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Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

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Urban Households in Australia Dining Out in Downturn

November 19, 2008

We've written previously about how recipe websites appear to be recession proof – In Australia, we're seeing a similar trend with the Food and Beverage - Lifestyle and Reference industry growing 36.43% in visits week ending 15 November 2008 compared to the same week last year. While the down economy might be prompting some households to do more home cooking, we've also measured an increase in visits of 8.85% to Restaurants and Catering websites by Australian users, suggesting that not all households have clinched their spending on eating out. Indeed, BIS Shrapnel notes that eating out remains a "way of life" for Australians.

In the Restaurants and Catering industry users were drawn to both budget outlets and high-end dining guides. Domino's Pizza Australia was the leading website for the week ending 15 November 2008 accounting for 10.38% share of visits, followed by ninemsn – yourRestaurants with 9.34% share. Menulog, an aggregated delivery service, ranked fourth with 6.46% share.

Hitwise Lifestyle Demographics data indicates that urban households are more likely than average to visits Restaurant and Catering websites. There were three main household segments identified from a mixture of income levels, including, Mosaic Groups "Young Ambition", educated and high-earning young singles and sharers in the inner suburbs, "Metro Multiculture", households in medium to high density areas with much cultural diversity, and "Learners and Earners", students and professionals living in high density, lower cost suburbs.

Several food and beverage chains have capitalised on consumer search for vouchers, with 'dominos vouchers', appearing as the top variation on 'vouchers' for the 4 weeks ending 15 November 2008. Other brands included, 'pizza hut vouchers', 'hungry jacks vouchers', 'subway vouchers' and 'kfc vouchers'. Catering websites were active on paid search campaigns, with 7.52% of search terms derived from paid traffic.

Just as budget restaurant chains have been active in promoting their voucher schemes online, high-end outlets should consider what value programs they offer to compete for tightened disposable spend.