Australian businesses most likely to order takeaway on Fridays

Australian businesses that order in takeaway food are most likely to do so on a Friday at lunchtime, according to global food delivery service Deliveroo.

“Hump day” or Wednesdays is also a popular time for workers to swap their homemade meals for something more gourmet, while the number of workers ordering food at dinner time is also on the rise.

The insights are based on data from Deliveroo, which launched in Australia around 12 months ago, and is today rolling out a dedicated ordering services for its corporate clients, Deliveroo for Business.

The global platform revealed in April that it had been growing 30% week-on-week since its launch in Australia and now works with more than 650 restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, despite ongoing controversy surrounding how much the company pays its “freelance” riders.

Deliveroo Australia’s country manager Levi Aron told SmartCompany this morning the findings around what days Deliveroo receives the most orders from businesses are not necessarily surprising, given many businesses opt to gather together for lunch on a Friday.

However, what is more surprising is the time of the day when most orders are placed.

“They start early, people are ordering by 12pm or earlier and they start looking at our site before 11am,” he says.

According to Deliveroo, workers in the technology and financial sectors are the most likely to order food through the platform, with orders for business addresses in those sectors making up 38% of corporate orders in Australia. Next in line are professionals in the legal industry, followed by those in the media and advertising industries.

While Deliveroo has not had a separate service for corporate orders until today, Aron says the data is drawn from Deliveroo customers who are using corporate email addresses to place their orders or who list business addresses for their deliveries.

Aron says the aim of Deliveroo for Business is to address two problems encountered by businesses: a lack of healthy food takeaway food options for workers who can’t leave their desks or who are working late, and the administration involved in reimbursing employees for food expenses.

“It brings it all together and is run by management,” he says.

“It takes away a lot of that time spent on expenses from employees.”

There is a fee involved for businesses wanting to set up a corporate account, however, Aron says what that fee is will depend on the size of the company and how frequently they will be ordering food from Deliveroo.

“We’ll look at the business, the frequency of orders, and the size of the business, and tailor it to that business,” he says.