1. Customer Retention Rate

Your customer retention rate is the percentage of customers who consistently order from your business over a predetermined period. Retaining customers significantly increases their overall lifetime value and reduces acquisition costs. The result is increased profits for your brand.

Satisfied, loyal customers also contribute heavily to better word-of-mouth marketing. By tracking customer retention rates, you can get a better idea of how many customers are staying with your brand. You can also see how that number changes over time, which makes it easier for you to spot customer service-related challenges that could negatively impact the customer experience. Comparing that number to other businesses in the meal delivery industry gives you a better idea of how your brand is performing.

DeliveryBizPro offers meal delivery e-commerce companies built-in subscription management tools that allow customers to customize their approach based on their unique needs. They can easily skip meals, adjust schedules, and adapt their meal delivery solutions to their specific needs. 

Actionable Tip:

Gather customer feedback and use it to identify and resolve pain points. Where are customers running into problems or roadblocks? By finding potential customer pain points and fixing them, you can keep customers with your brand, eager for their next delivery to arrive.

2. Average Order Value (AOV)

You may choose to track average order value across all your customers or break them down according to demographics, like household size, gender, or income level. Boosting AOV can significantly impact overall revenue without requiring you to bring in new customers. Not only that, a focus on boosting AOV can help you offer more to your customers, which increases your retention rate and customer satisfaction ratings. 

DeliveryBizPro makes it simpler to add value to individual customer orders. Our meal delivery e-commerce software offers upsell and cross-sell features during checkout, allowing customers to quickly see add-ons like desserts or beverages, encouraging them to make those additional purchases—including things they may not have considered when they started to put the order together.

In addition, we offer food delivery software with an analytics dashboard that can help you uncover bundling or price optimization opportunities. As a result, you can create offers customers are most likely to respond to based on their buying behavior, browsing, and more.

Actionable Tip: 

Promote bundles and time-sensitive offers to encourage larger orders. Fear of missing out is real, and customers are more likely to buy when they know you’re running a promotion that will benefit them.

3. On-Time Delivery Rate

Your on-time delivery rate covers the percentage of deliveries made on time. It helps you track the efficiency of your warehouses and shipping partners as well as identifying bottlenecks and challenges that could stand in your way. Freshness and punctuality are key success factors of meal delivery services. Without them, you may struggle to retain customers or experience considerable negative sentiment about your brand. 

DeliveryBizPro offers several solutions that can help you keep track of the essential timing of your deliveries. Not only does our delivery software for small businesses provide route optimization solutions that can ensure timely, efficient deliveries, we offer real-time tracking and alert notifications for both businesses and customers. That allows you to keep eyes on where deliveries are and ensures that customers are notified quickly about delays or other changes. Furthermore, delivery notifications let customers know precisely when their orders arrive so they can take steps to bring them in and put them away, ensuring freshness when they’re ready to eat. 

Actionable Tip:

Use mobile tools for drivers to streamline processes and address unforeseen delays swiftly. Those mobile apps keep everyone connected, delivering timely communication and improving customer satisfaction.

4. Order Fulfillment Accuracy

When it comes to customer satisfaction, order accuracy is key. Customers want to receive exactly what they ordered, with no random substitutions or items missing. While this is important for any business, it’s particularly critical for meal delivery services. Many customers will have allergies, food concerns, or even simple dietary preferences that can impact what they order. Failure to deliver on their expectations will decrease their trust in your brand and cause them to avoid future orders.

Order fulfillment accuracy is a critical measure of your brand’s ability to get the right products out the door and to your customers. Not only is it key for building and maintaining customer trust, it helps reduce your costs and time investments since you won’t have to spend time fixing errors. 

DeliveryBizPro steps up to improve your order fulfillment accuracy, too. We offer automated packing guides customized for your specific inventory and inventory tracking tools that can help you ensure correct stock levels. As a result, you won’t have to worry about not having items in stock when customers place their orders.

Actionable Tip:

Implement barcode scanning in your packing process. This simple step can significantly reduce the number of errors you see when packing customer orders.

