At Cross-Border Magazine, we like to have inspiring discussions about cross-border e-commerce. In this article, we are focusing on Deliveroo Singapore in partnership with eTail Asia. Deliveroo offers consumers food choices for every occasion.

We spoke with Minjoo Lee, Head of Marketing at Deliveroo Singapore, to discuss their cross-border and e-commerce journey.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and Deliveroo Singapore?

As Head of Marketing at Deliveroo Singapore, I oversee all activities related to Brand, Marketing, and Partnership and spearhead strategies and implementation. Over the past two years in the Deliveroo Singapore team, I have been honored to be part of the core management - giving me opportunities to build a high-performing team.

In fact, our latest consumer survey results found that consumers are now used to the convenience food delivery services bring, so much so that it is part of their daily lives. This has encouraged us to continue engaging and building loyalty among consumers. As a food delivery platform committed to offering consumers the food choices they seek for every occasion, we have been. We will be actively adding an even more comprehensive array of options. These include healthy options like SaladStop! and VIOS by Blu Kouzina. Also, not forgetting their craving for local food, we onboarded the likes of CRAVE in order to better meet their food preferences along with our local hawker stalls island-wide.

At the heart of it all, as a global F&B delivery platform, technology is still the baseline of our operations and offerings to cater to our stakeholders effectively and meaningfully - be it keeping our customers fed, creating accretive revenue streams for our restaurant and grocery partners, or providing riders with access to earning opportunities with flexible work which fits around their schedules.

Can you tell us about Deliveroo’s global expansion throughout the years? 

Deliveroo was first started out of London in 2013 by our founder and CEO, Will Shu. He discovered a city full of great restaurants, but he was amazed that so few of them delivered food. As such, he made it his personal mission to bring the best local restaurants directly to people’s doors. Since then, we have grown rapidly and now operate in 10 markets worldwide, working with 179,000 restaurants and grocers, 150,000 riders, serving millions of consumers.

In 2015, we entered Singapore to further build on our goal of making food accessible to all, especially given the strong food culture here. Since then, we have expanded to our current 80 people-strong teams, working with over 10,000 restaurant and grocery partners and 8,000 delivery riders - all of whom played very pivotal roles when we entered the pandemic.  

Moving into the post-pandemic phase, restaurants still recognize the importance of food delivery and that it is complementary to their dine-in services, bringing in additional revenue. To best support restaurants in fully embracing the increasing demand for deliveries, we work closely with our restaurant partners to provide insights and help identify opportunities in order to best engage their delivery customer base. 

Beyond restaurants, we also launched our grocery delivery offering in Singapore in 2021, after noticing consumers’ growing reliance on delivery, especially how it increased exponentially during the pandemic.   

Just last October, we further grew our global footprint by entering the Qatar market to connect consumers with a range of local and international restaurant choices, coupled with quick and reliable deliveries. This is our third market in the Middle East after the UAE and Kuwait, where we have been seeing strong business performance and consumer demands.  

As we continue offering a plethora of food delivery choices and convenience for our customers, we also remain committed to giving back to those in need in the communities we serve in. 

• In doing so, we recently rallied for greater donation support from our customers by expanding our partnership with local Singaporean charity, Food From The Heart (FFTH), to contribute an additional 43,000 meals to beneficiaries through this current campaign.  
• Aside from our campaigns with FFTH, we have also been actively organizing Ramadan initiatives that seek to create positive impacts over the past years. On this, we have recently collaborated with Darul Makmur Mosque in Singapore this past month to reach over 250 mosque-goers each week across four weeks by distributing meals for the breaking of the fast onsite at the mosque.  
• On top of our core business as a food delivery platform, we are regularly looking for new ways to be a force for good and give back to the communities in which we work, and we are grateful for the opportunities that have allowed us to do so thus far.   

And what about Deliveroo’s e-commerce journey? 

Deliveroo has observed a growing appetite among Singaporeans for food and grocery delivery services. On the e-commerce front, food delivery has definitely become an indispensable part of Singaporeans’ daily lives, and this trend has not dissipated post-pandemic, with us seeing more customers and restaurant and grocery partners on the platform.  

