The meals on wheels market - Italy

1.1 Definition and scope of study

Home food delivery refers to the service performed by a third party consisting of delivering food to a customer. The market brings together different types of players: catering services, restaurants, pubs, independent companies. The delivery for long traditionally limited exclusively to certain “fast” foods (e.g. pizza, hamburgers) has today opened up to a wide range of cuisines.

Globally the home meal delivery has experienced a booming growth with the advent of online platforms, yet remains fairly concentrated in volume terms the regions of North America and Asia, but is expanding rapidly in European territories thanks to the changing consumption habits and expectations around food.

In Italy the service is starting to address the needs of consumers who want to live new culinary experiences, eat healthier and order simply and quickly. The traditional model – consumer placing orders directly - continues to capture the biggest market share (82% of the entire industry), but is threatened by online food delivery platforms which address the mentioned consumer needs and beyond – convenience, ease of use, instant purchase.

The market is growing quickly, as demonstrated by 2018 figures (+69% YoY) though overall remains small compared to the wider food industry in Italy, ranging from representing 1%-3% of the turnover and it is still concentrated geographically in the biggest cities. Despite Italians’ willingness for food delivery (1 out of 3 declares to use the service), in fact, the action remains marginal and far from a habit and touches either specific occasions – e.g. dinners with friends – or specific target clusters – e.g students, generation Z.