5. Profit Margin Per Order

Your profit margin per order is the total profit earned after deducting all costs for each order, including the cost of food, prep, and employee time. Profit margins can change dramatically over time, especially if there are significant changes in the economy or your food acquisition costs. Understanding profit margins helps you make smarter pricing and cost-control decisions. You want to deliver value to your customers so that they keep coming to your brand while still maintaining a steady profit, and tracking profit margin per order helps you accomplish that goal.

DeliveryBizPro, as an integrated subscription ERP and e-commerce platform, can be a key part of helping you maintain those essential profits. We provide cost-reduction solutions through automated workflows, route efficiencies, and consolidated operations, all of which helps improve your total profit margin per order. In addition, we provide tools to analyze costs and streamline workflows to improve profit margins. 

Actionable Tip:

Regularly audit supplier and delivery expenses for optimization opportunities. In many cases, you’ll find that a simple look over those expenses will provide you with insights into where and how you can cut costs. 

See Your Meal Delivery E-Commerce Business Grow With These KPIs

Tracking the right KPIs is essential when you’re seeking long-term success in the meal delivery industry. You need to stay on top of profit margins, track accuracy, ensure a high degree of customer satisfaction, and look for ways to increase customer lifetime value, including upselling them—and these KPIs allow you to do exactly that.

With DeliveryBizPro, you can feel confident in the data you collect and the outcomes you’re seeking. We provide a wide range of solutions, from data collection tools to more efficient workflows, mobile tools for delivery drivers, and more. Are you ready to learn more? Schedule a demonstration today to discover how DeliveryBizPro can help you achieve your goals.

The post Meal Delivery E-commerce: 5 KPIs To Track for Long-Term Growth appeared first on Delivery Biz Pro - The Premier Home Delivery Software for Your Business Needs.

Still, economics and public perception trends can shift at any time. This can either lead more consumers to farm-to-table delivery as an option for fresh, quality groceries or drive them away.

Public Opinion Can Shift in an Instant

Consider, for example, the massive chicken egg crisis that began in 2022 and continues through March 2025. Families faced with purchasing eggs at exorbitant prices will seek other options. They may be happier to pay premium prices for a guaranteed supply of locally grown, higher-quality eggs from humanely farmed chickens.

And, if convenient farm-to-table delivery is available, that’s one more reason to skip a trip to the giant corporate grocery and big box stores, which primarily lured these families with affordability.

Once attracted to better eggs, the next step is introducing them to other popular ingredients or produce. 

Increasing Opportunities Lead to Increasing Competition

The good news is that opportunities for farm-to-table delivery programs are growing. The not-so-good news is that these opportunities create competition from every angle. From the new backyard egg farmer selling eggs to her neighborhood watch members on Facebook to factory farms and “big meat” rebranding with “natural” subsidiaries or partner farms, competition looms. For farm-to-table producers, these competitors threaten profit margins, diminish community goodwill, and inconvenience retention efforts.

As a result, it is critical that farmers, co-ops and community CSA programs stay ahead of these trends. Focus on new customer acquisition today and customer retention tomorrow. 

Key Trends Shaping Farm-to-Table Delivery

At DeliveryBizPro (DBP), we understand that modern, educated, discerning farm-to-table consumers demand a customizable shopping experience. Our food delivery software programs empower farmers to thrive, attracting new business and servicing current clientele. 

We also understand the key farm-to-table delivery trends cropping up every season. From transparency and sustainability to the challenges of software sprawl, keep reading to learn about key farm-to-table trends.

Sustainability & Transparency Continue to Grow as Core Values

In 2023, McKinsey and NeilsonIQ completed an extensive study to understand the importance of sustainability to US consumers.

Their research shows:

• 78% of consumers claim a sustainable lifestyle is important to them.
• This is an 18% growth above 2020 results.

Getting granular, products marketed with environmental, social, and governance (ESG)- related claims saw 1.7% more sales growth than products made without these claims. Food items made the largest gains, with sweet snacks and yogurts among the best performers.

