Deliveroo, formerly known as Roofoods Ltd, is a popular online food delivery company founded by Greg Orlowski and Will Shu in 2013. Based in London, the company operates in 200 cities across the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and United Arab Emirates. With its reliable and fast delivery services, easy customer tracking, and over 650% annual growth rate (Deliveroo, 2020), Deliveroo has established itself as a leader in the food delivery industry.
In this article, we’ll conduct a VRIO analysis of Deliveroo. VRIO is an analytical framework used to evaluate a company’s resources and capabilities. The acronym stands for Value, Rarity, Imitability, and Organization. This model helps companies achieve sustained competitive advantage and strengthen their position in the market.
Deliveroo Value
This component of the VRIO analysis assesses the valuable resources and capabilities of the company. It is crucial as it identifies new opportunities and helps mitigate threats, leading to competitive parity. Deliveroo’s most valuable resource is its software platform, which is essential to both restaurants and customers. It must be technologically advanced and glitch-free. The company’s investment strategy is also valuable, as it requires funding to run its operations. Its advertising techniques are considered a highly valuable capability, attracting customers and restaurants to its platform (Mumtaz, 2020).
Deliveroo Rarity
The rarity component focuses on resources and capabilities that are unique to the company or are acquired by few others. This creates a competitive advantage that other companies cannot replicate. Deliveroo has grown rapidly in a short period, which is rare. The company was a monopoly for some time and is now involved in monopolistic competition, but it continues to push boundaries to be a leader in the food delivery industry. Additionally, Deliveroo’s cost structure is unique, attracting customers and restaurants to work with them (Studocu, 2016).
Deliveroo Imitability
This component evaluates the difficulty in replicating or substituting the company’s resources and capabilities. If resources and capabilities are easily imitable, competitors will take advantage of them. The food delivery concept behind Deliveroo is common, with many companies operating similarly, like Uber Eats. However, Deliveroo’s international expansion strategy is hard to imitate, as it requires maintaining constant availability of restaurants and customers across different countries, which Deliveroo has managed well (Chertack, 2017).
Deliveroo Organization
This component of the VRIO model is critical to achieving sustained competitive advantage. All resources and capabilities must be organized and well-managed for the company to maintain its advantage. Deliveroo’s human resources are motivated and well-organized, and the company’s technological operations and software platform must be organized and managed effectively. The company’s staff is highly supportive of its operations, and its organizational structure is clearly defined with a hierarchy in place (Mumtaz, 2020).
Conclusion
the VRIO analysis of Deliveroo highlights the key strengths of the company in terms of valuable resources and capabilities, rarity, imitability and organization. These elements are crucial in determining the sustained competitive advantage for any business. Deliveroo’s platform, investment strategy, advertising techniques, rapid growth, cost structure, international expansion, motivated and organized human resources, and well-defined organizational structure all contribute to the company’s success and dominance in the online food delivery industry.
| V | R | I | O | ||
| Supply Chain | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustained competitive advantage |
| Brand Equity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Marketing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Service quality | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable advantage |
| Expansion strategy | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Competitive advantage | |
| Talented HR | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Competitive advantage |
References
Chertack, A. 2017. Deliveroo analysis. [Online], Available at: https://prezi.com/nuimz3yif3gp/deliveroo-by/, [Accessed on: 11th May, 2020].
Deliveroo, 2020. About us. [Online], Available at: https://deliveroo.co.uk/about-us, [Accessed on: 11th May, 2020].
Mumtaz, T. 2020. Deliveroo market analysis. [Online], Available at: https://www.academia.edu/30219513/Deliveroo_Market_Analysis, [Accessed on: 11th May, 2020].
Studocu, 2016. Analysis of marketing applied to Deliveroo. [Online], Available at: https://www.studocu.com/en-gb/document/newcastle-university/marketing/essays/an-analysis-of-marketing-applied-to-deliveroo/1300714/view, [Accessed on: 11th May, 2020].