Takeaways taking preference over eating out, research reveals

Diners are continuing to shun eating out in restaurants in favour of home delivery and takeaway meals despite the end of lockdown restrictions, according to new research from hospitality technology company Epos Hybrid.

Its research found that in December 2021, takeaway and home delivery orders accounted for 50.73% of all orders placed through its platform compared to 45.66% for eating in. In August 2021, eat-in orders accounted for 51% of all orders however.

Epos Hybrid’s head of Growth, Andrew Gibbon, said takeaway and home deliveries continue to eat into market share, while there is a “clear decline” from the highs in eat-in activity seen in August as Covid restrictions eased.

He said: “The quality of our data allows us to provide this fascinating insight into how consumer behaviour is changing – and perhaps changing for good. This is vital intelligence that the hospitality sector needs to be on top of as it looks to recover from the pandemic.

“Online ordering and home delivery have been emerging trends in the last few years, but they have exponentially grown during Covid – and show no signs of slowing.”

He added: “Between September 2021 and December 2021, the takeaway and home delivery market increased by 4%, while eat-in experienced a small decline.

“In January 2022, we continued to see online ordering and home deliveries outstrip eat-in orders. We predict that we will see continued and substantial growth within online ordering and home delivery throughout 2022 and beyond while eat-in will stagnate, even with eat-in options returning back to pre-pandemic operations.”