36% of Consumers Use Mobile Order-Ahead for Restaurant Meals More Often

The pandemic has severely impacted consumers’ decision making across the pillars of daily living, and this is true regarding how consumers dine.

For example, the pandemic has changed the way that they order from restaurants, with many consumers who thought nothing of going out for a bite to eat pre-pandemic now preferring to order in, according to “The Digital Divide,” a PYMNTS and Paytronix collaboration based on a survey of 2,664 U.S. adults who regularly purchase food from restaurants.

Get the report: The Digital Divide

Consumers are ordering in more often than they did before March 2020, and using a number of methods. Thirty-six percent are ordering via mobile order-ahead more often, 32% are ordering via a restaurant’s website more often, 32% are pickup ordering via phone call more often and 28% are delivery ordering via aggregators.

Ordering via mobile order-ahead is the activity that has seen the biggest boost during the pandemic among all four groups of consumers identified in the study, with 44% of those who are pandemic-concerned, 29% of those who are not as concerned, 39% of those who are frequent customers and 33% of those who are occasional customers saying they use that method of ordering more often.

The activity that the greatest share of consumers is doing less often than they did before March 2020 is dining inside. Thirty-four percent of consumers are dining inside less often due to their fear of exposure to COVID-19.

Dining inside is the activity that has seen the greatest dip in frequency during the pandemic among all four groups of consumers, with 45% of those who are pandemic-concerned, 27% of those who are not as concerned, 30% of those who are frequent customers and 38% of those who are occasional customers saying they are dining inside less often.