Zomato is the one of the largest food delivery startups in India. It is a multinational company which was founded in the year 2008 having its headquarters in Gurgaon, Haryana. The startup’s service is available in almost 24 countries and more than 10,000 cities. Zomato has announced that they would adopt to Electric Vehicles by 2030. Let’s look at how the startup is planning to do 100% food delivery on Electric Vehicles.
Zomato which is a Bangalore based food tech company has announced that they were planning to adopt to shift their food delivery service to Electric vehicles by the end of 2030. In the month of May, the company had announced its plans to provide funding towards environmental projects in order to reduce the emission of carbon into the atmosphere.
The company had also conveyed through a blog post that they would join the EV-100 which is a global initiative by the companies in order to shift towards Electric Vehicles.
What Deepinder Goyal said
The co-founder and the CEO of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal had conveyed through a blog post that the company was already making a number of deliveries using Electric Vehicles in the major cities which include Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, etc. and added that the company will try and fully adapt towards Electric Vehicles by 2030.
He further added that the current food delivery through Electric Vehicle is hardly a few compared to the active delivery partners and added that the company understands that it is hard to adapt to 100% EVs but it is considered to be a necessity in the long run.
Barriers Zomato will Face in adapting 100% Electric Vehicles
In order to adapt to 100% Electric Vehicles there are a lot of barriers faced by the company. Currently, the adoption rate is very low for the company as well as the two-wheeler industry. There are a certain set of barriers that currently impact the two-wheeler industry in general which include lack of infrastructure which is the charging stations, limited battery range, higher cost, and lack of brand loyalty in the new technology.
Zomato’s strategy in adapting 100% electric vehicles delivery
Zomato has been working towards adapting to the Electric Vehicle and has been actively engaging with certain Electric Vehicle players. They have been trying to come up with certain personalized designs for the company and also have been working towards creating business models that would help in making the transitions towards the Electric Vehicle sector much more easier and faster.
In February 2021, the company had raised an amount of USD 250 million from its existing set of investors which include Tiger Global, Kora and Fidelity.
Zomato Revenue
Companies other than Zomato looking for transition to electric vehicles
Zomato is not the only company that is working towards adaption of the Electric Vehicles in their business operation. Flipkart which is owned by Walmart had also announced that the company is looking forward to deploying around 25,000 Electric Vehicles by 2030.
Flipkart has also joined the climate group’s initiative of EV100 and the transition is a part of its commitment towards to climate group to change the logistic fleet to Electric Vehicles. The e-commerce giant has already started using the 2-wheeler and 3 wheeler Electric Vehicles in the major cities that include Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, Guwahati, etc.
Even Amazon has pledged towards the EV100 initiative and announced that they would introduce 10,000 Electric Vehicles for delivery and also introduce around 1 Lakh Electric Vehicles by 2030 as part of its commitment.
Zomato is looking to make the company public and has been preparing for IPO which is considered to be one of the largest IPO. The company has also reported that they are doing well and said that their performance has crossed their expectations. Amidst the lockdown and restrictions laid down due to Covid 19 people are turning towards the online food delivery.
FAQ
What is the net worth of Zomato?
Zomato had a net income of US$350 million in 2020.
Who is owner of Zomato?
Deepinder Goyal is founder and CEO of Zomato.
What is the valuation of Zomato?
The valuation of Zomato is $5.4 billion dollars after the recent investment of $250 million by Tiger Global, Kora and others.
The food delivery segment will not be the same, even after the lockdowns lift — largely because of the startups which have innovated to adapt to physical distancing and hygiene upgrades. One of the startups front lining this change is BroEat!.
It is India’s first Whatsapp based home-delivery platform to discover menus & order food directly from your favorite local restaurants & support the community! The idea is to make sure restaurants, home chefs, and small businesses earn the margins they deserve and help save jobs.
Read this article to know everything about BroEat!, what it does, how was it started, services, founders, business model, pricing, plans, and achievements.
