The Two-Horse Race: Is Bigger Better for Online Food Delivery?
Nikhil Dalal
India’s online food delivery market is at a turning point. While overall Gross Order Value (GOV) growth remains stable, a dramatic change in the underlying mix is occurring.
The contribution of Average Order Value (AOV) to GOV growth has steadily increased from just ~10% in FY23 to nearly 50% in FY26 (YTD). Meanwhile, growth from Gross Transactions (GT), once the main driver, is now slowing down.
Growth of GOV: Split by Gross Transactions vs AOV
This shift indicates that consumers are pivoting towards larger orders for families and/or groups and also opting for more premium choices. Platforms, in turn, are leaning towards incentivizing bigger orders to boost GOV.
This trend is likely to call for menu engineering, combo packaging, and the introduction of premium SKUs on behalf of restaurants and brands.
The question now is, for a duopolistic market, will scale per order emerge as the decisive competitive edge, or will platforms need to pivot back to frequency-driven tactics to drive sustainable growth?
The insights have been derived from Redseer ‘Benchmarks’, the most reliable insights platform on the India Internet Landscape