How a single feature could finally hook you on UberEats and Postmates

Why instant group deals are the solution for happier customers

Having had more than 1,800 meals delivered at my doorstep over the last 5 years I realized something was missing in the uberised food delivery industry.

And it was more than just the lack of mayonnaise with my French fries.

In this post I will try to take you on a journey that is larger than this industry. It is a more exciting journey which is about us, humans — and also accidentally the targets of the abundant tech apps.

To get my point across I’ve made this post very specific to two cases that many of us know — UberEats and Postmates. For the Doordashes, Deliveroos and Caviars of this world: it could equally have been you.

Spoiler alert: if you are too lazy (like me) skip to the conclusion at the bottom.

We live in a world of instant gratification

Open the app, select, confirm, wait. Knock knock, food is here.

Behind this knock knock could have as easily been a Tinder date, your Rinse laundry or if you’re into a dodgy business, Heisenberg.

Outcome is the same: a happy user.

We are thriving for efficiency…

Sit back. With tech you now have more time. Use it to either work or relax more.

UberEats, Postmates, Deliveroo, Doordash, Caviar and the many others are built to provide an experience as functional as possible. Efficiency, minimization of efforts and speed.

… but there is more to it: we are hooked by variable rewards

People love being surprised. People love getting more than what they expect — remember Nir Eyal’s description of habit-forming products.

The winner is not the one with the best product, but with the first habit-building product associated with a certain emotion which has the monopoly in the user’s mind — Nir Eyal

The first food delivery business which understands how to successfully provide variable rewards to its users will be the winner.

You will tell me that no one wants to get pizza instead of the ordered salad. Or that no one wants to get variable food quality. True.

Then how can rewards in the food industry be variable while fulfilling the ambitious goal of being aligned with the company’s mission, of meeting the company and the users’ needs and of being economically interesting?

Instant deals. But not like Forkable. More like Groupon meets UberPool

My pitched feature for food delivery businesses is the following:

Enable customers to make on-demand group orders at a discount with other customers in their vicinity

Imagine every time you open the app you are surprised by a different deal. A deal that disappears in a few minutes.

Variable discounts will be the reward component for food orders. Not like current static in-app promotions which last for days, but instead changing deals by the minute which are based on who is around you at that moment and on what they ordered.

Giving you, as a customer, control over the discounts you can have.

For those interested in the mechanism of such feature I am detailing below the key aspects through mockups and working principles.