Zomato makes takeaway service free for all restaurants

Food delivery platform Zomato is making its takeaway services available for free to its restaurant partners to encourage more consumers to order food from outside, the company said in a blog post today.

“We will not be charging any commission, and will also forego the payment gateway charges we incur on all takeaway orders,” Zomato said in a blog post.

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Zomato has already gone live with 55,000 restaurants for this service and has reported 200 percent growth in this vertical already. To encourage more restaurants to join this programme, Zomato is also offering to discount any payment gateway charges that are incurred during the online ordering and payment. Restaurants listed on the platform will show the option of delivery as well as takeaways. Customers can search for all restaurants offering takeaways using relevant filters on Zomato’s home page

Although the total number of orders might still be lower than pre-COVID-19 numbers, with each order value having shot up, platforms are making more money per order and the delivery business is becoming more viable. While there has been some bit of recovery, the industry is still far away from its pre-COVID-19 status. Prompted by this situation, Zomato is encouraging consumers to order online and pick up their orders directly from the restaurant to reduce the threat of contamination.

The company said that while it has 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, the growth has not been uniform, and the overall foodservice industry is still far from full recovery.