Post-pandemic, Singaporeans’ lives, and food delivery services have become even more intertwined. As highlighted in our latest consumer survey results, 60% of Singaporeans say they use food delivery services now more regularly compared to pre-pandemic times. A large majority (70%) anticipate they will use food delivery services at least once a week. 

Currently, grocery delivery services are also on the rise as more consumers turn to digital/online means of commerce. Almost 60% prefer getting groceries delivered over going to the supermarket. In a 2020 survey commissioned by Deliveroo, only over a fifth said they were most likely to order from grocery stores when using food delivery services. 

With the pandemic shifting consumer preferences and wanting to adopt healthier lifestyles, we’ve also pivoted our offerings to better cater to these demands. As part of our ever-evolving journey, Deliveroo has remained committed to meeting consumer demand for more healthy food options through convenient access to a wide range of restaurants and grocery offerings on our platform. In the last two years, Deliveroo has seen a significant increase in orders for our ‘Healthy’ and ‘Healthy Options’ categories. 

Food and grocery delivery services are definitely here to stay in Singapore. For many F&B businesses, food delivery is even an indispensable part of their business. As demand for food and grocery platforms continues to grow, Deliveroo is committed to serving the diverse taste buds of all our customers. 

What are some offline and online strategies adopted by Deliveroo Singapore? 

As dine-in resumes its pre-pandemic levels, it’s important that we adapt yet still retain the core value proposition of Deliveroo, be it to consumers or restaurant partners. As found in our report, while food delivery remains a key part of our everyday lives, we have empowered consumers to have the option of ordering online and heading to our partners’ restaurants/stores for self-collection via the Pickup option. This encourages footfall from our app into the stores/restaurants of the operators (in line with the return of dine-ins), enabling another direct touchpoint between operators and consumers.  

Online 

We are constantly ensuring we stay relevant and connected with consumers by being the platform that delivers happiness through food. Whether they are ordering their favorite food or trying something new, Deliveroo strives to be the delivery service they turn to help spark that moment of joy when consumers get their food delivered to their doorsteps. Concurrently, we continuously support our partners and merchants to unlock incremental revenue generation through our understanding of consumer preferences and demands. This not only helps customers discover new and amazing food options but ensures that our restaurant partners get connected to these consumers.  

Offline

While being largely driven by online engagement due to us being an online delivery platform, we turn to offline activations mainly for key milestones. One such example was our 7th birthday celebration pop-up event in Singapore last November, which saw us bringing treats for fellow November birthday babies in the CBD. Attendees got to partake in lucky draws to win gifts, merchandise, and Deliveroo vouchers up to S$1000. Furthermore, the first 20 November birthday celebrants who showed up got to redeem additional $50 Deliveroo vouchers. We further complemented this milestone with various online deals and promotions for our customers.  

What are some of the challenges Deliveroo faced with global expansion and online selling? 

While we continue to stay true to our mission to be the definitive online delivery platform of choice and provide consumers with access to the food they love, there is also the challenge of balancing great deals for customers in a highly competitive industry while also ensuring that we don’t end up just forging a transactional/deal-driven relationship with them. As such, our engagement strategies are constantly refreshed to ensure that we remain the platform that brings joy to the daily lives of our customers through them receiving the food they love rather than them turning to us purely for deals.  

And what has Deliveroo learned from these challenges? 

The amazing thing about Deliveroo is the ability to impact so many people’s lives, whether it’s keeping our customers fed, creating accretive revenue streams for our restaurant and grocery partners, or providing riders with access to earning opportunities and flexible work which fits around their schedules. Despite concerns about inflation and the challenging economic landscape, we see that customers are still turning to us as we bring value not just through deals but the range of food offerings, reliability of delivery, and much more.  

Interestingly, through our service standards and our emphasis on giving back to the community, we observed more consumers leveraging their food orders as opportunities to show their kindness - be it for rider tips or rounding up their orders to donate to our beneficiaries from Food From The Heart. These notions further spur our team to do even better, as it showcases the importance of coming together in such challenging and constantly changing times. We strive to continue delivering on these promises across all three sides of our marketplace and stay committed to continuously tackling any challenge that might come our way. 