The company’s vision is to build a platform that the Indian F&B industry can depend on with transparency, open business practices & sustainable methods. Its mission is to help this platform scale to a PAN India level where all the restaurants in India can benefit from this and grow their home-delivery business most sustainably.
“Our core belief is that by providing sustainable tech solutions to the F&B industry will help them not only thrive and become profitable and more sustainable but also help them save jobs”, says BroEat co-founder Karan Tanna.
BroEat! – Target Market Size
As per a recent survey, the Indian online food delivery market size is USD 2.9 Billion. The entire business is largely shared between 2 major market players right now. BroEat! will be the only third platform with a countrywide presence and the first-ever WhatsApp based platform in India.
In the next 5 years, the home delivery industry is going to gain major share and might become equal to the dining out industry as more and more people find great convenience in ordering in. This boom will encourage bigger brands in the home delivery segment and we might see more home-grown brands scaling up to 2000+ outlets which currently are only done by the likes of Domino’s & McDonalds.
Being in the restaurant business himself, BroEat co-founder Pawan Shahri, soon into the lockdown, figured out that the home-delivery business is going to be a major chunk of the revenues to be make. To ensure that the module is sustainable, they had to figure a way out to increase the margins there and avoid their dependability on aggregators who charge 25-28% commission per order.
It was about time that the industry needed a platform that had reduced commissions, and was transparent with consumer data. Also, keeping the services unbundled is necessary for the restaurants to be able to take up more responsibility. Soon the co-founders got sketching on base structure and started seeking various stakeholders in the industry from different business categories. When Karan and Pawan realized that this was a unanimous pain point, they decided to jump into it and take it head on.
“Our conversations with our colleagues from the industry and a deep understanding of the business had validated our idea. We also got in touch with many people to understand a consumer point of view”, says Pawan Shahri, co-founder of BroEat.
During the pandemic, it is only in a human to understand the pain of local business and to do their bit to help and support them. The consumer sentiment helped them drive this further and that’s the motive to run the platform.
BroEat! – Product/Services
BroEat! is the first-ever WhatsApp based platform in the online home delivery space. Since WhatsApp is easier to use, it is a more approachable platform, and the consumer need not download any apps. BroEat! helps restaurants earn the margins they deserve as the startup charges a bare minimum platform fee starting INR 5/- per order. This brings down the overall expense a brand might have to as low as 5-6% per order.
Karan and Pawan are trying to craft business for a new type of supply chain to make sure the consumers get the experience and service they need. Simultaneously not hitting the pockets of the merchant partners and restaurants. When anyone orders from BroEat!, they help restaurants make deserving margins, which helps them save jobs & sustain the business. That supply chain going forward supports a lot of local workers and vendors in the restaurant network.
Karan Tanna and Pawan Shahri are the Founders of BroEat!.
Pawan(right) and Karan(left) – Founders of Bro Eat!
Karan Tanna – Karan founded the nationwide Ghost Kitchens chain, a frontrunner in the dark kitchens segment, and his Yellow Tie Hospitality manages a host of F&B franchises, working with over 200 restaurants Karan featured on Forbes 30 Under 30, Entrepreneur 35 Under 35 & also was a part of the GQ’s most influential young Indian’s list.
Pawan Shahri – Pawan’s portfolio includes some of Mumbai’s more intimate, popular casual dining restaurants like Butterfly High, London Taxi, The Bigg Small Cafe + Bar & Oi Lat-Am Kitchen & Bar. Currently, 26, his journey started at the age of 16 running one of the most successful experiential marketing firms in the F&B business,
Both the co-founders were friends and industry colleagues who often shared their expertise in their various fields. The current company size varies between 8-10, but they have an expansion plan of 100+ employees. Karan looks more into operations & the tech front and Pawan look into marketing, brand positioning & building a strong consumer connect for the platform.
BroEat! – Name, Tagline, and Logo
BroEat! Logo
The name BroEat! Was born out of a conversation between Karan & Pawan that stuck along. Rather than a story, it was a night of brainstorming and pushing one to the other to eat. It clicked and stuck on.
