Acquisition project | EatClub

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Acquisition project | EatClub

What is Eat Club?

Eat Club food delivery app that offers a curated selection of restaurants and unlimited savings on food orders. Eat Club offers 30% off at all restaurants, and there are no extra charges for delivery, packaging, or surge.

Elevator Pitch

Hungry to eat but do not know which restaurant to order from? Don't worry! We got you covered! Eat Club curates some of India's best food and beverage brands of all cuisines, right into the frame of your eye so that you don't spend hours searching where to order from! And the best part? We got you covered in all your favorite cities at a very reasonable cost with a guarantee of authentic taste, free delivery, and easy to consume packaging which is also environment friendly!

Understanding Eat Club

What is the fundamental problem that Eat Club is solving for?

Core Value Proposition of Eat Club:

Saving time to scroll amongst loads of restaurants or outlets and curating it into buckets of authentic brands as per different types of cuisines.

Besides that, it is delivering food and beverages within 25-30 minutes! More importantly Eat Club's services are available across popular Indian cities such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, NCR, and Hyderabad.
What are the basic features and functionalities that the Eat Club provides?

a) It has a simple home page with a list of food brands of various cuisines.
b) It allows you to add items to cart and allows you to pay on the checkout page.
c) It allows you to pay through your regular and popular payment methods.
d) It asks you for feedback once the order is delivered.
What other ways are users using to solve the same problem?

a) Zomato has introduced "Home Chef" and Swiggy has relaunched "Daily" to solve the same problem where in they curate primarily Indian dishes made by small food businesses or home makers to add the "authentic homely taste" besides their regular delivery offering.

b) Local Bengaluru based startups such as Home Meal and Pure Eats are also curating "homely menus" to deliver food using their apps and also with daily/weekly/monthly subscription models where one gets the food delivered at the same time daily.

Eat Club's Traffic analysis

From where are people coming to Eat Club?

Let us understand by looking at the traffic on the web:

Source

The overall bounce rate for the website is at 43.27% and for the age groups of 18-54 is at 19.24% - which indicates that 43.27% people on the overall level and 19.24% people on the selected age group level enter the website and leave without performing an action on the site.

Nearly all of Eat Club's users come through the direct and organic search channels and a handful come from the referral channels. And there is barely users coming through Paid Ads or any other channels.

What stage is it Eat Club at?

Eat Club was Found in: 2012
Number of Users = 10,41,473 (Approximately)
Eat Club's revenue in FY23 was INR 315 crore.

Eat Club is at its Mature Scaling phase.

Understanding the Users

Who orders from Eat Club?

Age	18-35
Where do they live	Tier 1 Cities (Only place where Eat Club is available) - Mumbai, Hyderabad, NCR, Bengaluru.
Gender	All Genders
Marital Status	Mostly unmarried.
Monthly Income	20K - 3L INR
Cost- conscious	High

Key Inferences about Eat Club from conversations with different type of users:

Active Users

(Most commonly noted inferences as it is)

Subscription Fee ANNUALLY is 99 INR. Which avails lucrative discounts on EVERY order! The fee is constant through the year and has not variated over years. Ensuring loyalty and trust in that area.
Box8 being primary driver to drive up usage due to variety of meals curated "in the Box" (Dessert, Rice, Roti, Curry, Salad, etc.).
Saves time to think what to order - Validates the core value proposition.
Availability round the clock. Delivers even after closure of traditional restaurant options.
Combo Meal options are really well curated.
Cost friendly for the same brands as compared to Swiggy, Zomato. And discounts availed from subscription balances off the GST added to the order.
The selection of brands and restaurants are authentic and give a minimum guarantee of taste and quality as opposed to Swiggy and Zomato where one cannot really know the quality and hygiene place the order is coming from (unless it is a renowned franchise).
Customer Service is really proactive and helpful in all aspects such as product/food quality checks, refunds, resolving issues with delivery, and items ordered.

