Online food orders spike during IPL

Chennai: Being glued to IPL matches on TV seems to keep a lot of them away from their kitchens too. For, during such mega cricketing events, online food aggregators are reporting an average increase of 27% in their orders.

“During IPL and T20 matches we see the orders shoot up by 18 per cent -27 per cent during week days that goes up to 32% during weekends,” said Mr. Ritesh Dwivedy, CEO & founder, justeat.in.  During last year’s IPL final match between Chennai Super Kings and

Mumbai Indians, the portal reported a 42 per cent jump in order inflows.

“Though we have not done any formal study, we peg the average age of customers ordering online based on our experience between 25 and 34 years,” said Mr Rohit Chadda, MD & co-founder of foodpanda.in.

Each of these spikes gets sharper in relevant cities during the IPL season when their home teams are playing.  

“During the World Cup, we saw our orders peaking close to 32 per cent on days when India played compared to days when it did not. But in the case of IPL, the swings are the maximum in Bangalore when Royal Challengers is playing,” said Mr Chadda.

Attributing the online food ordering trend to shorter duration of matches, Mr Dwivedy said,

“If people step out for dinner during T20 matches, either one innings or sometimes a whole match gets over by the time they return.”

Pizzas, Biriyani, Paneer butter masala and Butter Chicken along with rotis are the top favourites of people ordering online.

“The idea seems to be no messy food with the average size of the order ranging from Rs 350 to Rs 400,” said Mr Chadda.

Anticipating a similar demand this season, food portals are signing in more restaurants to offer variety.

“We have already lined up a lot of combo and discount deals to suit customer tastes,” said Mr Dwivedy.