Write a conclusion of this Feasibility Study.

We are introducing a service which initially caters to the office workforce in offices throughout the Philadelphia downtown. Once our idea catches up, we aim to expand our service to local schools and other institutions as well as in other cities. The basic business concept is getting fresh and hot food delivered at the offices of everyday office workers at a reasonable price. Our commitment to timeliness of the service would be our pride as we understand how busy it can get in the offices, with little or no time for some workers to even arrange lunch for themselves everyday. We will have a mobile app where our customers can order their favorite dishes from local restaurants and provide us their choices for the entire week’s lunches. It’s just a couple of taps for them on their smartphones every week, and the rest is our responsibility! We will ensure they get their favorite food right at their offices at the exact time they want.
Our current competitors are Uber eats, Grubhub, and some local restaurants like Honey Grow etc. What would differentiate us from the already present alternatives is the idea that we will take orders for the entire week and ensure timely and accurate delivery each day at the designated time. We also see a lot of potential growth in our business especially in the coming weeks because we feel that after the coronavirus crisis a lot of people would feel uncomfortable gathering at lunch spots even if they had the time to do so. They would prefer to stay in their offices and rather get food delivered to them but would like it to be at specific times during the day and from their favorite local eateries. This is where we step in and get them covered! Our riders will ensure the highest level of hygiene standards and minimize any potential risks for our valued customers. This is not only ideal for our customers but also a token of our contribution to the society to reduce potential gatherings at restaurants during peak hours through revolutionizing how lunch is traditionally served. We will earn our money by charging a certain percentage of the total meal amount as our service fee. This is broken down later in the study.
During the first month of the service we will solicit rigorous feedback from our customers and ensure our customers are satisfied. We will set up a telephone line for any suggestions and complaints and it will be made available to our customers very soon. To further expand our reach we will also try to work with local restaurants which we would determine to be among the popular choices of our customers to enhance efficiency and minimize oven to service time. This data would be gathered once we are fully operational and we would have conducted surveys as well analyzed trends.
Industry Analysis
The main objective of the industry analysis is to help our company understand the competition of the US online food delivery industry. Adopting the Porter’s Five Forces framework aids our company in establishing a clear vision and strategy for long-term profitability.
Porter’s Five Forces:
Force One – Competition in the industry
The online food delivery industry has grown up to 14%, which reported a gross revenue of $82 billion in 2019, and is expected to double by 2025. Also, big competitors such as Uber Eats and Grubhub received massive investments to expand their market shares (Forbes).
Price war and cash burn issues are currently occurring between companies because of the heavily fragmented industry. There are over ten competitors of big and medium-size in the US. Entering the market comes at a high risk since competing companies often accept transaction losses in order to keep customers.
There is an increasing rivalry, as several brands offer similar business concepts. In order to differentiate their companies, competitors are moving toward niche markets and developing innovative features.
Force Two – Potential of new entrants into the industry
People order food through apps because of the easy access to a wide variety of restaurant options. Over 53% of people choose to use third-party delivery at least once per month (Restaurant.org). The convenience of online retail is directly proportional to the increase of new business entrants.
The ease of search engines also contributes to the aggressive growth and competition in this sector.Consumers use multi-apps to compare prices on their smartphone. Grubhub’s exclusive customers dropped from 75% to 58% in a two-year period. Postmates and Uber Eats also share customers with other food-delivery companies, with 41% and 53% exclusive customers respectively (Second Measure).
The spread of competitors presents a huge entry barrier. Top delivery apps control different parts of the US. For example, Grubhub is popular in the Northeastern states, and Doordash is preferred in the Midwest. On the other hand, Uber Eats took advantage of Uber’s global user data to market to customers.
Force Three – Power of supplier
Strong partnerships with local restaurants and well-known brands are a major concern in the food-delivery industry. The difficulty in getting an exclusive deal with another business might limit what our business offers to customers. In addition, the suppliers have the choice to work with any company that charges a lower delivery/service fee per order.
The e-commerce business greatly depends on delivery service resources. Our competitors have a large and diverse delivery staff, which allows companies to provide expedited deliveries as well as a larger reach to a variety of consumers.
Force Four – Power of customers
As a result of user frequency, customers may visit different apps at the same time to compare prices. They also can leave a review on the website and mobile application about their experience. Customer satisfaction influences other customers on their purchase decisions.
The large number of same-type products in the market creates more convenient alternatives for customers. Therefore, the switching cost is not present.
Force Five – Threat of substitute products
Most customers still prefer the traditional meal preparation methods for saving costs and controlling their diet. Moreover, over 63% of consumers state that they prefer an in-restaurant dining experience over purchasing a meal from a store (restaurant.org).
As mentioned, many companies make an effort to stay ahead in the game by providing additional services to maintain loyal customers and expand their market-share.