Churned Out Users

(Most commonly noted inferences as it is)

Lack of availability of Eat Club once they moved out of Tier 1 Cities. - Core Reason for churning out!
Lack of updates to the curated menus and brands. Leading to monotonous tastes and lack of variety choices available to order after a point in time.
Availability of Eat Club Brands on competitors such as Swiggy and Zomato (Since these curated brands are cloud kitchens and not directly owned or affiliated to Eat Club).
Adding another subscription on the top of all the existing subscriptions (even though fee is way too love)!
Its positioning is neither between the "cheaper healthy, homely cooked food vibe" nor in the "High quality, luxurious, gourmet styled food vibe". More of heating of pre-processed food vibe (leading to consistency in taste).

Regained Users

(Most commonly noted inferences as it is)

They use back Eat Club when they are back to the city where the service is available.
They come back on Eat Club if they get more credits on Cricket Match predictions and referrals.
They come back on Eat Club if the value of the credits/discounts are higher.
They come back to Eat Club when they are not finding coupons or discounts for ordering food or beverages through the same Eat Club curated brands on Swiggy or Zomato.

Understanding Eat Club’s ICP

Elements of Eat Club’s ICP:

Social Media They Use: WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter (X).
Martial Status: Single
Moved to New City: Yes.
Kids: No
Job: Mostly Employed and College students.
What do they watch/listen/follow: Go out to movies, watch OTT, Follow Social media influencers.
Who do they follow: Food Bloggers, Travel Bloggers, Tech Reviewers.
Any other info: They have a moderately high travel tendency, go out on weekends, team lunches, etc.
1. Age Groups: 18-30

What Apps do they use in general in different types of categories?

Social: Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter (X), and LinkedIn

Food Delivery: Swiggy, Zomato, Zepto Cafe, Dominos, McDonald's

Grocery Delivery: Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, Zepto, Dunzo.

Restaurant Discovery: Zomato Dineout, Google Maps, Yelp, Trip Advisor.

OTT: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar.

Health: Cult.fit, HealthifyMe, Zero

Payment Apps: Gpay, PhonePe, Paytm, Jupiter

Riding apps: Uber, Ola, Rapido, Namma Yatri

Where do Eat Club users invest their time and money?

Health and Wellness: Fitness, nutrition, and self-care.
Travel and Exploration: Trips and getaways.
Personal Development: Learning, self-improvement, and skills enhancement.
Home and Living.
Entertainment and Leisure: Movies, music, games, and socializing.
Fashion and Beauty: Style, grooming, and self-expression.
Technology and Gadgets: Smartphones, laptops, and innovative devices.
Personal Finance: Investing, saving, and money management.

ICP Stories

Lets get to know the interesting people who could do some good using Eat Club.

Meet the foodie Prajakta

Prajakta is a 27 Year Old who stays in Mumbai and stays with her family whilst working in a big consulting firm for over 3 years. She travels 2 hours in total daily (back and forth) for her work and she usually cooks her own meal or has her parents cook her meal when she is too late or drained off work. At work she usually does either take her lunch box or prefers to explore the different outlets in her office campus for food options. She is a foodie but also very health conscious and avoids street and junk food as much as possible but at the same time she loves a lot of variety in her meals and in her cuisines which lets her explore authentic food outlets in and around her residence or her office area. But more often than not when she is too busy with her work or when she is sitting at home, she prefers to order her meals using food delivery apps. But one thing that she really hates doing is spend too much time in deciding where to order her meals from even though she knows what cuisines she wishes to eat a particular point.

Meet the Techie Dhananjay

Dhananjay is a 24 year old who is from Bhopal but studied his Under grad and post grad in Mumbai where he got it campus placement at a well renowned IT firm in Bengaluru for which he has had to relocate. In Mumbai he used to stay in his college hostel so used to go to college and come back and have his meals cooked in the hostel mess and occasionally used to go out to eat with his friends. But after staying in a hostel for so many years, he did not want to stay in another hostel like setup at a PG in Bengaluru. Which is why he decided to rent a 2 BHK flat with his colleague from where his office is also of close distance and he could comfortably travel back and forth to his office. Living independently, Dhananjay was on a budget and has to manage his expenses and maintain his savings. He tried hiring a cook in his flat but due to unavailability of good cook helps in his locality he decided to go the ordering route for his food. He wants to order his all his daily meals or eat his daily meals in the tech park of his office. But for ordering he needs cheap and affordable food alternatives which are also authentic in taste and quality.

