GrabFood leads food delivery service in Indonesia as 54% users prefer Grab over other apps

GrabFood is named as the top food delivery platform used by both merchants and users, as reported by digital research firm Snapcart. The firm conducted an online research which studied merchant and consumer perception in Indonesia. 

“While a lot of research on the food delivery industry has focused on the consumer experience, we wanted to take a more holistic approach in evaluating both the state of the industry as well as the competitiveness of the major players. That is why we included a merchant survey component,” said Snapcart Chief Revenue Officer Astrid Wiliandry. 

She added that the merchant and consumer experience are two sides of the same coin, and findings on the merchant front were similar to what it saw with consumers. For example, Snapcart found that consumers used and spent more on GrabFood. Likewise, merchants were also using and earning more from the platform.

The research involved tier 1 and tier 2 cities in Indonesia, namely Greater Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Medan, Lampung, Purwokerto, Banjarmasin, Samarinda and Makassar.

The survey involved 500 owners or people-in-charge of restaurants and food and beverage shops who have used food delivery platforms and more than 570 consumers who have used food delivery services.

According to the survey, 82% merchants are registered with GrabFood, while 71% are registered with GoFood. 28% merchants are also registered with ShopeeFood. 

Merchants registered with both GrabFood and GoFood said that they get more daily income from GrabFood. Merchants usually make an average daily sales of Rp750,000 from GrabFood and Rp670,000 from GoFood. 

It can be concluded that the average daily income from GrabFood is higher by 13% compared to GoFood. However, the gap is lower in bigger cities, such as Jabodetabek, Bandung and Surabaya, as these areas only recorded a 10% gap. 

The gap is much higher in smaller cities, such as Medan, Lampung, Jambi, Purwokerto, Banjarmasin, Samarinda and Makassar, as merchants earn 16% more income with GrabFood. 

Meanwhile, 36% of users stated that they only started using these services in the past 12 months, while 54% reported that their food delivery usage increased during the pandemic.

In terms of brand awareness, both GrabFood and GoFood recorded almost the same score. 100% of the respondents said they are both aware of GrabFood and GoFood, while only 52% are aware of ShopeeFood. 

Similarly, 92% and 90% of respondents said they have used GrabFood and GoFood, while only 35% said that they have used ShopeeFood.

In terms of preference, 54% of respondents chose GrabFood as their preferred food delivery platform, while 34% prefer GoFood and 12% prefer ShopeeFood. 80% said that they have used GrabFood in the last one month, followed by GoFood (68%) and ShopeeFood (28%). 

Snapcart also found the top reasons that drive users to choose one application over the other. 57% mentioned promotional deals as the reason, while 35% cited the application’s user-friendliness. 25% chose a particular platform because it has a cheaper delivery fee. 

“We found that the top non-promo reasons for choosing a particular service came down to the variety of merchants and cuisines available, the usability of the application and the ease of getting a delivery rider,” Astrid added.

The survey also considered the measures of brand love in addition to measures of utility. 85% of consumers agreed that both GrabFood and GoFood are considered as the brands loved by Indonesians.

Both merchants and users believe that GrabFood is more valuable as it is also available in other Southeast Asian countries. Additionally, 95% of surveyed merchants believe that Grab had helped businesses and entrepreneurs grow, with 93% agreeing the same for Gojek.