How to work with Zomato and Swiggy for your restaurant?

The world has been in constant state of flux and chances are that the only way to make money in restaurant is through home delivery of food.

Food delivery is certainly on the rise as guest favour convenience over the risk of stepping out to restaurants.

In a previous article I was of the opinion that we must develop our own brand of delivery.

That is profitable in the long run and while I still hold that line of thought, let us consider the other side of using restaurant aggregators for your hotel and restaurant and how to use it efficiently.

Create a new brand of online only restaurant

One of the first thing you do to protect your brand reputation is to create a new sub brand of delivery only restaurant.

Do it properly, apply for an trade mark and fssai registeration etc and then start it correctly.

Paratha Bro by Ibis is a national attempt by the Accor group to introduce a new outlet that caters to one thing and does it well.

Even while it expands its footprint, it does not have the complete menu and offers just a small selection of Paratha thereby keeping the cost under control

Marriott on wheels is a similar concept by the Marriott group now available in many locations, and is available for customers to order by Whatsapp, Zomato and Swiggy.

Similarly GRT Cloud Kitchen is a brand developed specifically for online delivery.

By creating a brand that is only available online, you can protect your brand at the same time improve revenue.

Negotiate Fees

While you have less overheads and are using existing infrastructure, the fees will usually eat into your margins.

In all probability your guest are ordering from you because they value the brand.

They are choosing the convenience of having it delivered by the delivery aggregators. So your APC would still be high.

Negotiate on the fees and offer a per trip charge rather than a percentage of order size.

By keeping a cap on the delivery charges, you can have a fixed cost structure for the delivery. This will help your profitability in the long run

Customise your packaging

Yes packaging can be a big cost and you may want to reduce it. But by customising the packaging, you have a chance to show off your brand.

A custom packaging also gives you an opportunity for further branding.

Also I am certain you know that most restaurant aggregators do not share the customer details with you.

On the packaging you could have additional qr code to run contests or collect feedback from guest in exchange of certain offers.

This will help you plug a little bit of leaky guest information.

What else could you do to improve the restaurant revenue while at the same time improve profitability using restaurant aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy.

I would like to know. Share your comments below