Berlin-based meal kit delivery service Hello Fresh has been hungry in its aspirations in the food industry and now has a global market in its sights.
After launching in 2011, the startup-gone-mainstream has created one of the most successful companies in the food delivery service niche and is now a dominant market leader in the industry. But what is it about this unicorn from Germany that made it into the force that it is today and what is it doing to ensure it stays at the top?
It seems like there are countless meal delivery kit companies offering their services. Between Blue Apron, Plated, Sun Basket, and too many more to name, Hello Fresh leads the industry as the number one global delivery service by focusing on more than just food delivery. Before expanding into the United States, Hello Fresh had a stiff competitor in the country, Blue Apron. However, just a short time after entering the country, Hello Fresh successfully (and rapidly) soared past Blue Apron to dominate the American market in meal kit delivery, growing its customer base by as much as 1.5 million globally. During that same time period, the company even expanded to include Canada where it now projects it will control 60% market share of the meal kit delivery industry in the country by the end of 2019.
One of the largest contributing factors was ? and is ? Hello Fresh?s aggressive marketing strategy, robust budget, and relentless attitude towards growth. Unlike some of its competitors, Hello Fresh allocates a significant amount of funds to its marketing efforts and doesn?t let up on them. The meal kit service is constantly searching for new customers, a necessity in an industry with historically low customer retention rates. Now, at a time when there appears to be more competitors than the average consumer can even keep up with, it?s more important than ever to be aggressively attracting more users to sign up for the service.
Another aspect of the company?s success is its willingness to be constantly evolving and expanding, another necessity in such a competitive and saturated market. Over recent years, Hello Fresh has acquired both Green Chef in the United States and Chefs Plate in Canada. Both additions have helped the company increase its offerings, such as including Green Chef?s vegan and gluten-free options to increase reach to younger consumers and those with dietary restrictions as well as including Chefs Plate?s existing operations as the company expanded into the Canadian market. But the growth doesn?t end with acquisitions, it includes leveraging data as well ? a lot of data.
What does a company do when there are lots of competitors and it needs to distinguish itself from the rest? For Hello Fresh, the answer is found in big data. Specialists from the Hello Fresh team focus on not just customer data, but widespread market trends in different regions around the world to assist in their marketing and customer satisfaction efforts. Data is collected and analyzed to see what people are searching for, what food is popular in specific areas, and how the company can better target specific demographics. Additionally, big data is increasingly valuable for discovering new food combinations and recipes that customers may have never even thought of pairing together before.
Moving forward, Hello Fresh is making its mark in brick and mortar stores as well where customers can now purchase pre-packaged meals without being subscribed to the service in select parts of the US. The future of the food industry is changing as consumers are always finding new ways to satisfy their hunger. Whether it be through traditional grocers, on-demand food delivery services like Uber Eats, or meal-kit delivery services, Hello Fresh has made it clear that not only is it here to stay in the food industry, but it?s here to dominate.
