Technology

QSR online ordering shifts show more older adults orders, desktop user visits

Stay-at-home orders of the last two months have brought about some significant changes in the way Americans order food and which service categories they buy it from.

Ordering behavior and habits have shown some significant shifts over the course of the nation's stay-at-home orders. (Photo: iStock)

May 11, 2020

Quantcast has released data that the AI-driven audience behavior business said indicates that people across age groups and income levels have gravitated toward quick-service restaurants during stay-at-home orders, which are still in effect in a number of states. 

The company told QSRweb that across the board, QSR site visits have been up with adults in the 18- to 20-year-old age group, making the biggest jump in orders from quick service, up 43%. In fact, wealthier individuals making more than $150,000 annually, also showed a significant increase in QSR patronage over the time before pandemic stay-at-home orders, the company said. 

In a blog on Quantcast's website, Strategic Insights Manager Thomas Nissen, detailed some of the platform's revelations about dining behaviors during the past two months, showing a spike in online food ordering, as well as QSRs' attraction to new audience segments and even a lift in desktop food orders. 

Nissen explained that online QSR orders not only grew significantly, but pizza brands have done particularly well, even though both QSR and pizza experienced a drop in orders when stay-at-home orders first initiated around March 12. Similarly, he said new customers segments are adopting the food ordering habit, with an uptick in restaurant site traffic visits for people 60-years and older, many of whom were advised to take particular precautions about exposure to COVID-19 due to heightened risks from the disease. Likewise, more affluent customers and those with more education also increased their QSR visits, he said.  

Perhaps of particular interest is the apparent age group preferences for third-party delivery platforms that Quantcast detected. 

"When we compare affinity data for four delivery services — Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Postmates — we see that each generation has a different delivery service preference," Nissen wrote in the blogpost. "Gen Z leans towards Uber Eats. Conversely, older generations have the highest affinity with Postmates. Among all generations, we see that millennials remain the predominant users of delivery apps. We anticipate this will continue to shift as younger and older audiences become more frequent customers of delivery services. "

Finally, Quantcast reported a shift in device preferences since mid-March for online food ordering, with more than half of restaurant site visitors now coming from a laptop or desktop, compared to the majority of visitors on mobile apps pre-pandemic. The company speculated that it appears more people are browsing sites to explore restaurant options via the larger, more powerful devices.