Today, your customers expect complete transparency in food sourcing. They wish to understand the environmental impact of their foods and the packaging in which they arrive. They actively seek eco-friendly products, packaging, and restaurant dining experiences. Climate change remains a major concern.

Keep Up With This Trend & Make It Marketable

At DBP, we recognize these core values and can help farm-to-table providers stay on top of this trend. For instance, we can help your organization streamline delivery routes to cut costs using less fuel, while saving delivery driver and packaging time.

Our farm-to-table food delivery software can also help you protect reusable resources, like crates and glass bottles, with deposit fee tracking. Once these solutions are in place, they make excellent content for your social media marketing. Ensure your consumers know how much you value their beliefs and the steps you take to honor their wishes for clean, green foods. 

Next, consider the importance of convenience for your farm-to-table customer base.

Convenience Matters

US consumer shopping habits have changed a lot since the 2020 pandemic. Grocery and food delivery apps abound, and your customers crave a seamless purchasing experience, similar to what they would experience with e-commerce giants and big box stores. 

Farm-to-table delivery customers are looking for:

• Practical, convenient delivery options, like doorstep delivery using their preferred shipper, and pick-up/will-call options.
• Flexible subscription options, which can be changed, paused, or canceled with a few clicks.
• Convenient tech, like cell phone apps.

DeliveryBizPro’s mobile-friendly interface makes all these options available for your customers. Whether they need to pause a subscription, double their order, or change a delivery address, they can accomplish everything in moments from their cell phone, tablet, or laptop.

This nicely leads to our next point: food subscriptions are becoming incredibly popular.

Food Delivery Subscriptions Are Taking Center Stage

Food subscription models are popular because customers appreciate the ease and reliability of the ordering process. As promised, food arrives fresh and on time, often with simple menus and basic preparation instructions. 

These subscription models offer increased revenue and endless branding opportunities for farm-to-table operations. 

Staying on Top of This Trend

Farm-to-table and CSA farm delivery operations can leverage their food subscription services by:

• Making re-orders very simple, “order now” one-click options are great.
• Automating subscription billing and order management with tools like DeliveryBizPro.
• Encouraging loyalty through incentives and discounts.
• Providing perks and exclusive products for long-term subscribers.

Free product samples are another excellent use of your farm-to-table delivery subscription software. Organizations can find customers for a product before it expires by introducing new items to their client base. Think of it this way: If they ordered your goat milk cheese, maybe you can get them hooked on your yogurt product. The ability to select free samples and trial sizes could generate a lot of new sales.

This segues into our next section, modern technology as a game-changer.

Technology is a Game-Changer and No Longer Monopolized by Big Box Food

Small businesses, family farms, community co-op farms, and CSAs no longer rely on roadside stands to generate sales and build their brands. Drag-and-drop website design services abound. Social media is free to launch and relatively affordable to use for growing your reach as a farm-to-table food delivery provider. 

However, all this tech does come with a few downfalls, like software sprawl.

What is Software Sprawl?

Software sprawl usually exists when two things happen:

1. Current software expands, and users don’t take full advantage of services.
2. Additional software items are purchased, sometimes repeatedly, by individual departments to fulfill their needs.

Many farm-to-table delivery businesses find themselves buying software for points like:

• Bookkeeping and tax prep 
• Customer data analysis
• Route management
• Marketing management
• Email & SMS marketing

Fees add up. Data is compiled on disconnected platforms, and your team needs to run X operations on various machines and fight their way through a disjointed process. Software sprawl becomes a triple threat as your organization pays for more software, more labor hours to learn it, and more time integrating these tools.

Instead, know all these things can be handled using a single integrated ERP, logistics, and e-commoerce program by DBP. 

Tackle This Challenge With DeliveryBizPro

With our specialized, unique approach to subscription shopping & regional routing, you can say goodbye to clunky shopping experiences and pesky phone orders. Your customers will enjoy a familiar and intuitive marketplace designed to showcase how your fresh foods can be delivered to their doorsteps. Our proprietary routing automation makes growing your delivery reach easy, so you can spend more time outside in the sunshine.