What would be a piece of advice you would give other people in the same industry? 

Focus on building close relationships with consumers - only then will you be able to truly find out what they are seeking for (whether it’s value, food options, preferences, etc.) and hence be readily able to embrace changes accordingly to cater to the ever-evolving consumer and market trends.  

And why must people not miss the eTail event? 

As the marquee retail business conference, eTail Asia brings with it insights from a plethora of industry experts, including Deliveroo. With the retail and commerce industry constantly needing to adapt according to consumers' ever-evolving preferences, businesses need to stay abreast, and there is no better way to do so than to be exposed to fellow industry partners, be it exchanging ideas or key learnings.  

Find out more here!

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Direct Link creates borderless e-commerce solutions for global delivery. They are specialists in customer – specific delivery solutions and the distribution of e-commerce goods to anywhere in the world. They know the people, the systems and the ways between. 

Every year they conduct studies of the development of cross-border e-commerce,  gaining deeper knowledge of consumer behaviour and general conditions for e-commerce in many different key markets. The e-commerce in Europe report presents the state of e-commerce in 12 European countries – Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and  the United Kingdom. Take a look and get some insights! 

297 million European e-commerce consumers! 

The number of European e-commerce consumers has grown steadily in recent years  and they are now 297 million. One important reason for this growth, of course, is the coronavirus pandemic, which left its mark on all European countries. 

When it comes to online shopping from abroad, 216 million European consumers  made cross-border purchases, a marginal decrease compared to the previous year. This is also an effect of the pandemic, due to delivery problems and national lockdowns. Cross-border purchases are expected to increase gradually as  pandemic-related disruptions diminish. For cross-border shopping, China was again  the favorite country to buy from for Europeans, followed by the UK, United States and Germany. 

It’s clear that the pandemic has aided growth in e-commerce in most European markets, but will this situation last? In this year’s survey, we asked consumers if they  planned to increase or reduce their online shopping after the pandemic. 

To learn more about the exciting European e-commerce market, order your free copy of the report today! 

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Klarna, known for its ‘buy now, pay later’ solution launches a new one-stop shopping app. Shoppers can place orders, see special offers, receive alerts on price reductions, manage payments and track deliveries within the app. All online stores are visible in the app, even if they are not working with Klarna.

The company has been expanding its services. In June, it launched a Comparison Shopping Service, that offers brands the opportunity to reach browsing consumers with their products. The company has also been expanding across Europe.

Consumers would rather use just one shopping app

Many consumers wish for a more streamlined shopping experience because of the abundance of shopping apps available. Klarna says that the new app will change the complete shopping experience of consumers fundamentally.

Research by Klarna amongst Dutch consumers shows that up to 74% of them would prefer using just one shopping app in which they can perform various actions. Such an app would bring multiple benefits, of which time saving (57%) and easier shopping experience (54%) are the most important ones for consumers. Additionally, up to 51% of Dutch consumers claim to be overwhelmed by the amount of shopping apps.

Making online shopping easier

The app comes with a large set of features that are supposed to make shopping easier. Consumers see curated content based on their favorite stores. Users of the app can set up interest-free flexible payment options with all retailers. Whether they partner with Klarna or not. Customers use ‘one time cards’ in order to do this.

Klarna will add more functionalities to the app in the short term, such as a collective loyalty card environment, extra money-saving tools, social functions such as live shopping events and product data. These data will show price history, reviews and availability in the store. Moreover, the company also wants to enable integrations with third parties, to provide more solutions and services.

The app is now available on mobile devices with iOS and Android. Currently, it is available in the Netherlands, the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Poland and France.

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Global online sales have grown with 11% in Q3 2021. This is a higher growth than in the previous quarter, when online sales grew with 2%. However, compared to the same time last year, it is visible that the e-commerce growth is slowing down. The European amount of sales seems to be returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Globally, it seems that online stores have reached sales growth as before the COVID-19 outbreak. The year-on-year growth reached 11% in Q3. Meanwhile last year that growth was 63% in that same period.