S.W.O.T. Analysis:
Strength:
Our product depends on the unique timeliness of delivery, which helps the customers more convenience in daily meals per week. Also, our attentive customer service creates a strong basis of customer loyalty. Further, the affordable meal plan helps increase revenues and carry our market-share
Weakness:
The intensity of competition raises disadvantages. The low capital factor remains a significant step back within brand awareness. Additionally, the online food industry depends on excellent support from the local restaurants and delivery staff. Therefore, limited resources propose obstacles for reaching a larger audience.
Opportunity:
The fast-growing food delivery market in the U.S. is a wonderful opportunity for any investor and new business. Growing demand from consumers indicates a need for expansion in the niche market. Because of concerns over COVID19, the booming market for delivery service is creating more jobs and strong support for local business.
Threat:
Along with concern for supporting local business, New York City considers regulated legislation requiring the food delivery apps to register the license. The license, which puts limitations on the percentage of commission that a company can charge the restaurant, causes high risks for long-term profitability (NYTimes). On the other hand, cyber-security loopholes related to digital payment and ghost deliveries also impact the company reputation.

Competitors:
The top competitors located in the US are Uber Eats, Grubhub, Doordash, and Postmates. However, the 2020 report from Second Measure indicates that Doordash and Grubhub are the most prominent businesses which share for the consumers’ meal delivery sales followed by 45% and 23% (Second Measure). In May 2019, Doordash announced its value of $12.6 Billion after receiving $600 Million in fundraising from Darsana Capital Partners. With the funding and gross booking in March, Doordash has surpassed Uber Eats and Postmates in around $625 Million in market shares(Forbes). In order to reduce the pressure within the food-delivery industry, the global company Uber, which held a 23% market share, aimed to acquire Grubhub with the deal of $6.1 Billion (NYTimes). Realizing the rivalry, we are introducing the meal-plan delivery service to differentiate our brand from the competitors and create a niche market for our company.

Market Analysis

Product and Service Development –

Refining the food delivery industry, focusing on office spaces, and delivery at reasonable prices with efficiency is what we are focusing on during the development of this product.
Overview of product (software developed in-house)
Our product is one like many available in the market. It is going to be tech focused through an app that consumers will be able to download through the Google or Apple store. The software that is going to be used for the food delivery process and scheduling is going to be developed which decreases the outsourcing aspect of technology. Our app is going to be the main focus of our product. We will include several features and give first time members who order and schedule food more than once a week a compromised delivery charge and free deliveries as well. This is one of the main things that differentiates us from our competitors. For example when looking at Doordash, they are one of the biggest competitors for us since our concept of delivering food with scheduling time and dates is one they use as well. But to be able to get a compromised delivery fee with Doordash, the customer would have to buy something called a Dash pass, but on top of that also order something that is over 15 dollars. The concept we are introducing is going to be more convenient, especially in the private sector and office buildings since workers and corporate workers don’t have time and don’t want to splurge on meals while working. Ordering through our app consistently would give them the advantage of lessened delivery fee with no price limit needed for that offer to apply.
Looking at where the food will be coming from, it can be from any restaurant around the area that joins our service. To join our service, the restaurant would have to download our app on the tablet we send them from our company. We would be undercutting Doordash by giving the restaurant the tablet for $3.50 a month with an option to upgrade to five dollars a month with which they would receive a free printer for their POS system if they choose to use that for their orders. This would undercut Doordash by $3.15, since they give the tablet for $5 and the printer for $3.15. The operation of the app would let the restaurant receive the orders on the tablet, on top of that they would be able to mark items out of stock, change prices and reactivate items once they become available. If a restaurant just wants to use the POS system and not use the tablet, it would cost them $1.75 a month. But this would lead to them not being able to communicate with their delivery man with ease, group orders together, handling large scheduled orders, and being able to communicate with our product and service help online.
Patents
Our delivery map will have the option of scheduling different delivery spots when the customer is scheduling their food deliveries for the week. Compared to Doordash, the customer has to be in the same market space, this part of our app is one that we will be patenting in order to make it unique to our company. This aspect focuses on our customers that have to keep moving during the week and find it hard to find time to order food during their work days. This would make it convenient for them to set up their location for every day with the specific time, and the rest is left to us.
Delivery drivers
We are going to hire food delivery drivers in order to accommodate our customers who choose to order consistently every week, since they spend more money each week which covers our costs for hiring the drivers. One can also sign up to become a driver with our app, the requirements for this would be being over 18, having car insurance, there will be a handbook delivery personnel would have to go through and also an online orientation once they are done reading the handbook. If a delivery person does not have a car, a bicycle, motorcycle, and or walking are also acceptable means for delivery. The things that would disqualify one from being a delivery driver would be DUI, violent crimes, multiple reports of orders reaching late since being at the right time and the right place is one of the main focuses for us as a company.
Plan for prototyping and testing
Our prototyping and testing is going to be done in Philadelphia since there are so many office and corporate buildings in the city. This would also help us know if we could develop a new target market to expand our audience and start focusing on Universities and students. Since they are three universities in the city, it would be easy for us to get feedback on these things and develop a plan to move forwards. Our business would most probably excel in grave circumstances like the one we are in today. People, especially the ones that are working and providing for their family would not want to risk their health by going out and eating in public. Our app would help them get food at their desired location at the desired time with future scheduling available. One downside to starting a business in these times is we won’t know how successful we would be if the world was operating normally.