UK Deliveroo orders soar by 59% despite restaurants reopening
Deliveroo enjoyed a 59% increase in orders in the UK and Ireland between July and September despite the return of dine-in restaurant eating, as a partnership with Amazon more than doubled members of its premium subscription service.
The food delivery platform, which has performed strongly during the coronavirus pandemic, with customers often under lockdown restrictions, reported 35.8m orders in the third quarter compared with 22.6m in the same period last year.
Adding in its international market sales, that totalled 74.6m orders, up from 45.4m, a 64% rise. The company expects the gross transactional value (GTV) of all its orders to grow by 60% to 70% this year, having previously told investors to expect growth of 50% to 60%. Deliveroo’s overall GTV increased by 58% in the third quarter to £1.59bn.
“While we are mindful of current potential macroeconomic disruptions and uncertainties, we expect further strong performance in the remainder of the year and we are increasing our fullyear growth guidance,” said Will Shu, the founder and chief executive.
The company said that the average customer audience frequency stayed stable at 3.3 times a month in the third quarter “despite the widespread removal of lockdown restrictions”.
However, Deliveroo brushed aside a fall in the average number of monthly active consumers, from 7.8 million in the second quarter to 7.5 million in the third quarter, as reflecting “typical seasonality, especially in European markets”.
In the UK and Ireland, GTV fell quarter on quarter, from £921m to £852m, which the company said was down to seasonality effects. In its international markets, GTV fell from £818m to £742m period on period.
Deliveroo said its new partnership with Amazon – which gives all paying Prime members a free year of access to Deliveroo Plus – offering free unlimited delivery on orders above £25 – had more than doubled sign-ups in the UK and Ireland since it was launched in mid-September.
The company also launched a grocery delivery service, called Hop, with Morrisons in September.