E-commerce in Eastern Europe is growing faster than the global average. This quarter it achieved a 40% growth compared to the same quarter last year. The UK reached a growth of 20%, the Netherlands reached 18% and Italy 15%.

Higher conversion rates in some countries

The global conversion rate, which reflect the percentage of website visitors that decide to place an order, in Q3 was 2.4%. Online sellers in the UK and the Netherlands achieved conversion rates above the global average. Within the Netherlands, the conversion rate was 3.2% and in the UK this rate was 2.8%.

Germany and Belgium scored the global average, while Eastern Europe scored just below with 2.2%. France reached 1.4%, while Spain and Italy both reached 1.2%. This means that less visitors are willing to place an order in these countries.

Abandoned cart rates in Europe

While Belgian online stores reach the global average on conversion rates, their cart abandonment rate is lower than the average. On computer, Belgian stores reached an abandoned cart rate of 66%. Meanwhile the global percentage is 77%. On tablet, the rate is also lower (74%). The global rate on tablets is 81%. 83% Belgian online sellers on mobile devices abandon their cart. This is also lower than the global rate (86%).

The Netherlands also scored better abandoned cart rates on all devices (69%, 78% and 80% respectively). Sellers in the UK have better scores as well (74%, 76% and 83% respectively).

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57% of online shoppers around the world have made at least one online cross-border purchase in the last twelve months. Meanwhile a further 22% have considered doing so. Additionally, 43% agree or strongly agree that doing more online shopping in general during COVID-19 means they are now more willing to consider cross-border e-commerce purchases.

Clothing and footwear is the sector most likely to generate cross-border e-commerce sales. More than half (56%) of consumers saying they are likely to consider ordering these products from abroad. Next came sport, hobbies, leisure (44%), followed by health and beauty (42%), and consumer electronics, computers and, phones (41%).

Not giving a foreign company a second change

However, many consumers continue to have a poor opinion of the delivery experience for international e-commerce. In addition, they are less forgiving if things go wrong. For example, a little more than 59% of online shoppers agree (24% strongly) they are less likely to give a company in another country a second chance if they make a mistake with their order.

Consumers believe cross-border purchases bring delivery issues

Approximately 66% say they believe cross-border purchases will arrive later than promised. Meanwhile 47% believe they are more likely to be damaged in transit. Moreover, 69% believe delivery charges will be higher for international orders. And 59% believe they will have to pay additional fees or duties which have not been made clear at checkout.

Overall, product returns remain one of the biggest concerns related to cross-border purchases. 73% believes product returns will be more difficult.

Difficulty getting help

On top of this, online shoppers think it will be more difficult to get help if they need information about their order. 64% believes it will be harder to contact the company to ask about their order than if buying from a domestic business.

People are becoming more open to shopping on e-commerce sites based in other countries. Ultimately, this is great news for online retail businesses. However, businesses need to address the key concerns about shipping and delivery.

Encouraging cross-border sales

Certain factors also encourage consumers to make an online purchase from a foreign company. Top of the list for online shoppers was a guaranteed free returns policy. A large majority (72%) of respondents agree this would encourage them to make an online purchase from a company in another country. Next came the ability to easily track orders online (71%), with up-front transparency about additional charges or taxes for cross-border orders (70%).

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The protection of personal data on the internet been a hot topic in Germany. Germans in general seem to have a rather distrustful attitude towards online services. One in three Germans only uses websites and apps that they know and trust. More than 40% of German internet users are concerned that companies collect too much of their personal data while they are online. In addition, almost one in two users tries to share as little personal information as possible.

Not all online services arouse the same amount of distrust among German online shoppers, though. Social media platforms or blogs and forums, for example, are among the less trusted services. Meanwhile search engines and video portals reach higher trust levels. Online stores rank in midfield. When asked about actual brands and companies, the trust that German internet users place in online services also varies greatly.

