Food Tech Revolution in Emerging Markets: Examining Consumer Preferences and Mobile App Usage in Sri Lanka

Information Technology or the digital revolution has enabled many new windows in the product and service industries. Technology impacts people's lives in numerous ways. It severely has implications on education, transportation, economy, health, food, and society with its advanced features. Especially after online shopping, people's lifestyle has been changed at various levels. In Sri Lanka, online shopping is an emerging business model that leads to many new commercial opportunities in product-related businesses and service-oriented businesses. Online food ordering is one of the most dramatic changes in online shopping. Especially many new companies have started food ordering and delivering services through mobile applications. Since it is a recent phenomenon in Sri Lanka, an initial study should be done to identify the consumer attitudes towards food ordering through mobile App. Therefore, this study considered online food ordering mobile applications, specifically; Uber-Eats, PickMe Food, and Eatts-Eat Conveniently, which are popularly available in Sri Lanka in general and in the study area in particular. And this study attempts to find out consumer's attitude and factors determine the online food ordering behavior. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study. Kandy Municipality was the sample, and the sample size was 100 users. The study found that 57% of users use mobile apps for ordering foods, while others use direct calls, walk-in, and web links. In this study, 40% of users suggest mobile apps for ordering foods for their ease of use, 17% prefer due to various menu, 19% indicate due to speed of delivery, and others prefer for quality of foods and payment facilities. However, the observation of the findings revealed that respondents' food behavior has been changed or moderately transformed from traditional pattern to new system due to the arrival and influence of online shopping Apps or digital revolution, as a result of the massive globalization process.