BroEat! – Business Model and Revenue Model
The BroEat business model is tier pricing model. The charges for order generation platform fee are:
As social media has a stronghold in today’s world, the company is in a continuous process of building a strong social media presence. Also with the founders having 10+ years of experience in the hospitality sector, word-of-mouth publicity holds a major hand in getting the restaurants on-board. The platform goes live in a week and the founders are quite certain that their marketing activities will get them the desired results.
BroEat! – Recognition and Achievements
BroEat! has been featured with Forbes, The Hindu, The Economic Times, and many more as India’s first Whatsapp based e-commerce platform to discover menus & order food directly from your favorite local restaurants & support the community!
BroEat! – FAQs
What is BroEat?
India’s first Whatsapp based home-delivery platform to discover menus & order food directly from your favorite local restaurants & support the community!
How do you order from BroEat?
The process is simple. You need to add the BroEat business account number as a contact, you reach out with a simple ‘hello’ via WhatsApp and you are sent a link to their platform. You can then proceed as with a normal food order and make your payment. Then you are redirected to WhatsApp where you receive confirmation messages, receipt, and delivery updates.
When was BroEat founded?
BroEat was founded in 2020 amidst the lockdown.
Who are the Founders of BroEat?
Karan Tanna and Pawan Shahri are the Co-Founders of BroEat.
Life, as we know, ended with the advent of 2020. It ushered in a new and scary era by introducing us to COVID-19. This puzzle remains unsolved even after toils by the best minds in the world. We now talk about life before and after the pandemic.
Nothing remains untouched, and one of the most affected is the food business, particularly food delivery. Zomato is the forerunner in this industry in India. And it is only apt that their business performance is seen as an example.
Zomato had reported a revenue of $192 million on a loss of $277 million in the financial year 2018-19. Then, in 2019-20, it doubled its earnings (revenue) reporting levels of $394 million on a loss of $293 million.
Zomato acquired competitor Uber Eats in January 2020 gaining market share to increase GMV by 108%. In figures, the GMV increased from $718 million in financial 2019 to $1.49 billion in the financial year 2020.
But as COVID-19 gained pace in the country, India responded starting a lockdown in March. The food delivery GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) was at an all-time low, reducing by 80% in the last week of Match 2020 (comparing with GMV at its peak in mid-February 2020).
Zomato—During Pandemic
In June 2020 quarter, Zomato had a revenue of $41 million on a loss of $12 million. These figures show the evident effects of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across India. But a positive impact was that the burn rate was reduced. It was expected to stand under $1 million and by July 2020 the monthly revenues started showing a steady rise reaching 60% of pre-COVID levels.
Zomato—Now
Following Goyal’s prediction, the recovery has now been over 80% in August 2020 and finally reached pre-COVID levels by October 2020. He further expects the food delivery business to grow 15-25 percent month on month. He informs that Zomato has done 9.2 crore deliveries since March with no reported transmission through delivery. The road through slow and rocky, persistence has still yielded results.
Zomato—Steps Taken For Continued Business
Precautions Taken By Zomato Delivery Partners During Pandemic
Zomato recognized that they have to take initiatives for survival in the hostile business atmosphere. There were a series of steps taken that lay down an example of a strong spirit and determination. We look at a few of these:
Contactless Dining: Introduced in India and eight other countries, patrons were offered contactless dining when they visited a restaurant. People were able to enjoy the dining experience without any interaction with restaurant staff or touching menu cards.
Contactless Food Delivery: A similar concept to contactless dining, here food was delivered without direct interaction with the delivery person. The food is left at an agreed point and picked up by the customer.
Temperature checks: All delivery partners have their temperatures checked when they reach the restaurant to pick up delivery before the order is handed out. This is then mentioned on the receipt for the benefit and information of the customers.
Aarogya Setu App: Zomato made it mandatory for all delivery partners to download and use the government-backed Aarogya Setu app.
Mask and Sanitizers: Mask and sanitizers have become a must at all times and for everyone. Zomato provided washable and reusable masks as well as sanitizers to all working delivery partners. Where they were unable to do this, they have reimbursed partners upon purchase o masks and sanitizers.
