8 Critical On-Demand Delivery Industry Trends for 2024 [Complete Analysis]

The on-demand sector has witnessed rapid business growth ever since the rise in food and grocery demands.

As per survey by American Community Survey (ACS), the on-demand economy is attracting more than 22.4 million customers annually and spending $57.6 billion. This is because companies are adopting new technology revolutions and trends, which bring convenience to customers and increase their business productivity as well.

Here, we have highlighted on-demand delivery industry trends laying the groundwork for the on-demand service economy in the future. So, let’s check them out.

8 Booming On-Demand Delivery Industry Trends

Here are the best trends to watch in 2022 for delivery business owners.

1. Increasing Workforce in On-Demand Delivery Services

With the increasing popularity of on-demand services, you can start exploring your skills, knowledge, and even resources using on-demand applications. With the help of such on-demand apps, it becomes easy for you to offer regular and reliable additional income and even help to simplify searching for potential customers.

On the other hand, your business will be ready to deal with growing workforce by developing new on-demand apps and providing more service offerings to the customers.

As per the Harvard Business Report, the on-demand economy is worth around $57.6 billion. It helps start-up businesses to raise funds and rank better in the on-demand delivery market. Also, convenience and ease of use in developing effective strategies for your business. It possesses strong adaptability to deal with future technologies like AI, machine learning, and even Blockchain to adopt changing market scenarios.

2. Major industries are likely to provide on-demand delivery option

Together with the increasing workforce, you’ll come across a rise in the number of industries that will join the on-demand service domain.

The best example of actual delivery business is Healthcare. After the global pandemic, the healthcare industry has added new services by making the first step to use such on-demand apps.

We are also very likely to see the expansion in many leading industries mentioned below.

The global e-commerce industry is expected to reach $16,215.6 billion by 2027. Some key trends hitting or will hit the market in the coming years with such potential growth are mentioned below.

• One-time buyers: These are consumers that brands succeeded in acquiring once but could not keep or attract future purchases. As a result, it has become increasingly critical for online retailers and brands to be more aggressive and intelligent to retain and attract customers.
• Online selling: The survey by Statista Digital Market Outlook states that by 2025, the revenue from eCommerce in the US will reach 563.4 billion dollars. It is just due to the ease and comforts online shopping provides to the customers. Also, mobile apps and websites with more user-friendly functionality will boom both the existing and potential markets for sure.
• Customized packaging: Packing is one of the essential cornerstones of the eCommerce industry, and its consumer demand is increasing to the next level. Packaging also accounts for the manufacturer’s marketing efforts: the more excellent the packaging, the more likely to make more purchases in your business. Custom packaging creates a brand-new box specifically for every one of your shipment’s contents.
• Increase in mobile shopping: The rise in mobile shopping is another major trend. Mobile shopping allows your customers to shop from anywhere and anytime. The mobility helps eCommerce businesses to improve customer experience by providing convenience from shopping to payment processing.
• Payment processing: You’ll find many eCommerce businesses that accept digital wallets like Google Pay, Samsung or Apple Pay, and even PayPal. But, nowadays, the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will benefit your business in many ways, like low transaction fees and no reverse transactions. The best example is Overstock. It is using a Bitcoin platform to accept payments from customers.
• Voice shopping: The smart speakers will be available to almost 75% of US households by 2025. Voice shopping can be challenging for someone who has been using websites for a long time. However, your customers just need to speak about the product they want to purchase and trust me; it is one of the most emerging market trends.

The on-demand transportation market size will reach $304.97 billion by 2025. Let’s highlight some of the best trends available for the transportation industry.

Electric truck fleet

More retailers and shippers will make significant orders for electric vehicles to be used on beverage routes, final-mile delivery, and short-haul distribution.

Amazon announced that it plans to buy 100,000 electric delivery vans in the coming years from startup Rivianwhile.

UPS, FedEx, and DHL have all bought electric trucks or self driving cars in smaller numbers. Anheuser-Busch ordered 21 BYD electric semi-trucks this year, which looks like the most significant order for class 8 electric trucks in the United States.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

The Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market is forecast to reach a valuation of USD 280.77 billion in 2027 from USD 52.56 billion in 2019, delivering a CAGR of 23.2%.

MaaS is a kind of service that provides a centralized digital channel for planning, booking and paying for various types of mobility services.

The growing emphasis on adopting a user-centric approach to mobility services as an integrated system fuels the MaaS model’s growth.

Food industry

The on-demand food delivery industry market will reach $192.16 billion by 2025 during the forecast period.

The food delivery market is fueled by convenience in ordering food online and adapting to changing consumer behavior. However, the increasing threat posed by restaurant-provided on-demand food delivery operations will provide a barrier to development.

Initially, the customers needed to order food from only one place at a time. And only a few third-party delivery companies were available with food delivery from various market vendors.

But now, the current market trends of the food delivery industry has completely changed. The top-notch delivery services like Uber Eats, Postmates, GrubHub, and even DoorDash allow their potential customers to order their food from the selected restaurants. 

The grocery delivery service involves delivering fresh groceries to your customer’s doorstep within minutes of the order. As a result, it brings more convenience to the life of customers.

The customers have complete freedom to concentrate on other work rather than waiting in long queues at cash counters. In addition, they also do not have to move from one place to another just to buy products from the store. They are just addicted to hyperlocal delivery models— an on-demand delivery business model where local suppliers meet the demands of small localities.
This business model will become an essential aspect for your grocery delivery business plan as it brings complete transparency in pricing and will provide customers with an assurance of quality and trust.