ICP B2C Table

Criteria	User 1	User 2
Name	Prajakta	Dhananjay
Age	27	24
Demographics	Stays in Mumbai with family. Can cook or family cooks but likes ordering food on Day offs at home. Likes variety in her food.	Stays in Bengaluru with his office colleague. First job working in an IT Firm. Staying in a Flat.
Need	Need something hygienic and tasty to eat on day offs.	Food Delivery options due to lack of cooks at accommodation.
Pain Point	Do not want to spend much time on deciding what to order for food and needs variety in her food.	Wants consistency in taste and authenticity with the food being consumed at affordable prices.
Behavior	Works in a hybrid work environment with 2 days of Work from home where she wants to order the food or on weekends.	Travels to office daily and has 1-2 days work from home so wants to order food for dinners or weekends at flat or WFH days.
Perceived Value of Brand	Low (due to monotonous menu, taste of food, and brand curation after a certain point) and also feels It is pre heated food at times.	High
Marketing Pitch	Curated Food Menu without scrolling endlessly for ordering.	Authentic Food delivered from Select brands in 25-30 minutes.
Goals	Want to eat authentic tasty food which has variety of items from a cuisines that is delivered fast and has good offers and deals.	Do not want to spend much and risk eating from places with questions over quality and hygiene and want to maintain consistency from the place of food.
Frequency of use case	High	Very High
Average Spend on the product	Medium	High
Value Accessibility to product	High	High
Value Experience of the product	Positive, as she is a repeat buying customer on a weekly basis (1-2 times at least), indicating loyalty despite her low perceived brand value.	Positive, as he is rating 5 stars after each order, indicating customer satisfaction.

Understanding the Market

Factors	Competitor 1	Competitor 2	Competitor 3	Competitor 4
What is the core problem being solved by them?	Swiggy	Zomato	Home Meals	Pure Eats
What are the products/features/services being offered?	Food and Beverage Delivery	Food and Beverage Delivery	Food Delivery	Food Delivery
Who are the users?	Ages 10-60	Ages 10-60	Ages 18-35	Ages 18-35
GTM Strategy	Mix of Digital Marketing Channels and Tactics	Mix of Digital Marketing Channels and Tactics	Organic	Organic
What channels do they use?	Paid Ads, Influencer Marketing, Email Marketing, SEOs.	Paid Ads, Influencer Marketing, Email Marketing, SEOs.	Word of Mouth	Word of Mouth
What pricing model do they operate on?	Commission based, Delivery fee based, Ad based, subscription based, convenience fee based, service fee based.	Commission based, Delivery fee based, Ad based, subscription based, convenience fee based, service fee based.	Subscription based	Subscription based
How have they raised funding?	Series A investors based funding.	Various rounds of investing from different prominent investors.	They have not raised any funding.	They have not raised any funding.
Brand Positioning	Variety, Reliable, Convenient, Multi - purposed, Youthful.	Trust, Authentic, Multi-Purposed, Fosters Community through events.	Reliable home made food that is fresh and authentic.	Reliable home made food that is fresh and authentic.
UX Evaluation	Smooth and Easy to navigate.	Smooth and Easy to navigate.	A simple app with basic features.	A simple app with basic features.
What is your product’s Right to Win?	Direct curation of specific brands.	Direct curation of specific brands.	Availability in more locations and delivery coverage.	Availability in more locations and delivery coverage.
What can you learn from them?	Scaling and Expansion. And perhaps a curation of a few more options!	Scaling and Expansion. And perhaps a curation of a few more options!	Curation of menu and feel of authenticity.	Curation of menu and feel of authenticity.

Now it’s time for some math, calculate the size of the market.

TAM = Total no. of potential customers x Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPU)

SAM = TAM x Target Market Segment (percentage of the total market)

SOM = SAM x Market Penetration/Share

Calculating TAM

Firstly lets compute the ARPU,

ARPU = Total Revenue / Number of Users

Total Revenue = 315 Crore INR

Number of Users = 10,41,473 (Approximately)

Source

Therefore, ARPU = 3,15,00,00,000/10,41,473 = 3024.56 INR

~Approximately, ARPU = 3025 INR per User.

Now , TAM = Total Number of Potential Customers x ARPU

Total Number of Potential Customers for Eat Club will account the total population of all the Tier 1 cities in India where Eat Club is present (Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, NCR, Hyderabad).

