Survey says: Consumers like the taste of Blue Apron the most

 BY APRIL BERTHENE Associate Editor, Mobile

Meal-kit delivery service Blue Apron has higher sales and more loyal customers than HelloFresh and Plated, but Plated retains more shoppers in the short term, a new study finds.

Blue Apron Inc. has the fullest plate among meal-kit delivery services, at least when it comes to sales.

The retailer, No. 231 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, has more sales than competitors HelloFresh and Plated combined, according to a new report by 1010data. The data management platform gathered consumer spending data representing millions of consumers from January  2014 to September 2016 for this report.

Of the handful of meal kit delivery services available to consumers, 1010data analyzed Blue Apron, HelloFresh and Plated, No. 531 in the Top 1000. The industry is growing, the report finds, as 77% of customers who have tried meal-kit delivery services during the past two years placed two or more orders and 48% placed five or more orders. 

Internet Retailer estimates Blue Apron’s 2015 web sales at $117 million, an 80% increase from $65 million in web sales in 2014. Blue Apron had explosive growth in 2014 compared with 2013, growing its web sales 550.2% year over year to $65 million from $10 million in 2013, according to Internet Retailer’s Top500Guide.com.

Internet Retailer estimates Plated’s 2015 web sales at $25.8 million, a 29% increase from its 2014 web sales of $20.0 million, according to Top500Guide.com. Internet Retailer does not rank HelloFresh.

Among Blue Apron’s customers, 89% have ordered only from  Blue Apron, 8% have ordered with Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, 2% have ordered with Plated and Blue Apron, and only 1% have used all three meal services, according to the report.

HelloFresh and Plated customers are more likely to try other brands. Only 73% of HelloFresh customers have ordered only HelloFresh meal kits, and 60% of Plated customers have only ordered with its brand.

Although Blue Apron has the highest sales and most loyal customers, Plated has the best short-term customer retention rate, according to the report. 40% of Plated consumers purchase again the first week after their first order, and about 36% of consumers purchase two weeks after their first order, a 10% week-over-week decrease in customers still ordering the service a week later. Among Blue Apron customers, 52% order a second time in the following week, higher than Plated customers. However, after two weeks, Blue Apron’s return customers sharply decline, and only about 42% of Blue Apron customers are still ordering, which is a 19% week-over-week decrease in customers still ordering the service. At 24 weeks after a customer’s first order, Blue Apron and Plated have leveled out, and only about 10% of their customers are still ordering the service.

Blue Apron may have higher sales because it has raised more capital, which has helped it hire more employees to market the service, says Natalie Seidman, senior vice president of data insights at 1010data. However, the meal-kit delivery market is still young, and she is unsure why one retailer may have a higher short-term retention rate over another, or why some business have more loyal customers.

“There are not large price differences, so other factors are likely coming into play,” Seidman says. “Over time, as more consumers use these services, we’ll be able to understand the reasons for these distinct patterns of loyalty.”