Mobile Marketing Lessons From SEA Food Delivery Growth

A lot of SMEs still treat “mobile marketing” as running ads on phones. Most companies get this wrong. In Southeast Asia’s food delivery boom, mobile isn’t just a channel—it’s the product experience, the loyalty engine, and the measurement layer all at once.

The numbers explain why this matters. In the first half of 2025, global food & dining app installs fell 41%, but APAC installs rose 30% YoY, and average session duration increased from 12.13 to 13.76 minutes (Sensor Tower, 2025). Southeast Asia’s food delivery spending hit US$19.3B in 2024, up 13% YoY—with Vietnam and Indonesia leading growth. That’s not “more discounts working.” That’s better retention being built on mobile.

This post is part of our Singapore Startup Marketing series—focused on how Singapore businesses scale regionally. If you’re a Singapore SME in F&B, retail, services, or marketplaces, SEA food delivery is a useful case study because it shows what happens when acquisition gets expensive and the only way forward is personalised engagement and loyalty.

The real shift: from discounts to retention economics

Food delivery platforms across Southeast Asia are moving away from blanket promos because the math stopped working. When paid acquisition costs climb and consumers become selective, “10% off for everyone” turns into a margin leak.

Answer first: the next phase of growth is retention-led—optimising for repeat orders and lifetime value (LTV), not installs.

Here’s what this looks like for an SME:

• If you run a café chain, you don’t need more one-time voucher hunters—you need weekday regulars.
• If you’re a beauty services SME, you don’t need 1,000 app downloads—you need rebooking.
• If you sell on a marketplace, you don’t need “traffic”—you need high-intent users who come back.

The SEA playbook is simple: earn more sessions per user, then use those sessions to build habits.

A Singapore SME metric that beats “CPC”

If I could force one metric into every SME dashboard in 2026, it’s this: repeat rate within 30 days.

Why?

• It’s close enough to your marketing to act on quickly.
• It correlates strongly with LTV.
• It pushes you to fix onboarding, offers, and post-purchase messaging—rather than just buying more clicks.

If you’re mobile-first (app, PWA, WhatsApp ordering, or marketplace storefront), retention is where your compounding happens.

Personalisation wins in SEA because culture is local

Southeast Asia is mobile-first, but it’s also context-first. Consumers respond to offers that fit their routines, language preferences, and cultural moments.

Answer first: personalisation works when it’s grounded in behaviour and local context—not fancy segmentation slides.

For Singapore businesses expanding into the region, the lesson is: don’t copy-paste your Singapore messaging into Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, or Ho Chi Minh.

What “personalisation” should mean for SMEs (practical version)

You don’t need a data science team to do this. Start with three layers:

1. Timing-based relevance

   • Lunch vs dinner offers
   • Weekday vs weekend nudges
   • Rainy-day spikes (yes, even in Singapore you can model this)

2. Habit-based relevance

   • “You usually order 2x a week—here’s a bundle”
   • “You always buy add-ons—here’s a pre-built cart”

3. Preference-based relevance

   • Cuisine or dietary tags
   • Price sensitivity (promo responders vs premium buyers)

A quick stance: if your CRM messages look the same for everyone, you’re paying for data you aren’t using.

January 2026 angle: New Year retention is easier than you think

It’s early January. People are rebuilding routines—meal prep, gym, “healthier choices,” tighter budgets after holidays. That’s a seasonal tailwind for retention campaigns.

SME idea you can run this month:

• A 14-day “routine” challenge (order 3 times, get a free upgrade)
• A “weekday lunch pass” (bundle pricing for Mon–Fri)
• A health-focused menu filter + personalised nudge (“Your usual low-sugar pick is back”)

Retention is often just “helping someone repeat a behaviour they already want.”

Measurement and deep linking: the unsexy tools that decide ROI

Most SMEs run mobile campaigns without being able to answer a basic question: Which channel actually brought profitable users?

Food delivery platforms in SEA are investing in mobile measurement and analytics because consumers jump between apps, ads, social platforms, and devices. Attribution is messy, but ignoring it is worse.

Answer first: you can’t improve retention—or scale paid spend—without clean measurement and frictionless journeys.

Two practical building blocks matter here:

1) Mobile measurement you can trust

At a minimum, your stack should tell you:

• Where a user came from (campaign/source)
• What they did after install/visit (browse, add-to-cart, purchase)
• Whether they returned (7/14/30-day retention)
• Your cost per first purchase and cost per repeat purchase

This is where tools like mobile attribution platforms (the source article references Adjust) become relevant—not because they’re trendy, but because they prevent you from scaling blind.

2) Deep linking to kill drop-off

Deep linking is one of those concepts that sounds technical until you see the impact.

Deep linking = sending the user directly to the exact in-app page they expect.

If your ad promotes “Free delivery for Korean bowls,” the click should land on:

• the Korean bowls page
• with the offer applied
• with the store selection done (or at least prompted)

Not your homepage.

Homepage links are where conversions go to die—especially on mobile.

Snippet-worthy truth: Every extra tap on mobile is a tax on conversion.

A practical mobile-first retention playbook for Singapore SMEs

If you want to apply the SEA food delivery approach to your own business, use this 30-day plan.

Answer first: start with one retention loop, measure it properly, and only then scale acquisition.

Step 1: Map your “first value” moment (Day 1)

Define the moment a new user feels the product working.

Examples:

• F&B delivery: first completed order
• Services: first confirmed booking
• Retail: first successful checkout and delivery tracking

Your onboarding goal is to get users there quickly.

Step 2: Build one repeat trigger (Days 2–14)

Pick a trigger aligned to your category:

• Replenishment reminder (skincare, supplements)
• Routine-based nudge (weekday lunch)
• Occasion-based nudge (payday bundles)

Keep the message specific. “We miss you” is weak. “Your usual order is 1 tap away” is strong.

Step 3: Add a loyalty mechanic that doesn’t destroy margin (Days 7–30)

Discounts aren’t evil—they’re just overused.

Margin-friendlier loyalty options:

• Free add-on (low COGS)
• Priority slots / faster fulfillment
• Member-only bundles
• Stamp cards tied to frequency, not order size

Step 4: Run two experiments and keep the winner

Two simple A/B tests most SMEs can run:

1. Offer format: free add-on vs % discount
2. Landing: deep link to product page vs homepage

Measure:

• Conversion rate
• Repeat rate within 30 days
• Gross margin per user (not just revenue)

Common questions Singapore SMEs ask (and straight answers)

Should I build an app in 2026?

If your customers reorder, rebook, or track deliveries, an app can pay off—but only if you can support retention and messaging. Otherwise, a well-built mobile site + WhatsApp + strong CRM may outperform a neglected app.

Are push notifications still effective?

Yes, when they’re tied to behaviour and deep linked. No, when they’re generic blasts. Frequency without relevance is how you train users to ignore you.

What if I’m expanding into Indonesia or Vietnam?

Plan localisation as a product requirement, not a translation task. Your offer structure, timing, and preferred channels will change by market.

What to do next

SEA food delivery platforms are proving a point that’s uncomfortable but useful: when growth slows, you can’t discount your way out. You have to design retention—and mobile is where that design lives.

If you’re working on Singapore startup marketing plans for 2026—especially if you’re expanding across Southeast Asia—treat mobile marketing as a full system:

• Measurement (know what works)
• Experience (reduce friction)
• Personalisation (increase relevance)
• Loyalty (protect repeat revenue)

What would change in your business if you stopped reporting “clicks” and started reporting repeat customers within 30 days?