Indonesians Often Struggle to Choose Food Orders on Apps, Grab Data Shows

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — Long periods of scrolling are not limited to social media. Indonesians also spend time browsing when looking for food on delivery apps.

A Grab Indonesia report on consumer behaviour found that customers take an average of 12.4 minutes to search for and choose the food they want. During that search, they browse around six merchants.

“So they search first before eventually making a purchase. And the interesting figure is that they spend 12.4 minutes searching before buying,” said Roy Nugroho, Grab Indonesia’s Director of Commercial, at the F&B Forward: GrabAds Marketing Summit 2006 on Thursday (8 October 2026).

The same data showed that 79% of GrabFood orders begin with customers searching for food and drink options.

Roy also said customers explore as many as 63 merchants over the course of a year. More than 40% of orders during that period come from merchants they have not ordered from before.

On the same occasion, Roy said orders across GrabFood, GrabMart and GrabExpress grew by 24% in the second quarter of 2026.

He said promotions, or ‘top of cut’, were important in driving this growth. Equally important, however, is achieving top-of-mind awareness for the brands being marketed.

Given the intense competition between brands, he said they need to find ways to remain memorable to consumers.

“Promotions are important, but at the same time, how can a brand, as we say in Javanese, ‘stick’ in consumers’ minds? Over the course of a year, GrabFood’s heavy users order from 63 merchants. The competition is therefore very intense,” Roy said.

Roy said Grab is working to help brands continue growing on its platform. Its initiatives include Resto Bintang 5 and offline activities at Grab PAS Food Market.

“Our focus is on helping Indonesian F&B brands continue to grow, given the overall market as well,” he said.