Breakfast home deliveries soar in popularity during lockdown

Britons have reached for their smartphones to order breakfasts delivered straight to their doorsteps in their droves during the coronavirus outbreak. 

Home delivery service Uber Eats has seen a rapid rise in the number of users ordering breakfast dishes on weekday mornings since March, outside of the traditional ‘takeaway windows’ trend on Friday nights and weekend evenings.

The app has welcomed 12,000 new restaurants to its platform since the beginning of the year as restaurateurs scrambled to keep trading in the wake of the nationwide lockdown in late March, the company has announced.

Similarly, orders logged on the app rose by 150 per cent between July 2019 and July 2020, during which time restaurants closed their doors and the public was encouraged to avoid leaving their homes unless strictly necessary.

“Breakfast in particular has been a great success story, all the restaurants have jumped at the opportunity to offer breakfasts,” Toussaint Wattinne, general manager of Uber Eats in the UK, told i.

“Orders for weekday lunch and breakfasts used to hardly exist, but we’re seeing that consumers now want the convenience of ordering their local coffee or breakfasts the way they’re used to with dinner.”

Grocery delivery demands

Time-strapped users also took advantage of Uber Eats’ grocery delivery service to drop off morning essentials and avoid a trip to the shops themselves.

Eggs were the most popular breakfast food and store cupboard essential ordered between March and September, ahead of baked beans, Frosties cereal, bacon and Weetabix.

Business has boomed for local restaurants and small and medium businesses during the pandemic, which are the single fastest-growing generator of sales, Mr Wattinne said.

“More of the large chains like Burger King, Asda and Iceland have joined Uber Eats this year, which are very popular in general, but it’s the smaller businesses that have accelerated their adoption of food delivery that have driven sales at this difficult time.”

The company has waived commission fees both for restaurants allowing users to order food via the app but pick their delivery up from the restaurant themselves until January and for outlets using its dine-in feature to order contactless using the app from within the premises until the end of the year.

It usually charges restaurants up to 30 per cent commission on the value of an order.

“Restaurants have really turned to us,” he said. “They’ve been through a very difficult time, and we take the responsibility of doing everything we can to support them, keep them successful and help them to transition to more digital businesses very seriously.”

Nation of coffee drinkers

Coffee orders on the platform have also more than doubled since the start of the year, as Britons continue to treat themselves throughout lockdown.

Lattes were the most popular on-demand beverage, ahead of iced coffees, americanos, espressos and cappuccinos, with customers most likely to opt for a large over smaller sizes.

While demand for dairy-free alternatives including almond and oak milk also rose, ‘comfort coffees’ with caramel syrup, whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles were the most popular addition customers opted into.

The amount each coffee-drinking customer using Uber Eats spent on drinks each month doubled in April, with Saturday the day most likely to have them reaching for their phones.