Delivery Tries to Get Healthy

The food delivery category was valued at $81.56 billion in 2017 and will be growing at about 10% during the period from 2018 to 2026, which is driven primarily by funding and investments and, hopefully, sales.

KitcheNet, a new Chicago based startup, has a different spin, based on a focus on consumers. It has begun pivoting on the category for profit growth.

Founder and CEO Trista Li says, “We were actually meal-focused at the very beginning, and we also delivered fresh produce to underserved communities. One thing I noticed was that many of our customers checked out our fruit and veggies to snack on, so we thought it might a great idea to focus on snackable items like grapes and berries because they are easy to grab and consume.” KitcheNet has so far incorporated nondairy frozen treats brand Fronen; egg white-based protein snacks Quevos; and RxBar Nut Butter in its kits.  

Douglas Yu, in his column on Forbes.com, writes that if you are going to order a hot meal, fresh fruit or weekly grocery through a delivery app in the near future, chances are that you will be recommended with a few healthy snack items as well. That is because an increasing amount of food delivery companies are finding snacks a sweet spot for their revenue growth.

Chowbus’ founder Linxin Wen also noticed the growing snack portion of its meal delivery business.

“Restaurant food is still our focus, but more and more people are ordering snacks on demand for sure, especially Asian-inspired items,” he said. “[We are] going to add more varieties for our current and future customers.”

Foxtrot Market, which delivers a wide range of food products, noted that it carefully curates its selections because shoppers are pairing meals with specific snack items.

“We’d like to strike a balance in our curation between everyday indulgence and options for those with a dietary or allergy restriction, or anyone who is interested in trying out a healthier alternative,” company spokesperson Crystal Tao said.

Tao noted that jerky, nut butter and protein snacks in general are performing particularly well among all offered items.

Note to prepared foods departments: Be sure to display healthy snacks adjacent to your offerings, as well as in your grocerants.