Training: All delivery staff was provided training on contactless delivery to ensure bot the parties remain safe during harsh times. This also included training on safety measures as recommended by WHO for delivery as well as personal fronts.
Restaurant safety: Zomato ensured that all partner restaurants implemented safety measures. They also shared all information with the user so they are assured of the safety measures and hygiene standards. This helps in making an informed decision. Restaurants also had to issue a declaration that they were following measures.
Insurance: Zomato has added OPD coverage of up to INR 5000 to cover potential testing costs for partners. In case of infection, they are also covered by insurance for medical expenses and any loss of earnings.
Disabling Cash on Delivery: Cash on delivery was disabled to avoid any contact and safety reasons.
Precautions Taken By Zomato Restaurant Partners During Pandemic
Zomato—Ventures
Zomato’s primary business model has been the food delivery business. But it also had a small niche segment of delivering groceries, fruits, and vegetables. This venture was called Zomato markets.
During the imposed lockdown in March and further, increasing numbers of COVID-19 swept India, people decided to go out of home less and less. The availability of daily essentials via Zomato was a lucrative option as bigger competitors like Big Basket and Amazon struggles to deliver. Zomato was able to deliver with ties to small and medium local shops.
However, once lockdown became relaxed, it faced stiff competition from new and old competitors alike. Eventually, it did exit this business and decided to focus on the food delivery business model as it started reaching pre-COVID levels.
Another interesting venture is Zomato’s Feed Daily Wager program under the aegis of Feed India campaign. It collected over 30 crores during the pandemic for this cause and was able to provide over 65 million meals to the daily wage earners who lost their means to earn.
Also, under this program, they delivered rations kits which would contain up to 100 meals for the family. More than 100,000 of these kits have already been delivered over the pandemic period.
What precautions did Zomato take while delivering the Food?
Some of the precaution taken while delivering Food Products during this Pandemic were-
Contactless Delivery
Face masks
Disabling COD
What is Contactless Delivery?
Zomato launched a contactless delivery option that allowed the customer to opt option for the delivery partner to leave the package outside their home, ensuring no human-to-human interaction and hence lowering the risk of any transmission.
How Zomato educated its delivery partners?
Zomato was involved in continuously educating its delivery partners on hygiene practices (not to touch face, nose, sneeze in the elbow, etc.) to ensure their own as well as the ecosystem’s safety.
Why did Zomato disabled the COD option?
Zomato temporarily disabled the COD (cash-on-delivery) option on its app for safety reasons and to avoid contact between the customers and delivery partners.
What is Zomato Gold Support Fund?
Zomato launched the Zomato Gold Support Fund with the goal of helping out the restaurants that were finding it difficult to support their workers during the pandemic.
How Zomato helped people who were directly affected by COVID-19?
Zomato provided services to the quarantine facilities that were essential during this pandemic. It was very important for Zomato to find more than just a few ways to help the community fight against this pandemic. Zomato teamed up with Apollo Hospitals to deliver food to those who were in isolation wards, in their quarantine facilities.
Zomato—Conclusion
It was unimaginable to think of the world that we live in today. The most important lesson probably is being human and having humanity in these times. All of us need to rise above individuals and support each other as a community.
Zomato has given us an example to follow. It saw its business decline on a slide, but it kept going and persevered. As a company, it tried to branch into other dimensions, albeit without success. But it remained focused and came back strongly in the end as the numbers and performance suggest.
Another factor was the support to the community, it included customers, restaurants, delivery partners, and even people in general as everyone suffered. Zomato has shown grit, determination, heart, perseverance in adverse conditions to come out a winner.
Zomato is an online food-delivery startup. Their services are available in 24 countries and around 10,000 cities. There was a recent allegation against a delivery executive of the company by Hitesha Chandranee from Bengaluru. She made an allegation against a Zomato delivery executive and shared some videos on social media explaining the allegation.
In the first video, Hitesha Chandranee said that her Zomato delivery was late. She was talking to the customer care executive of Zomato regarding the order being arrived late. She pointed to her nose which was bleeding and said that while she was talking with the customer care executive, the delivery man hit her nose and ran away.
