New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS): Although massively under-penetrated when compared to the US and China, online penetration of food services market in India is set to grow two times by 2025 with the right tailwinds -- likely to clock a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $13 billion, a new report showed on Monday.

Although the market was hit by the pandemic, it has also accelerated the pace of online adoption.

"Similar to many other markets, this market is also seeing a rising online growth especially post-Covid, and it is gaining prominence in the overall share of the market," according to data provided by market research firm RedSeer.

"While foodtech services (like Zomato) are doing IPOs and raising big bucks, the domestic market still lags behind in the food services market when compared to global counterparts, which means there is a lot of scope," the report noted.

However, the market is continuously growing with a number of drivers.

"India is expected to be the third largest consumer market by 2030 which will be a major boost for overall consumer economy, increasing growth of online food delivery with more digital adoption, penetration in smaller cities, growth of the branded food services ecosystem and aggregation of standalone restaurants by the online platforms, among others," the findings showed.

Although the market largely remains unorganised, the good news is that there is a shift towards the organised side and the growth of it is expected to be 14 per cent by 2025.

While on the other hand, the unorganised segment will see a mere growth of 5 per cent, said the RedSeer report.

Concurrently, the online segment is also significantly growing as players are innovating on offerings, themes and business models to adjust to the evolving needs of the consumers.

"Moreover, as the online adoption is growing, consumers are now finding these services more reliable and a growing inclination to order from these platforms. Research shows that all the cohorts will grow significantly except family," said the report.