Let us assume the total population of these cities are approximately ~ 10 Crore.

Therefore, TAM = 10,00,00,000 people x 3025 INR = 30,250,00,00,000 INR

Calculating SAM

Total Addressable Market is 30,250 Crore approximately.

But obviously all these people would not require food deliveries, let alone Eat Club.

Therefore, SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) = TAM x Target Market Segment

Averaging out the numbers from Multiple sources and reports from RedSeer, Zomato, BCG, Google: Target segment for the food delivery segment in Tier 1 cities can be averaged out to ~ 30% of the tier 1 cities population.

Therefore, SAM = 30,250,00,00,000 INR X 30% Target Market = 9075,00,00,000 INR

Calculating SOM

But obviously not all of this “Addressable” market is “Obtainable” as in no product can obtain all the customers they can “potentially address” to.

Therefore, SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) = SAM x Market Penetration or Share

As per Entrackr, Eat Club amongst other players has about ~10% Market Penetration.

Taking this into consideration,

SOM = 9075,00,00,000 INR x 10% = 907,50,00,000 INR

Therefore Indicatively (As SAM, SOM, TAM are all indicative numbers based on lot of assumptions), Eat Club has about a ~900 Crore INR odd of market they could obtain in comparison to the ~315 Crore INR they are making.

In short there is still room to make more revenue and make some more money!

Designing Acquisition Channels for Eat Club

Channel Name	Cost	Flexibility	Effort	Speed	Scale	Budget
Organic	Low	Low	High	Low	Medium	Low
Paid Ads	High	Medium	High	Low	Medium	High
Referral Program	Low	High	Low	High	High	High
Product Integration	High	Low	High	Low	Low	High
Content Loops	Low	Medium	High	Low	High	Low

Refer to the Eat Club Traffic Analysis in the sections above.

The only channels that have worked for Eat Club are Organic/Direct channels and Referral Design.

Detailing Eat Club's Direct and Organic Acquisition Channels

What stage is Eat Club out of PMF, Early Scaling, and Mature Scaling?
1. Mature Scaling!
Is Eat Club ready to acquire new users?
1. YES!
What is the Acquisition channel that has worked the most for Eat Club in acquiring users?
1. Organic/Direct Channel!
2. Referrals!

Firstly what does this Organic Channel in Eat Club's context signify?

In Eat Club's context, the Organic channel refers to the acquisition of new customers through non-paid, natural, and authentic means. This means that customers discover and join Eat Club without being influenced by paid advertising, promotions, or other forms of direct marketing.

Further breaking down the Organic Channel in Eat Club's Context:

1. Word of Mouth: Existing customers recommend Eat Club to their friends, family, and colleagues.

2. Direct Search: Customers search for keywords like "best food delivery in Mumbai" and discover Eat Club's website or social media presence.

3. Social Media: Customers stumble upon Eat Club's social media content, engage with it, and decide to join.

4. Influencer Partnerships: Food influencers in each city promote Eat Club's curated restaurants to their followers.

5. Content Marketing: Customers discover Eat Club's informative and engaging content (blog posts, videos, social media posts) that showcases its USP.

6. Customer Advocacy: Satisfied customers share their positive experiences on social media, review platforms, or with friends and family.

The Organic channel is crucial for Eat Club as it:

1. Builds trust: Customers are more likely to trust recommendations from friends, family, or influencers.

2. Cost-effective: Organic acquisition is free or low-cost, reducing customer acquisition costs.

3. Long-term growth: Organic channels can drive sustainable growth and retention.

By focusing on the Organic channel, Eat Club has created a loyal customer base that will drive word-of-mouth marketing, retention, and ultimately, business growth and it has been a key factor for Eat Club being at a Mature Scaling phase with the tag line of "India's number 1 Food delivery app on both App store and Google Play Store.

Here's a detailed plan for the Organic Word of Mouth/Direct acquisition channel for Eat Club

Organic Acquisition Channel Plan:

Keywords:

"Best food delivery in Mumbai"
"Authentic restaurants in Bengaluru"
"Curated food delivery in Delhi NCR"
"Limited menu food delivery in Hyderabad"
"Quality food delivery in Gurgaon".

