UAE's Careem wants to help with 'curated' meals - grocery lists too

Careem wants to build up repeat users with 'Meals:On' and AI help on grocery

Last updated:
Manoj Nair, Business Editor
2 MIN READ
The Careem 'Meals:ON' initiative is about curated meal plans. And at a lower price point. Pictured here is Jaskaran Singh, Vice-President of Product Management at Careem.
The Careem 'Meals:ON' initiative is about curated meal plans. And at a lower price point. Pictured here is Jaskaran Singh, Vice-President of Product Management at Careem.
Virendra Saklani/Gulf News

Dubai: Careem doesn’t just want to help give you a ride. Or deliver your meal orders. The portal – which these days also helps with sending money – is intent on coming up with meal plans curated to your tastes.

And, according to Careem, don’t get too bothered about the costs – one can order from Dh29 after accessing a range of curated F&B providers.

That’s where Careem’s recently launch of ‘Meals:On’ comes in, initially rolled out in Abu Dhabi and then to customers in Dubai as well.

“We’ve noticed there’s a lot of friction when trying to order food for a single person,” said Jaskaran Singh, Vice-President of Careem Food, in a recent interview. “When ordering for one, yes, there’s too much of choice and they often end up overpaying. Because they might be doing the ordering when busy at work.

“What we did is work is create (curated) meals from top restaurant brands at affordable rates.”

That’s where the minimum price of Dh29 on an order comes in – “You will get free delivery when the order value is below Dh30, which is the minimum order value on the Careem Plus membership.”

Get enough Careem app users to tap for Meals:ON and that could make for a committed base. In a overly competitive space that is food delivery, curated services is the way to go.

Careem clearly wants to embed itself deeper into the day-to-day operations of as many residents in the UAE as possible.

The company has just brought out an AI-powered grocery list preparing tool. So, what customers can do is translate written or typed grocery lists into ‘instant’ online grocery orders. Or customers can take a photo or upload an image of the grocery list, and the app does the rest.

Pick and choose restaurants

For Meals:ON, Careem has made a point of being selective with the restaurants it ties up with. “We actually curate the most popular restaurants and dishes as per the meal time,” said Singh. “We know what you like, whether at breakfast, snack, lunch or at coffee.

“We take away the choice overload from you and we curate the food options. And the process becomes easier when the orders are repeated.”

Knowing Careem, there's a lot of data and number crunching that went into putting together the Meals:ON. "When we looked at our lunch ordering plans, we saw about 64% of orders were for one person," said Singh. "That was a big pain point (because many orders require a minimum price).

"The typical Meals:ON orders could be skewed towards a solo office worker looking for something affordable - that's fine with us."

Manoj Nair
Manoj NairBusiness Editor
Manoj Nair, the Gulf News Business Editor, is an expert on property and gold in the UAE and wider region, and these days he is also keeping an eye on stocks as well. Manoj cares a lot for luxury brands and what make them tick, as well as keep close watch on whatever changes the retail industry goes through, whether on the grand scale or incremental. He’s been with Gulf News for 30 years, having started as a Business Reporter. When not into financial journalism, Manoj prefers to see as much of 1950s-1980s Bollywood movies. He reckons the combo is as exciting as it gets, though many will vehemently disagree.

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