Plus, no hidden add-ons or extra fees are sneaking up. Your farm-to-table delivery business functionality is native to DBP, so you won’t need 10 more integrations and plug-ins to run your business. Customer service has become easier than ever, which is one important way to build brand loyalty.

Fostering Customer Loyalty

You’re likely aware that new customer acquisition is far more expensive than retention marketing. Forbes.com suggests it costs five to seven times more to attract a new customer than to market to an existing one.  In the long run, keeping your current clients utterly satisfied is the best way to evade those looming Facebook farm sellers and big-box organizations.

Since we’re talking about fresh food products, farm-to-table delivery services must actively pursue and build valuable customer loyalty. Let’s face it: Order errors happen. A piece of fruit arrives bruised. An order doesn’t arrive on time during the holidays, thanks to a winter storm. We’ve seen it all at DBP. 

Tactics for Building Loyalty in 2025

Food is a very personal experience. Your customers want to buy their food from a brand they trust, and they will often understand a minor mishap if they get enough attention in a customer service setting.

You can build brand loyalty by:

• Providing outstanding customer service when things go awry. Leave the customer thrilled with their experience, not merely satisfied.
• Following up on orders re-shipped, using a human touch.
• Creating a community around your brand (think social media, shared menus, customer recipe videos).
• Offering seamless, user-friendly shopping experiences.
• Continuously marketing efforts toward sustainability.
• Offering deep discounts for repeat orders.

We can help you accomplish that with one food delivery software program. For farm-to-fork businesses and CSAs, DBP makes shopping easy. And when the inevitable hiccup happens—thanks to bad weather and road closures, for instance—our software makes customer service fast and easy, too. From the initial contact to re-order and follow-up, we make the constant contact and human touch easy for you.

Now that your individual customers are beyond satisfied, let’s explore wholesale expansion as a key trend in the farm-to-table industry.

Wholesale Expansion Is Your Next Level

Farm-to-Restaurant-Table

In 2025, small US farms are expected to provide 35% of the ingredients used by domestic restaurants, up 12% from 2020. Therefore, it’s time to start building a relationship with at least one local restaurant or chain.

According to USDA Economic Research, which is run by the Department of Agriculture, even more wholesale opportunities are opening up for small farm operations.

Farm-to-Grocer

Major supermarket chains have come to respect consumers’ choices for fresh, wholesome, locally grown foods with few ingredients. And, while wholesale deals often run very thin profit margins, they are an excellent way to increase your reach to new customers with minimal marketing investments. Wholesale opportunities with a grocer are ideal if you’re hoping to scale up this year because those ongoing bulk purchases can provide ongoing, instant capital.

Farm-to-Institution

Finally, don’t forget to approach local institutions with your product.

We’re talking about:

• Schools
• Hospitals
• Churches
• Non-profit organizations
• And corrections institutions

A few major clients in these arenas can generate tremendous sales and excellent social media marketing opportunities. Some have grants available for purchasing fresh, healthy foods from local sources, and you can even do the research for them. Imagine how thrilled your local church, magnet school, or homeless shelter will be when they discover you can provide them with freshly farmed local foods at no cost. And imagine the “likes” and “shares” on social media when your brand delivers these foods to people who need them most.

If the idea of wholesale deliveries is intimidating, DBP can help. Our farm software is designed to help you manage B2B orders with ease, plus digital invoicing and membership pricing. Go ahead, take the plunge!

Final Thoughts on Farm-to-Table Delivery

With everything happening on the world stage in 2025, this will be a banner year for small farm operations, farm-to-table delivery services, and CSA farm delivery programs. 

Your farm business might have started with whimsy, but it’s time to level up by staying on top of key trends in the farm-to-table category. Pay attention to current consumer thoughts on sustainability and climate, and mirror them. Ensure your customers can enjoy a streamlined, smooth ordering process and try to limit software sprawl.

DeliveryBizPro is proud to stand beside you during this epic year. We’re ready to help you centralize and streamline your farm-to-table operations, grow your business, and scale with wholesale suppliers. 

