Hellofood’s latest report highlights high reliance on mobile phones in Kenya

Hellofood Kenya has announced that orders placed via mobile applications have surpassed desktop to stand at 65 percent from the 2015-2016 shopping trends analysis. Desktop now takes a bow at 25 percent. The company has reported.

The jump in mobile order percentage represents a big upsurge from the 40 percent recorded in 2014 a change the online food portal attributes to the growing mobile and internet subscriptions that stands at a record 88 and 74 percent respectively. Android still maintains lead in mobile orders at 95 percent while other mobile applications share the remaining 5 percent.

“We have seen more restaurants moving to sell on Hellofood in a bid to tap into the online market. This year we have signed KFC and Ocean Basket bringing to over 270 the number of restaurants on the platform. We are looking to leverage on the massive adoption of mobile applications in Kenya to drive more sales,” Duncan Muchangi, MD, Hellofood Kenya said.

The study also indicates that mobile orders hit peak between 11–3 P.m. when customers order lunch and 4 -9 p.m. when dinner orders come in, the traffic then subsides over the weekend. The report also revealed that the average time per visit on mobile devices is also twice lower than that of desktop.

The company’s findings come at a time where reports from Kenya point at increased mobile penetration. According to the quarterly sector statistics report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), the uptake of mobile services by Kenyans continued to grow leading to mobile penetration growing to 88.1per cent with 37.8million subscribers up from 36.1 million in the previous quarter.

The report shows that pre-paid subscriptions continue to dominate the mobile telephony sector, registering 36.8 million subscribers, accounting for 97.3 per cent of the total subscriptions. Post-paid subscriptions saw a marginal increase to 989,889 up from 963,684 in the previous quarter.