India’s online food delivery platforms saw a massive surge in orders on New Year’s Eve 2023, surpassing all previous records. According to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants, Indians placed 6.5 million food-delivery orders online on New Year’s Eve 2023 (NYE23), which is 18 percent higher in comparison to NYE22. NYE22 itself was massive wherein a total of 5.5 million orders were placed, compared to 5 million orders in NYE21. The Average Order Value (AOV) on the day was also at least 30 percent higher compared to other days of the year.This suggests that customers were ordering more food and potentially spending more per person to celebrate the occasion. Premium restaurants also saw increased patronage as people treated themselves on NYE.
The demand wasn’t limited to dinner and late-night orders. Breakfast orders on NYE were 1.5-2 times the daily average, indicating early celebrations. However, dinner and late-night orders reached even greater heights, with a 2.5-3 times increase in gross merchandise value (GMV) compared to normal days. The spike in food delivery orders on NYE23 was a nationwide phenomenon as Metros, Tier-1 cities and rest of Indian cities exhibited almost similar growth in order volumes on this day.
“Spike days like the IPL, Cricket World Cups, Diwali, NYE etc. are critical for online food delivery services as customers order more and spend more,” said Abhijit Routray, Associate Partner at Redseer.
“It is also important for the brands and platforms to be able to serve the increased load on these days as customer experience cannot be hampered on these celebratory occasions. It was heartening to see the jubilation in the ecosystem on NYE23, with a record number of orders being delivered, while customers reported high satisfaction with the services. More importantly, the fact that the momentum was seen across India and across city tiers was testament to the size of the opportunity in India,” he added.
Curated by Tanaya Pradhan