Ordering food online catching on fast

Online food delivery ordered through mobile phones has become very popular in Saudi Arabia, according to Beschir Hussein, chief executive officer of Hellofood.
“Saudi Arabia is the largest market for Hellofood with more than 450 restaurants actively using the application distributed over nine cities, with two headquarters— one in Riyadh and the other in Jeddah,” Hussein said.
Hellofood has the largest Internet usage with a rate of 60.5 percent and a total of up to 2.2 hours per day.
“Hellofood has changed the way people order their food with up to 80 percent of the orders being made via the mobile app,” Hussein said.
He noted that there’s a strong growth for consumer service in the past few years in Saudi Arabia, quoting a Euromonitor report.
“Saving time is very important to consumers,” he said, adding that 70 percent of his customers were Saudis in their teens.
He said that Saudis opt for online food delivery for two main reasons: convenience and fast delivery services.
Speaking of the advantages, Hussein said that the service has many benefits such as overcoming the language barrier in telephone communications where there may be errors in taking small details.
He added that online orders can be customized with minimal errors, cutting down the number of restaurant operators for taking orders and putting an end to busy phone lines with customers on hold.
“Human error is common and frequent while placing an order over the phone, the customer is not really sure of what is being added to the computer data. But when food is ordered online, the customer can ensure the accuracy of his order and rest that he will get what he ordered,” Hussein pointed out.
He said that another advantage is that the restaurant’s online menu specifies details which the customer would only know if he called the restaurant, such as minimal food orders, waiting and closing times.