QSR – Delivering Tempting Prospects

Your order is on the way!” These words set up a flurry of emotion for those who crave a quick bite. The QSR players need to tap into these dwindling emotions to provide a frictionless customer journey with ease of ordering to on-time delivery ensures higher ratings and review and of course, the food needs to be good to deserve that.

But before all of this, your product needs to be picked by the customers.

The prospects of growing QSR industry in India and globally are immense. The rise in internet penetration and shift in food ordering habits of new generation consumers.

The focus is on optimizing customer journey across the platform. Brands are slowly but steadily shifting to generating the ‘pull’ to the digital-led market – The latest trend suggests the customer-led market is not digital-led as media, and content drive customer needs – telling them what they want based on an assessment of consumer behaviour – creating a smooth path to purchase and frictionless customer experience.

The Emergence of QSR

Even the dominant brands like McDonald which has been in India since the mid-90s took time to find its feet in the segment, but it paved the way for QSR in India.

The Quick Service Restaurant format has led the organized food service industry in India to the upswing. The QSR format is a perfect mix of being lucrative and maintaining decent customer connections which contribute almost 12% of the organized segment.

The growing popularity of QSR among urban and sub-urban settings will lead to its projected growth at the rapid rate of 17.27 per cent and worth up to Rs. 827.63* billion by 2025. (*Source: Research and Market projections)

International brands have dominated the QSR market in India with a +50% share of revenue on the back of

1. Glocalization of Menu
2. Investments driven rising geographical presence
3. Value focus driven higher sales and customer preference
4. Ability & agility to keeping up with trends
5. Consumer needs based focused marketing efforts
6. Backend integration of technology to ensure quality service

A healthy demand outlook for QSR and surge in investments, the industry is expected to witness substantial growth. A large segment of the unorganized market is expected to get streamlined into an organized market with QSR.

The Scenario – Know your customer

Imagine your customer going to a physical store/restaurant – going through the menu – pondering upon what to order – but the item is unavailable or does not suit the budget bracket or is too pricy for two. Then you offer him some alternative if it suits his needs then you got him but still the pinch of missing out on what he wanted remains and ruins the customer experience.

Now imagine knowing about your customer need what are they looking for and your performance across platforms on parameters like –

• Reach of your service
• Performance across age bracket
• Pricing range own vis-à-vis competition
• Delivery time impact on Ranking and ratings

Knowing all that just imaging what your brand could do for not just acquiring new customers but will also help you pinpoint the area to improve and work towards the goal of optimizing customer journey.

What future holds for QSR?

The internet penetration across geographies and demographics has paved the seamless growth path for the QSR industry. Here are some key scenarios that will shape the future.

1. International QSRs have struck a chord with Indian consumers

Value proposition offered by international brands has led to their acceptance among young Indian demographics – The variety of entry-level products, affordable meal upgradation options, and discounted prices on combos & meals has led to a growing loyal customer base.

2. The average Indian consumers’ socializing over food

The rise in the ability and willingness of the average Indian consumer to spend on aspirations, experiments and socializing over food along with their stickiness in terms of cost-consciousness will continue to drive them towards fast food brands.

3. Value remains the belly of the market

Top brands have not shied away from introducing premium offers to meet customer needs with better indulgence, which aids in increasing ticket size as well as margins.

4. QSR companies expanding beyond their core offerings

From pizza to pasta (Domino’s), from burgers to beverages, breakfast, fried chicken, rice bowl, etc. (McDonald’s, Burger King) – The swift beyond core offering and combos with competitive pricing strategy will enhance consumer trials and eventually scale up consumption of these offerings.

5. Rapid Convenience channel

Quick delivery, takeaway, and drive-thru are other key driver of growth since it is not just the need of the hour for any QSR brand, but also a significant enabler of the future due to an increase in the frequency of ordering and a growing user base across the country

What do brands need to do?

The format has transitioned to comfort food across price segments, catering to all income levels or segments benefiting from any downtrading along with addressing the aspirational demand in non-metro areas. The QSR players need to address the growing demand with a strategy guided by data and insights.

The top players in the QSR space benefit in a big way with growing industry potential as they have the necessary infrastructure, a healthy balance sheet, and an established convenience channel to cater to evolving consumer demand.

Let’s consider the case of brands like Domino’s and Mcdonald’s listed on a platform like Swiggy and Zomato along with their own online apps – what do they need to be more feasible and appealing to the customers? Having an established brand name is not enough.

1. Target demographics and enhance customer experience by optimizing the customer journey on multiple touchpoints
2. Improve product discoverability based on section-level insights – for own vis-à-vis competition on platforms like Swiggy, Zomato Uber eats etc.
3. Track own brand/product performance vis-à-vis competition across the platform, location, and delivery time.

Final thoughts

The food service industry is running a race against time with every day being a new day and a new challenge. The prospects are unlimited, and quicker services and quality service are the keys to edge ahead. The customer-centric approach to optimize customer experience is the new motto for QSR platforms. Reaching out to new customer demographics is crucial to a new wave of QSR. Switch to mScanIt E-commerce Competitive Intelligence, your guide to optimize your customer journey with QSR analytics for menu audit, ranking, and Lat-Long Analysis – reach out to potent