Zomato launches free takeaway service for restaurants

Food delivery unicorn Zomato has introduced a takeaway or self-pickup service, which it claims is “at a much larger scale than before”, on a commission-free basis for restaurant partners, a spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

The Gurugram based company will also forego payment gateway charges incurred on all takeaway orders, according to a blogpost. Currently, it is live with over 55,000 restaurants on takeaway across India, and is serving tens of thousands of such orders weekly, it added.

Takeaway services on Zomato’s app have witnessed growth with the order volume increasing by over 200% in the last few months, the IPO-bound company’s vice president of products Rahul Ganjoo said in the blogpost.

Read: Zomato valued at $3.6 bn in pre-IPO funding round

“For restaurants that already serve delivery orders, takeaway provides another avenue to access more customers, and further grow their business,” he added.

Ganjoo said that the food service industry has grown unevenly since the Covid-19 outbreak and is far from full recovery. Zomato is currently operating at about 110% of pre-Covid gross merchandise value (GMV).

“We have delivered over 13 crore orders since the first lockdown started in March, and there have been zero reported cases of Covid transmission through food or its packaging,” Ganjoo said.

He said that the overall sector will continue to need help to get back to pre-Covid levels, and a common solution was the option for customers to pick up their own orders.

“There are still millions of customers who haven’t yet ordered since the beginning of the lockdown. We believe a lot of them who are bored with home-cooked food will start consuming restaurant food with a safe and convenient takeaway option,” Ganjoo added.