42% trust Amazon with their personal data

Having in mind that only 17% of German internets users state that they generally trust online stores when it comes to the protection of their personal data. The number one most trusted online brand might come as a surprise. With 42% of German internet users trustfully sharing their personal data with Amazon, the e-commerce giant, is the most frequently trusted online brand in the eyes of Germans.

Thus, Amazon also reaches significantly higher trust levels than other tech giants such as Google, Apple or Facebook. Only one in five German internet users trusts Facebook to handle their data responsibly, for instance.

Huawei and LG are the least trusted brands

The Asian tech companies Huawei and LG reach the lowest levels of trust in this comparison. Only 11% and 10% of German internet users have a good feeling when sharing their personal data with the two brands, respectively.

32% do not trust the companies at all

Most noticeably, none of the mentioned brands reaches trust levels above 50%. In other words, most Germans still do not trust any of the brands to handle their personal data in a responsible way. Moreover, 32% explicitly state that they trust none of the mentioned companies.

This means that there is still a lot of work to do for internet companies in the field of data protection and transparency in the eyes of the German online population.

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In the second quarter of 2021, Dutch consumers spent more than €800 million at foreign online stores. This is almost 17% more than in the same period a year earlier. The turnover of e-commerce sellers in the Netherlands showed comparable growth. Growth was considerably lower for both European and Dutch internet sellers than in previous quarters.

Since 2014, consumers in the Netherlands have spent more each quarter at European online stores than in the same period a year earlier. Particularly since the outbreak of COVID-19, these expenditures have risen sharply. In 2020, quarterly growth peaked at over 38%. In the first three months of 2021, a record growth of almost 64% was achieved. After a full year of COVID-19, growth in the second quarter of 2021 was for the first time comparable to the years prior to the crisis.

The figures relate to online purchases by Dutch consumers from companies established outside the Netherlands and within the EU, and exclude VAT. The difference between Dutch and foreign web shops is not always easy to see for a consumer. Web stores are often set up in various languages ​​and foreign web stores may have a Dutch version.

Decrease in Dutch internet sales growth

In the second quarter of 2021, the turnover of Dutch e-commerce sellers was more than 16% higher than in the same period a year earlier. This percentage is also significantly lower than in previous quarters during COVID-19. In the first quarter of 2021, there was a record growth of almost 85%. The turnover of Dutch internet sellers includes sales to both Dutch and foreign consumers.

With regard to Dutch internet sellers, a distinction can be made between pure web shops and multichannel retailers. Pure online stores will generate approximately 15% more turnover in the second quarter of 2021. While the online turnover of multichannel retailers was more than 18% higher than a year earlier. Multichannel retailers saw their internet turnover rise sharply since COVID-19. In the first quarter of 2021, online sales were even more than twice as high as a year earlier.

Limited turnover share of European webshops

Although purchases by the Dutch from European web stores have increased sharply over the years, the effect of this on consumer spending is limited. These purchases form a relatively small part of all consumer spending. In 2019, online purchases accounted for no more than 2% of total Dutch retail sales. In the second quarter of 2021, the total turnover (store, internet and market turnover) of the retail trade in the Netherlands was approximately 8% higher than in the second quarter of 2020.

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Due to the fast growth of e-commerce in the UK, many e-commerce companies have seen their data needs increase. Currently, 57% of retail and e-commerce companies are scraping external public web data. External data can help their marketing and implement effective pricing strategies.

The e-commerce and retail sector in the UK have grown at an unprecedented rate. Online retail sales reached a 13-year high in 2020, with a 36% year-on-year increase. This was the highest rate seen since 2007. This growth will continue through 2021.

Looking for external sources of market data

With this exponential growth in the e-commerce sector, online stores are looking for ways to get ahead of the competition. External data can be useful to predict market trends. Forecasting customer demand becomes easier when you can use historical data. Implementing effective pricing strategies becomes easier when they are based on data about market trends, competitor actions, and consumer demand. E-commerce businesses in the UK are increasingly looking at external sources of market data.

The e-commerce sector has also doubled down on its data needs in the last twelve months. Companies are want to gain more information in novel pricing strategies, shipping information, stock levels, customer reviews, and customer sentiment.

