve all been figuring that out the hard way. Especially during times when we’re all on lockdown, there’s not a whole lot we can do to entertain ourselves outside of our homes. Hence, eating meals has taken on an entirely different level of importance. With COVID-19 raging on, ordering takeout and delivery has become a pastime in our nation.
It isn’t just that Canadians love to order food. They love to do so online. Gone are the days when the telephone was our only food-ordering resource. Today, people are quick to turn to their mobile devices to locate restaurant apps and websites that allow them to order food directly. Both the convenience online ordering provides and the need to stay at home for safety reasons has made ordering food online one of the most popular activities in Canada.
Online orders picked up dramatically in 2020.
Back in November, Laura Grande of the Food Network reported on the findings of a study conducted by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It researched the impact of COVID-19 on the food industry and e-commerce. Researchers surveyed 7,290 Canadians about their eating habits over the previous pandemic-impacted six months.
“The findings reveal that a total of 31.3 per cent of Canadians have used curbside pickup or home delivery services from grocery stores in recent months, while 28.6 per cent used an online service to get food delivered from a restaurant,” reveals Grande, “Another 26.3 per cent specifically used a phone application to order food (think: UberEats and Skip the Dishes) with 12.8 per cent opting for make-it-yourself meal kits.”
To summarize, in the six months leading up to November 2020, 63.8 per cent of Canadians ordered food online in some form. The most popular foods ordered were fast food (31.1 percent) followed by fruits and veggies (22 percent), dairy products (21.5 percent), baked goods (20.6 percent) and alcoholic beverages (8.7 percent).
Canadians love burritos, butter chicken and chicken nuggets.
As 2020 drew to a close, more reports were released about Canada’s pandemic-impacted eating habits. On VancouverIsAwesome.com, Lindsay William-Ross reported on the findings of a DoorDash survey. According to its data, burritos, butter chicken and chicken nuggets topped the list of most popular foods to order. In addition, treats like “mozzarella sticks saw a whopping 1700% increase in popularity in 2020, while hot wings jumped 1400%,” reports William-Ross.
She also reveals that Canadians are spending a lot more on their food orders than ever before. “DoorDash says the largest order on its platform in 2020 was $1,087 and it included Souvlaki, Gyros, Pastitso (Greek Lasagna), and more,” writes William-Ross, “Hopefully that was for one heck of a gathering sometime between January and mid-March, or a seriously socially-distanced backyard hangout!”
Can your customers order food from your website?
You’re not just relying on third-party food delivery apps to allow your customers to order food from your restaurant, are you? Contact Unity Payments and quickly set up your own online ordering system for your restaurant! To get started, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at info@unitypayments.ca.
