Background

With the ever-growing popularity of e-commerce it is no surprise that online food ordering has emerged and grown over the last few years. No longer does one have to pick up the phone to have food delivered to their doorstep. Chain pizza restaurants began offering online ordering in the early 2000s. By 2004, only 10% of Americans had used the internet to place a food order, now almost one out of every two Americans have ordered food online (Kimes, 2011; Rosenbloom, 2007) Restaurants and food corporations have taken great interest in this new market and the online ordering industry has exploded. Everything from hamburgers, to sushi, to cookies and milk are available online for delivery to your doorstep. In fact, in a recent survey of 326 of the nations biggest chain restaurants, over 26% now offer online or mobile ordering (Kimes, 2011). Pizza is still by large the most popular food to order online, but sandwich, Mexican, and Asian restaurants are in high demand as well (Kimes, 2011). In hopes of better understanding this new trend, there have been many studies conducted on how online ordering can be utilized to increase revenue. From patent applications to business proposals a variety of people have placed interest in this industry

In 2011 Cornell University conducted a study on online food ordering the U.S. from the standpoint of both the restaurants and the consumers. After surveying 490 American the study found that "the chief reason for online ordering given by those who had ordered (users) was that they gain convenience and control" (Kimes, 2011, p.6). People who chose to order online have three major motivations: accuracy of the order, convince, and ease of ordering (Kimes, 2011). Consumers like to feel like they are in control of their food. By ordering online, they can be sure that a special request will not be misheard or a phone operator with bad handwriting will not print their address incorrectly on the receipt. That being said, the majority of food orders (53%) are still placed over the phone. According to Kimes, "customers who do not yet use online ordering have a higher need for interaction than those who use online ordering" (2011, p.17) This may be due to the human desire to communicate with living beings rather than machines.

For the restaurants, offering food ordering online increases sales, frees up phone lines allowing employees to be more productive, and even increases customer satisfaction with restaurants. Although some restaurants worry that online ordering can overload their kitchen at peak hours, the majority see no difference in the kitchen whether deliveries are placed online or on the phone (Kimes, 2011)

According to another source, a survey in the Journal of Food Products and Marketing, the study "Convenience, Price, Product: Motivators for Online Specialty Food Consumers" conducted by Gregory White asked consumers why they chose to order online instead of purchasing food in house.

Eighty percent of responses were sorted into the convenience, price, and/or product categories. An additional 14.3% or responses were 'not available locally.' The remaining 5.7% included responses similar to 'I do not remember,' 'no reason' and those to vague to sort. (White, Manning, 2001 p. 56)

This quote narrows down all the answers received into three categories: convenience, price, and the product. Of that eighty percent of answers recorded, the main motivations behind ordering food online was the convenience of being able to order without having to leave the house at 42%. The product was the next highest recorded answer at 31% of the eighty percent. And price was the least quoted motivation at 27%. Understanding why consumers order their food online and what their motivations are give us key insight into what we should look for in our own study.

It is important to understand how the basic process of online food ordering works. One source gathered is a patent application for a menu-less form of online ordering. Although the premise of this article is varying from our study it contains valuable information like the figure below (figure 1). Online food delivery begins with a database of menus (from an external source like GrubHub or from the website of a restaurant). From the database, the user must select a restaurant's menu to order from. Next, the user selects their order from the provided menu and submits it along with their payment information. This data is sent through the Internet or a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the restaurant. The restaurant then takes the order and its delivery information, completes the order, and sends it out to the customer. In our study we look at this method of ordering food and see how a select group of customers (DePaul college students) utilize this service. In particular, we are focus on users behaviors between looking at the database of menus and actually submitting an order to a restaurant. We were interested to see what motivated them to choose that restaurant's menu over others.

Figure1. The online ordering process (Love, Tanger, Linsky & Klosterman, 2013, p.3)

Another relevant source to our topic is a research paper compiled by a group of students studying at Princeton University. They have conducted a study about the development of an on-campus online food delivery service. In the study they gathered information regarding what college students want from this online delivery service. According to the students, dinnertime is the prime time for college students to order.

It seems plausible to generalize that most students at Princeton have more flexibility surrounding their dinner schedules than surrounding their lunch schedules. For the few students who wake up for breakfast, a similar argument holds. In light of this tendency, it is not surprising that dinner is the meal of choice for Tiger Foods to be involved inÉ (Love, Tanger, Linsky & Klosterman, 2013, p.10).

Although DePaul students may not be held to the same caliber as Princeton students, we assume that all college students behave relatively similarly. When ordering food for delivery college students are looking for a convenient dinner option that can be ready to serve them when they are ready to eat. Other findings stated "...customers would much prefer a website, such as superHungry.net, to handle everything (and it makes sense since it has all the information in the 1st place)" (Love, Tanger, Linsky & Klosterman, 2013, p.42). This means that students at Princeton (and presumably all colleges) would rather see all of their restaurant options laid out before them on one middleman site, rather than have to visit countless restaurants' website to find a menu and place an order. Although the research may not be about our exact target audience the gist of their research is certainly valuable, as we do not want to overlook the college student's perspective.