With lot of changes being brought in by smart technology in the past decade, the growth in number of people ordering food online in Oman has seen an increase with more and more people opting to order food online. Oman’s homegrown food delivery apps and ventures initiated by ambitious youth are standing tall with other international players.
Seemingly somewhat similar to the neighbourhood coffee shops delivering food to their loyal clients on motorbikes, food home delivery apps work within a wider network across a large number of restaurants and so does the clientele.
“The sight of bikes of food joints and delivery vehicles of restaurants in front of the houses has become so common and far from surprising, which was not the case some two or three years ago when people would stare at the driver if an unknown vehicle is parked in front of a house,” a resident of Al Amerat said.
A rough estimate made by a local food delivery service provider concludes that on a given day his startup would receive more than 2,000 orders in cities like Muscat, Salalah, Suhar, Barka, Nizwa and Sur, besides orders for grocery delivery. However, the volume of business varies depending on a number of factors like the day of the week, occasions, time of the day and others.
GROWING NUMBERS
“We receive more than 2,000 orders in a day against just 200 some two years ago when we launched the app,” said Moosa al Lawati, a young Omani who started the food delivery app ‘Akeed’. Delivery Hero, Talabat, Daleel 1010 are some of the names to reckon with in terms of online and mobile food ordering delivery systems in Oman.
After completing his studies in the United States, Moosa along with his friend Gaurav initiated the project ‘Akeed’ to let their friends in the Sultanate enjoy 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.
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