Online food delivery booms

...the same feature they had back in the US, and today, besides employing nearly 20 Omani call centre employees and 300 drivers to an ever-growing fleet of cars and bikes, their brand is expanding in various governorates.

“Demand for food delivery service is ever increasing in Oman, and that is clearly evident in the number of calls and demands for a variety of food that we receive every day,” adds Moosa, who has more than 800 restaurants under his belt against just 50 eating outlets when he started.

There are no accurate official figures that give a picture of the size of the market for selling and delivering through Internet, especially food delivery requests. Some statistics indicate that in some Gulf countries, the total volume would reach 4.5 billion Saudi riyals, according to a study published by the Saudi Consulting Corporation ‘Ocean X’. This number, as the report says, is likely to rise in due course of time.

The Sultanate occupies fourth position in food delivery service among the GCC countries with an estimated amount of $180 million and the volume of growth is over 35 per cent, the statistics further said.

Along with boarding students, workers, and medical professionals who hardly find time to go their favourite restaurant while at work, and an increasing number of families are resorting to online order at the comfort of their homes.

Experts point a number of reasons to this rapid popularity of food delivery sector.

“Along with growing e-commerce trends, a major shift towards nuclear families in the past decade, comprehensive cultural changes towards empowering women and dual employments, and better exposure and digital transformations are reasons behind such a fad in society,” comments Mohiyuddin Sidhique, a motivational speaker and supply chain expert.