How can you increase the basket value for Uber Eats orders?

The basket value for Uber Eats orders has been steadily decreasing over time as we have been growing our number of orders. This impacts both the restaurants on our platform as well as Uber’s revenue which comes from the commission we take on each order. We’d like to reverse this trend.

To clarify, the basket value as in the average value per order per cart has been steadily decreasing over time as Uber has been growing their number of orders. This is impacting Uber’s revenue as the revenue per order is decreasing. Have costs changed at all? No

Then this is a profit problem. Have prices changed at all? No, then this is a numbers per order issue that is happening. Users are ordering less items OR cheaper items in their orders.

We know that Uber eats is a food delivery service that has a wide range of restaurants and has a wide user base because of its uber car service and a wide range of drivers that can deliver. However, it has competition that existed in the market before it such as door dash and new entrants such as skip the dishes where there isn’t much difference between them (threat of new entrants). And the buyers then have a lot of power.

Let’s look at trends. Is this during COVID? No

Is there anything happening on a macro level ? slow economy  that is happening? No

Let’s dig deeper into the numbers, is this decline per region, per restaurant type, or is there a change in the mix of orders?

Let’s say that what we found in the data that there is a shift in orders geared toward cheaper restaurants.. as Uber grew, there are more restauarants that are in the lower price point. And that is why the basket value has decreased.

So options here are to increase the basket value of the cheaper restaurant orders or drive volume / conversion towards more expensive restaurant orders.

Let’s explore both..

Option 1:

1.    Offer cross selling and add ons in a very prominent way in the user experience that is very compelling

2.    Increase the service cost for cheaper restaurants

3.    Encourage people to double their order and keep some left overs for their lunch tomorrow

Option 2:

1.    Provide promotions for the more expensive restaurants i.e buy 50 save 10 or order 10 get 1 free options

2.    Provide more points for the expensive restaurants that they can use later

3.    Promote pickup for expensive restaurants

4.    Promote local in the neighborhood or restaurant type tailored to the users taste.

The criteria that I would look at when prioritizing this is revenue as it’s main driver here, user impact, frequency of usage, and effort

1.    Offer cross selling and add ons in a very prominent way in the user experience that is very compelling (must have – and they probably already do this)

2.    Increase the service cost for cheaper restaurants (this will have a bad user impact since they are probably already finding it expensive)

3.    Encourage people to double their order and keep some left overs for their lunch tomorrow (high revenue, high impact, low frequency of usage, low effort) – I would try this since it’s a unique idea)

Option 2:

4.    Provide promotions for the more expensive restaurants i.e buy 50 save 10 or order 10 get 1 free options (medium, high, high, low)

5.    Provide more points for the expensive restaurants that they can use later (medium, medium, high, low)

6.    Promote pickup for medium / expensive restaurants so it looks less pricey (high, high, medium, low)

7.    Promote local in the neighborhood or restaurant type tailored to the users taste that is on the medium price side such as a restaurant of the day. (high, medium, medium, low)

Given the above, I would try ideas 1, 3, 4 and 6 first as we want to drive user behavior change which those will have the high impact on the user.

So in summary, Uber eats wants to drive its value per basket and we came up with ways that will drive revenue, through ways that would really drive user conversion that would drive that revenue.

The basket value is the actual value that a customer brings in to UberEats checkout page. As per the question above the number, orders are growing however the basket value is decreasing over time. The basket value can down for the following different and combination of reasons 

• Existing customers 
  • are ordering food that is less in value 
  • Number of items orders in a order is coming down
• New customers
  • are ordering food that is less in value 
  • Ordering just one item

There can be many reasons for new customers such as new market penetration (such as new geography or students) who may have different reasons for such behavior. For the purpose of this use case, let's assume that its the existing customer who has reduced the basket value. Let us also assume that not only they are ordering fewer items in an order they have also started ordering items of less value. 

1. The items are expensive (inclusive of items such as packaging charges, delivery charges) 
2. There are cheaper alternatives 
3. The restaurants themselves have reduced the price 
4. The customer is diet conscious

1. Waive of delivery and packaging charges for 
   • Orders above certain value 
   • For regular customers (For every order that is placed within a week of previous order) 
   • Customers who are on a loyalty program
2. Cross-sell and up-sell certain related items (Curry with main dishes) 
   • Tag dishes with main dishes so that it can be prompted. 
   • Cross-sell and up-sell beverages (such as water, coffees) 
   • Provide discounts on cross and upsell items 
3. Diet food and special foods 
   • Tag dietary information(with approximate calories) and display in on the app so that customer can compare two foods
   • Acquire restaurants that provide healthy foods 
   • Prepare such healthy foods in the cloud kitchen. 
4. Provide discounts 
   • for orders above certain value 
5. Othes
   • Increase the price of products in case the demand is higher than than the supply available. 
   • Provide items with additional options (such as extra topping on a pizza) 

1. Discount engine that will provide discount either on order value or on delivery/packaging charges and disconunt will be applied 
   1. on order based on order value,
   2. Previous orders 
2. A loyalty program for customers 
3. Setup the relationship between dishes and tag dishes as main dish and side dishes 
4. Ability to capture the dietary information about any dish
5. Cross-sell and up-sell program (item suggestion on the main screen based on previous order and item suggestion during checkout)
6. Come up with a model for cloud kitchens that will predict the items to be made in a cloud kitchen at different geographies and different time along with the pricing,