Zomato makes takeaway service free for restaurants

Food delivery platform Zomato on Wednesday said the company has now made its takeaway service available to restaurant partners at zero commission, to help the industry get back to normal.

Even as the food ordering business is making a strong comeback after the initial setback of the ongoing pandemic, the growth has not been uniform, Zomato said in a blogpost.

"In our previous mid-COVID-19 report, we wrote about how the food ordering business is making a strong comeback after the initial setback of the ongoing pandemic. As of today, we are at 110% of pre-COVID-19 GMV (gross merchandise value) run rate in our food delivery business," the blogpost stated.

The food delivery platform said that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), food delivery is safe and people should not fear food-packaging.

"We have delivered over 13 crore orders since the first lockdown started in March, and there have been zero reported cases of COVID-19 transmission through food or its packaging," it said.

While the above signs have been more than encouraging, this growth has not been uniform and the overall food-service industry is still far from full recovery, it added.

"The sector will continue to need all the help to get back to pre-COVID-19 levels. Basis these insights, we have been focusing on finding more ways to safely serve our customers while responsibly helping our restaurant partners grow," it added.

The firm said one common solution that checked all the right boxes was the option for customers to pick up their own orders.

There are still millions of customers who have not 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.

For restaurants that already serve delivery orders, takeaway provides another avenue to access more customers and further grow their business, Zomato said.

The blog stated that the takeaway on its app has witnessed tremendous growth with the order volume increasing by more than 200% in the past few months.

"Therefore, for restaurants to be able to tap into this demand immediately, we are making our takeaway service available for free to our restaurant partners," it added.

The company said it will not charge any commission and will also forego the payment gateway charges it incurs on all takeaway orders.

"This is another step we are taking towards helping the restaurant ecosystem get back on its feet quickly," added the blog.