We invite you to explore DBP with a free demo to see how we can simplify and transform your business for tomorrow. 

Related Reading & Resources:

OrganicConsumers.org: Boycott Big Meat

Agritecture.com: Understanding the Farm-to-Table Movement: A Comprehensive Guide for Developers, Architects, Designers and Hospitality Professionals

Adv-bio.com: Post-Pandemic Consumer Grocery Trends

Forbes.com: Stepping Safely Through the Software Sprawl

The post Farm-to-Table Delivery in a Dynamic Macroeconomic Landscape appeared first on Delivery Biz Pro - The Premier Home Delivery Software for Your Business Needs.

Encompasses all retailers that provide fresh produce, dairy items, meats, pantry essentials, meal kits, prepared dishes, gourmet options, organic and specialty foods, along with beverages like soft drinks, juices, and alcoholic drinks.

• Revenue in 2024: US$9.13tn
• AGR 2024-2028: 6.58%

Top Brands: Walmart, Amazon/Wholefoods, Hellofresh, Kroger, Safeway

The e-commerce sector for the food industry is poised for sustained growth. Unlike many other goods, food maintains a steady demand due to its fundamental necessity for life. Recent data indicates that the volume is projected to reach 3,011.00 billion kg by 2028, with an anticipated growth rate of 3.9% in 2025.

Multiple factors are driving the continued expansion of e-commerce in the food sector. The ease of online grocery shopping enables consumers to conveniently purchase their essential items from home, a feature that is increasingly attractive in today’s fast-paced environment where time-saving solutions are prioritized.

Additionally, the cross-border trade of food is at an all-time high as businesses seek to expand their revenue in international markets. However, the globalization of food supply chains also introduces risks related to food safety and quality, complicating traceability and management.

Economic growth and rising populations are leading to increased food consumption, while an expanding middle class is demanding higher quality and more diverse options. Enhanced purchasing power has resulted in a notable rise in the consumption of resource-intensive protein products, affecting both the environment and agricultural practices.

With innovations ranging from personalized shopping experiences to improved delivery systems, the e-commerce food industry is continually adapting to fulfill consumer needs.

Food Delivery

For centuries, food ordering and delivery services have been a staple of life. Initially, butchers, groceries, and restaurants would receive paper orders, and then by phone or fax, but today, we have online marketplaces that offer instant delivery options.

Major players in the food delivery sector, such as Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Zomato, have established strong networks that dominate the online landscape. The sheer convenience of ordering your favorite meals online and having them delivered within minutes has fundamentally transformed the industry.

The online food delivery market is projected to reach an impressive $200 billion in revenue by 2025, indicating that it still has plenty of potential for growth. Given the rapid expansion of this sector, it’s clear that food delivery deserves recognition as one of the top five e-commerce industries.

Grocery

According to eMarketer, offline grocery sales remain significantly higher than those in any other major e-commerce category. While the majority of grocery transactions still take place in physical stores, the steady increase in online sales is expected to inject billions into the e-commerce sector in the upcoming years. This growth is mainly fueled by essential items like food, beverages, personal care products, and household goods. By 2026, this trend is likely to position the grocery category as the leader among the four primary e-commerce segments.

As reported in Brick Meets Click’s U.S. Grocery Sales Forecast, grocery e-commerce sales are anticipated to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% over the next five years. This growth rate is more than triple the projected 1.3% for in-store grocery sales, highlighting a significant consumer shift toward the convenience of online grocery shopping.

Conclusion

The food industry is experiencing a transformative shift toward e-commerce, driven by the increasing demand for convenience and the evolving preferences of consumers. With a projected revenue of $9.13 trillion in 2024 and a consistent rise in online grocery shopping, it’s clear that the sector is adapting to meet the needs of a growing population that values both quality and variety.

As food delivery services and online grocery platforms continue to expand, the landscape of how consumers access food is rapidly changing. Major players are innovating to enhance user experiences, ensuring that the food e-commerce sector not only remains relevant but also becomes a leader in the overall e-commerce market. With significant growth on the horizon, businesses in this space have ample opportunities to thrive.

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