Hitesha Chandranee uploaded another video on her Instagram profile which gave a detailed explanation of what actually happened. She said that she was working from morning and ordered food from Zomato around 3.30 pm. The delivery was supposed to be made by 4.30 pm.
Since the delivery hadn’t arrived on time, she was following up with the customer care executives. She was explaining to the customer care executives to cancel the order or to provide free delivery for her order.
She later told the delivery executive the same when he had reached with the order. She told him that she was talking to the customer care executive and didn’t wanted to receive the order as it was too late.
She said that the delivery executive started shouting at her, asking her whether he was her slave. In the video, she said that she tried closing the door and the delivery executive pushed the door, snatched the delivery package from her hand, punched her and ran away.
The Plea
The Zomato Delivery executive Kamraj spoke to the media. He said that after he reached her apartment, he handed over the order to Hitesha Chandranee and was expecting to be paid because the mode of payment was COD.
He also told that, he had apologized for the delivery being late and explained to her that it was because of the traffic and bad roads in Bengaluru. He said that, Hitesh Chandranee was very rude from the beginning, and asked him why he was late. Even after the apology she kept on insisting that the delivery was supposed to reach within 45-50 minutes.
Kamraj then said that she had taken the food from him and refused to pay for it. She told him that she was speaking to the customer support and in fear of losing his money, he begged her to pay for the order. And it was at this moment she started shouting and calling him a slave and asked him what he could do.
At that time the Zomato customer care informed Kamraj that the order has been canceled at the request of the customer and he had asked her to return the food. He said that she did not cooperate and because of her actions he decided to leave the apartment without taking the food.
When he was walking towards the lift, she started using abusive words in Hindi and threw her slippers at him and started hitting him. And to defend himself from the ongoing attack he shielded himself using his hands. She then hit herself on her nose with her ring accidentally while trying to move his hand.
Kamraj said that she did not let him go through the lift and he ran down to the third floor. He said that he had called up the Zomato support system executive in Delhi and explained the incident.
Number of orders received by Zomato
Zomato’s Response
As soon as the first video was uploaded by the woman, Zomato’s official Twitter handle had responded saying that a local representative from the company would get in touch with her. They said that they would help her with the police investigation.
Zomato took quick actions. They made a statement saying that the delivery executive was delisted from the app and they empathized and apologised for the incident.
After hearing the delivery executive’s plea, the co-founder of the application has said that they are providing support to both of them to ensure that both sides of the story are heard.
The co-founder of Zomato Deepinder Goyal said that they are in touch with the woman and is covering her medical expenses and helping her with the case. He confirmed that they have temporarily removed access of Kamraj towards the application but they are covering his earnings while the case is going on. They are also covering his legal expenses.
Conclusion
Zomato has said that Kamraj had made 5,000 deliveries for them and is one of the top delivery executives in the app with a average rating of 4.75/5 star. They said that he had been working with them for 26 months. Deepinder Goyal also reminded the public that these were facts and not an opinion. They have provided the information for record purposes.
FAQ
What is the salary of Zomato delivery boy?
Delivery boys earn approximately between ₹ 25,000 per month, depending on factors such as the number of deliveries completed and the distance they cover.
Who is the founder of Zomato?
Deepinder Goyal is the founder and CEO of Zomato.
What is Zomato’s valuation?
As of January 2020, Zomato’s valuation is $3 billion.
Swiggy was founded in the year 2014. It is currently India’s largest delivery and online food ordering platform. It is operating in 100 different cities in the country. Swiggy has been using AI to improve its orders and delivery. Let’s look at the steps taken by the company to use AI for the smooth delivery of its products.
Swiggy has used AI to grow its order value by over 200%. The company said that the real challenge they faced was real-time decisions or optimizing their products. They said that, when the customers are deciding what to order, the delivery executives keep moving around and restaurants get busy with their customers and orders. Finding a balance between these three was the real challenge faced by them.
