In a move which may resolve many pending issues between Zomato and its partner restaurants, the food delivery aggregator is mulling over unbundling its services which may allow partner restaurants to deliver food cooked by them. Responding to requests by restaurants claiming loss of customers due to unavailability of ample delivery partners on rainy days, Vice President of Restaurant Partner Services at Zomato, Pravesh Pandey said that the company is working to bring a hybrid model with an option of self delivery by partner restaurants.
Speaking at a Town Hall organised by the NRAI (National Restaurant Association of India), Pandey pointed to a huge growth opportunity for the restaurant industry as only 8% of the Indian population with internet access is currently into online food delivery. Citing a big jump in the market in past 2 years where over 3.5 lakh restaurants got themselves registered, he said that the emergence of cloud kitchens has sped up with use of already built up infrastructure and money saved on creating an ambience for a physical restaurant.
Sounding optimistic on 143% growth in order volumes from 2020 to 2021, he explained that more and more users have got into the habit of sitting at homes or offices, which is a big opportunity to create product based businesses with a focus on corporate groups and happy hours. Pointing to single meal orders garnering around 50% of orders in 2021, he suggested that restaurants should create more single or two-person meal combos. However, he expressed his apprehensions over sharing of customer data with restaurants, maintaining that customer data can’t be shared without their consent. He explained that there’s no process in particular to note how many people will come back to a restaurant they had dined in or had ordered from.
AVP Sales at Swiggy, Swapnil Bajpai stressed upon the right food and packaging the bedrock of delivery process, while asking restaurants to refrain from mistakes like not reading menu properly, which has often led to dosas being delivered without chutney. Terming “Menu” as the silent salesman for restaurants on food delivery apps, he urged restaurants to stack food categories properly and remain in touch with account managers to get feedback on what they need to improve on as well as tell customers if one unavailable item is delaying their entire order.
Outlining various checkpoints like Pricing, discount, coupons, ratings and options in the customer journey from selection to online ordering, he said that restaurants need to work on each aspect to ensure that customers order and keep ordering.
He explained that when many restaurants complain of low ratings despite the best of food, packaging needs to be kept in mind as the food should not only be fresh from the kitchen but fresh when it reaches the customer 30 minutes later. He opined that it’s very easy for a customer to opt out of an online menu compared to an offline restaurant, urging restaurants to keep the names of dishes simple, list preparation time and use good quality food pictures as the online medium doesn’t have a waiter to physically explain the menu to the customer.