Search Intent Creation for Eat Club:

1. Blog posts: "Top 10 authentic restaurants in Mumbai" or "Best curated food delivery services in Bengaluru".

2. Social media posts: "Discover the best food delivery in Delhi NCR" or "Get quality food delivered in Hyderabad".

3. Influencer partnerships: Partner with food influencers in each city to promote Eat Club's curated restaurants.

Content Flow:

1. Website content: Showcase Eat Club's unique selling proposition (USP) of curated restaurants and no delivery fees.

2. Social media content: Share customer testimonials, restaurant spotlights, and behind-the-scenes stories

3. Email newsletters: Share new restaurant additions, promotions, and events

How can Eat Club leverage More out of their Current Organic/Direct Channels?

1. Referral Program: Assess the current referral program and how it is benefitting the referrer and referee and how is it helping in inviting more people to join Eat Club and how can it be improved. (This is done in the below section of Referral design).

2. Customer Advocacy: Encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences on social media and review platforms after orders are delivered and feedback is shared on the app.

3. Influencer Partnerships: Expand influencer partnerships to more cities and food categories.

4. Content Marketing: Create more informative and engaging content (blog posts, videos, social media posts) that showcases Eat Club's USP,

5. SEO Optimization: Optimize the website and content for search engines to improve visibility and drive organic traffic

6. User-Generated Content: Encourage customers to share photos or reviews of their Eat Club experiences.

7. Community Building: Create a community forum or social media group for customers to connect and share recommendations.

What would be the key Metrics to Track?

1. Website traffic. (See change or improvement from the current organic channel).

2. Social media engagement.

3. Customer acquisition cost (CAC).

4. Customer retention rate.

5. Referral program participation.

6. Customer advocacy and user-generated content.

Budget Allocation for any campaign to improve the organic acquisition channels for Eat Club?

Out of a Hypothetical 100% Budget

1. Content creation: 30%

2. Influencer partnerships: 20%

3. Referral program: 20%

4. SEO optimization: 15%

5. Community building: 15%

Detailing Eat Club's Referral Design Acquisition Channel

What stage is Eat Club out of PMF, Early Scaling, and Mature Scaling?
1. Mature Scaling!
Is Eat Club ready to acquire new users?
1. YES!
What is the Acquisition channel that has worked the most for Eat Club in acquiring users?
1. Organic/Direct Channel!
2. Referrals!
Do they have a robust/working referral system/program in place?
1. YES!
Can the referral program be improved?
1. YES!

Improving Eat Club’s referral Program

Firstly let us take a look at the Current Referral Program and then see where is the room for improvement.

The Current Referral Program:

Open the app and this is the home screen that will appear:

Go to the bottom middle icon of the app, to view the referral guidelines:

Firstly you will view the Screenshot describing what the Eat club membership is all about with a view of how much a user can save using the same!
The Platform Currency: Eat Club Credits! 🪙
How to earn these credits besides ordering? Via Referrals!
How do you refer?
1. Refer to the steps in the screenshot below.
2. What is the person sending the referral getting?
3. 1. 500 Credits per person (Maximum credits you can obtain from referring 1 person).
4. How is the person referring getting these 500 credits?
5. 1. By getting 50% of the order value of the person to whom the referral is being sent until the 500 credits are achieved.
6. What is the person receiving the credit getting?
7. 1. Flat 200 off on 1st 3 orders.
Where else can you access the option to refer someone?
1. On The Profile Section of the app: Refer and Earn Section

What is already there in the existing referral program?

A working referral design and Mechanism.
Platform Currency - Eat Club Credits.

What is Missing?

There are 2 core aspects missing that are impacting the motivation for the active users to refer Eat Club are:

Tracking progress of Referrals per user.
Tracking progress of Credits after a user has applied the referral.

This is what we need to improve and this is the problem we have to solve to obtain more users at the stage of Mature scaling of the product!

Adding Missing Components to Eat Club’s current referral program

In order to acquire users as per the product’s mature scaling!

This is how Eat Club’s referral system could look like post adding the missing components:

Tracking progress of Referrals per user.
Tracking Progress of Credits (Credits Status):
1. Remind on WhatsApp message could look like:
2. 1. “Hi Dhananjay 👋 Keep ordering those delightful treats on Eat Club! I might even treat you a little if you help me earn those 500 credits 😉 Also motivate you to do it too? [Insert Link].”