Virtual Brands and Kitchens Deliver the Keys to Expansion

Deliveroo strengthens its ever-growing investment in new business models that focus on delivering tech-driven retail solutions for restaurants.

For Deliveroo, the appeal of Hong Kong was clear from the start. Hong Kong is an “international food city” that is consistently one of the first to identify up-and-coming food trends. The city’s avid consumer demand for quality and variety of cuisines attracts many overseas restaurants, including current or future Michelin Star recipients looking to test out the international market.

As such, Deliveroo sees huge potential for Hong Kong’s food delivery market, which matches other international cities like New York or Beijing. The trend of customers ordering food online has grown tremendously in Hong Kong, and Deliveroo has seen increased customer retention as recent disruptions have accelerated the adoption of food delivery as a habit for many customers.

Partnering for Success

When COVID-19 social distancing measures required a premium Chinese restaurant to look for alternative revenue sources, Deliveroo provided an innovative way to maintain business continuity. The restaurant partnered with Deliveroo to leverage the platform’s capabilities to build a secondary, virtual brand that catered to the mass market. Doing so made the business more resilient in the face of disruption and allowed them to service a completely new customer segment without impacting the prestige of their original brand.

Deliveroo not only helps restaurants increase audience reach and revenue, but also gather significant behavioural insights, allowing them to attract new customers and keep existing customers hooked.

“As experts in food ourselves, we want to support new and interesting restaurant brands while making sure people have access to the food they want, whenever and wherever they want it,” said Greg Kwan, the company’s Head of Corporate Affairs.

By using data, restaurants can build insights on location, cuisine preferences and price to create a tailor-made menu for target customers and locations. Post-launch diagnostics of customer behaviour and marketing support is also available for restaurants.

With changing consumer behaviour and increasing demand for eCommerce and ASAP delivery, Deliveroo has extended their partnerships to grocery and department convenience stores to supply digital savvy consumers with convenient grocery delivery services, becoming an integral part of the Hong Kong digital ecosystem in the process.

Deliveroo’s Editions “Super Kitchens”

Deliveroo works with restaurants to create Cloud Kitchens, or “Super Kitchens” from the Deliveroo Editions’ spaces. Restaurants who work from a Cloud Kitchen only need to prepare the staff and the ingredients, without needing to set up new premises. The company also invests upfront in the Editions kitchens to expand its Editions footprint across multiple locations in the city, with the latest site opened in Tseung Kwan O in late 2021.