Several large eCommerce companies, including Amazon and Flipkart, have also entered the grocery delivery business trends following industry experts. Even after a pandemic, studies and extensive research indicate that online grocery delivery will remain popular.

Post COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of on-demand package delivery came into existence, and it’s going to be used for many more years.

It becomes easy for the customers to send and receive packages like small envelopes, files, documents, or something essential at their doorsteps.

For example, you are in the office, and suddenly it clicks in your mind that you left your laptop or essential document at your home only. In that case, a parcel delivery service can help you and deliver your items to your office premises.

These services provide consumers with the most incredible comfort and quickness. On-demand courier and package delivery solutions use cutting-edge technology to build parcel delivery applications that offer immediate estimates, real-time delivery, and time and money savings.

There are several other on-demand delivery service ideas that you can choose and explore.

3. Contactless Delivery for Safety Measures

The vaccination program reduces infection rates, but COVID-19 safety precautions must be taken care of very strictly. So, it becomes mandatory for all on-demand delivery services to adhere to all COVID-19 procedures and sanitization methods.
Contactless delivery is the best solution to such a problem. As a result, many on-demand delivery business owners have adopted contact delivery for their business and customer security.
Disinfection and sanitization services such as home sanitizing, commercial sanitizing, industrial sanitizing, office sanitizing, and building sanitizing will continue to be popular in the upcoming years. Furthermore, it declares that all non-porous surfaces will need to be sanitized.

4. Companies will offer delivery subscriptions

The next essential on-demand delivery trend that will help your business increase customer loyalty and retention is delivery subscriptions.

The global pandemic changed the overall market environment. It made people ready to order groceries and households online. As a result, many on-demand delivery firms started to deliver incentives and service offerings to the customers. And trust me, in the upcoming years, subscription-based delivery will become the de facto standard for many demand delivery companies.

Subscription services benefit both customers and companies. Customers can avail of the benefits such as free delivery, discounted prices, and more. Businesses, on the other hand, can quickly gain actionable insights to boost their sales and profits.

5. Drone Integration with On-Demand Delivery Apps

You’ll be surprised to know that drones can also be used for delivering food or other packages. Drones have previously been used effectively in remote areas to deliver medicines and medical equipment.

In the US, efforts were made to develop drones for food delivery. However, there are still technical and legal problems to be resolved. Nevertheless, despite potential challenges, we can see this trend becoming a part of the on-demand business.

One possibility is to provide drone delivery services through specialized applications. On-demand food delivery apps may explore methods to include drones as one of the delivery choices available to customers.

6. Adopting a reliable route optimization software

The primary goal for any distribution and delivery company is to reduce time on the road, save fuel costs, and, most importantly, improve customer satisfaction. Route planners or we can say route optimization software helps them achieve their goals.

Route optimization software helps your delivery driver reach the destinations by finding the most efficient path for multi-stop deliveries.

Let’s say you are on a trip and you have twenty stops. So, on average, you will be having about 50 million possible routes available with you. For managing such an entire fleet, you need advanced technology like route optimization software to help you plan your route and find optimal delivery routes.

7. Ever-changing customer shopping pattern and expectations

If we observe closely at eCommerce dynamic growth after lengthy lockdowns in many regions, some individuals have started buying online. These are people who used to buy items from the shop and now they are impressed with the way of online shopping. So, there are more chances that they will become repeated online customers. 

Many customers are already online users who want a shorter delivery time and driver tracking option as well. So, customer’s behavior will continue to change no matter how well you treat them. This means you should keep an eye on new users and existing online customers. In such cases, it does make sense to have advanced routing software or other online tools. Hence, you need to accept their demands and upgrade your business strategy.

8. Excessive use of advanced payment software

Since modern customers are using cashless options at the time of payment, this trend is likely to level up in a few years. If you are a delivery business owner who wants to collect the payment from their clients, you need to visit their home individually. Instead, you can install an advanced payment software and ask your customers to pay online from anywhere.

As long as the delivery industry is expected to grow, business owners may need to consider payment software for their clients. Nowadays, some apps also offer accounting options like estimating, billing and various payment modes. Such an effective way may not only be used for once but also become an easy payment option in future. This means you don’t have to pay visits or meet customers during the office hours as they can easily make payment remotely.

How Does Upper Help You Perform On-demand Delivery Service?

Upper can resolve your delivery issues no matter how many deliveries you want to perform. Equipped with a sophisticated algorithm, it can help you perform on-demand delivery with less resources. A route planner is capable of finding the best routes within a few seconds. It keeps you updated about the ongoing process and sends timely customer alerts. 

With Upper, you can set the priority level for the delivery so that it can be considered while generating a route plan. It covers major trends like contactless delivery, customer-side alerts, proof of delivery software, a driver-friendly app, and a driver tracking option as well. A route planner reduces your workload and helps you increase delivery efficiencies. Its automated process ensures you achieve the maximum number of on-demand deliveries.

Key features of Upper Route Planner: 

• Route optimization
• Route scheduling
• Analytics & reports
• Live driver tracking
• Proof of delivery
• Customized notifications

Start Adapting On-Demand Delivery Trends by Switching to Upper

Following a detailed analysis of the industry trends, it is rightly said that a route planner is a handy option. By adopting such innovative trends in your business, you can enhance business productivity. Major industries like eCommerce, transportation, food delivery, grocery delivery are also making the best out of these industry trends in 2022.

Here, route optimization software can help you adapt to new industry trends and improve your on-demand service. Upper Route Planner is one such software solution that allows you to make the work more accessible with the best delivery routes and on-road assistance for delivery agents.