An explosive growth within e-commerce

E-commerce has experienced explosive growth in the past few years. Any data left on publicly accessible websites becomes fair game for companies looking to gain insight into market movements, consumer sentiment, etc. Therefore, data-savvy companies jump at the opportunity to improve their profitability.

Increasing need for data to make better decisions

Up to 51% of respondents use traditional internal data sources, such as CRM, POS and supply chain systems. Less than half (38%) use third-party data, market research and database aggregators. Additionally, a small majority of 57% are currently scraping external public data.

The e-commerce companies are either planning to increase their data collecting budgets (52%) or keep the same budgets (45%) for the next twelve months. This shows that these companies are aware of the increasing need for data to make better business decisions.

Automated processes are challenging

Up to 47% are still looking into manual data collection and cleaning. Automated processes are more cost-efficient, but it seems that businesses find such implementations challenging. There are significant opportunities for those who can implement automated data management processes.

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Meal kit delivery service HelloFresh launches in Italy. This is the second European expansion this year. The company also set foot in Norway this Summer. The service is now active in nine European countries.

HelloFresh is known as a leading food subscription company, delivering meal kits to customer’s doorsteps. These kits include ingredients and recipes. Italy can now be added to a list of nine European countries in which the subscription service operates. This includes its home country Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands as well as Austria, Switzerland and Sweden.

HelloFresh has big plans for Italy

Currently, the meal kit market in Italy is still young. This is partly because Italians prefer to cook at home instead of ordering meals. Therefore, HelloFresh says it wants to establish and define the sector consisting of 260 million households.

The company will start out big, with around 75% of households being able to order meal kits at the beginning of the launch. The remaining households will follow in the near future, HelloFresh says.

“We are looking forward to broadly establishing and leading the meal kit category in Italy,” co-founder Thomas Griesel says. “Our thorough analysis has shown that the Italian market is ready for meal kits and that the country offers great conditions to expand our total addressable market.”

Opening an office and warehouse in Milan

To start operations at a high level, the food service has opened an office in Milan as well as a new warehouse. The fulfilment center is located in the Lodi province, not far from the city. The company also plans on sourcing local ingredients. Thus, providing traditional Italian recipes as well as recipes from fifteen international markets.

Landing a spot in the top ten biggest e-commerce companies

In the second quarter of 2021, HelloFresh delivered 254 million meals and accounted for 7.7 million active customers. Last year revenue more than doubled, amounting to a total turnover of €3.75 billion. The company was also able to enter the top ten biggest e-commerce companies of the Netherlands.

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Almost three quarters of consumers (73%) say that they often or sometimes go out of their way to engage and buy from brands that closely align to their personal values. For example, being more socially and environmentally responsible. In addition, 40% have actually stopped using brands that do not align with their values.

52% of people say they think about whether the brand they are buying products or services from supports the ethical issues they feel strongly about. Nearly half (49%) would switch to brands that are more aligned to their ethical values. Moreover, 46% say brands should be doing a lot better when it comes to being environmentally responsible. 25% even say that environmental issues were their number one reason for choosing a service or product from a brand.

Environmental issues are the biggest concern

Environmental issues are the biggest concern for most consumers. 61% stating that they are most worried about the future of the planet. Poverty (49%), human rights (42%), and equality & diversity (41%) follow.

Given people’s concerns around the environment, 72% of people say they recycle as much as they can. Additionally, 70% sat they focus on reducing food waste as much as possible. Well over half (57%) sell, re-use, repurpose or donate unwanted clothes. Lastly, 33% buy fair trade or ethically sourced items.

Ethical reasons heavily influence brand and shopping choices, with 87% believing brands should be held accountable for their actions to consumers. Over half feels strongly about this.

Brands and manufacturers must take the lead

Furthermore, 61% say brands and manufacturers must take the lead in being more responsible. Meanwhile 60% of respondents say driving change is down to each individual who must change their day-to-day behaviour to help create a more sustainable, environmentally responsible way of life.

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