Customer Sattisfaction
The company stated that first promise they would maintain is that they will deliver the products within the given time period. They have built an AI system, where the customers will be able to see what they would prefer, at what time, etc. in the company’s platform. It is designed using AI which makes it easier for the customers to choose their order.
The platform is built in a way where it would understand the language used to refer to the same item in different names. For example- In India chicken is addressed using different names in different languages and AI helps in making the platform understand that all these different names means the same dish.
Swiggy’s Delivery Executives
The location of the delivery executives is tracked by the company on a real-time basis. They get to know whether the delivery executive is available to fulfill the order or not using the AI system. This will help the company in confirming the order given by the customers.
The company also needs to understand, whether the executive is a new person or an experienced person which is done through an automation Process.
The delivery executives will have to mark arrived, when they reach a restaurant for picking up the order. The company uses live GPS tracking so that they don’t click arrived even before reaching the restaurant. This helps the company to know that they are physically present in the restaurant.
Valuation of Swiggy ($m)
Swiggy’s AI Solution for Restaurants
In the same way, restaurants will also face similar challenges. It would take different time periods to prepare different dishes. Some may take 20 minutes while others may take up to 30 minutes to prepare. The company has built systems to take into account how much time would it require to prepare the dishes ordered by the customers.
Another area where the company concentrates is on food quality. Sometimes the customer would receive a different dish from the one they would have ordered. The company has built a box that has a camera in it, which will take pictures of the food to ensure that it is the right food. The company informed that it is a computer vision model based on deep learning.
Time and Space
The other prime factor the company takes into consideration is the time and space input. The uniqueness of on-demand services is that the customers need would change according to the time and location. The platform understands, whether it’s morning or afternoon and shows the restaurants and dishes accordingly.
AI Strategy
Swiggy has hired an AI team from across the globe. They have hired individuals who hold multiple PHDs from international universities, and people who work as senior scientists in places like GE research and IBM.
They have built a separate team dedicated only to applied research. This team is different from the data science team. This team will concentrate on solving the problems of the next 100 customers, while there is a team that looks at immediate problems.
The company receives terabytes of data weekly and around 40 billion messages per day. Swiggy has worked on putting this data to develop and build Machine Learning models. The company has said that they have also partnered to get third-party data.
Swiggy is also working on Artificial Intelligence on computer vision where for example a picture of a menu is automatically taken and converted into a file.
They are looking forward to building long-term capability by partnering with other research institutions and industries which are external. Swiggy has also partnered with various universities and institutions where they would fund the research programme and innovative ideas.
This is a step where the university students and Swiggy scientists would be able to work together in developing innovative models. They have also partnered with Amazon Web Services and a lot of startups.
FAQ
Who is the Founder of Swiggy?
Swiggy was founded by Nandan Reddy, Sriharsha Majety, and Rahul Jaimini.
What is the valuation of Swiggy?
Swiggy has a total valuation of $1 billion.
How many orders a day does Swiggy have?
Swiggy has a high number of orders with 1.4 million orders a day.
Conclusion
Swiggy has also made efforts to introduce Artificial Intelligence across the organization. This would help everyone build models around it. They have launched a training programme for their teams, analysts and even business leaders which is “AI for All”.
The vision of the company is to make AI part of their culture which has led them to build the capability and knowledge in the organization said Swiggy’s technological head.
Indian e-commerce giant Paytm has come up with this new idea of having a ‘contactless in-store ordering’. They said that the idea of Paytm contactless ordering will help in promoting the process of minimum physical contact.
Paytm in a statement said that they have developed an online menu system where a QR code will be given to the restaurants and the users can scan the QR code which will help them getting the menu on their mobile phones and can place the order without having a contact.
Paytm will include contactless ordering
This process of contactless ordering and dining will help to avoid the unnecessary need of touching of the menu that could possibly be unsanitised and there will also be a certain distance maintained between the customers and the waiters.
Paytm has already introduced the process of contactless payment or billings few years ago. Making a greater hold in the market soon after the demonetization phase.
As the lockdown has been lifted , Paytm is mainly aiming for the top 30 cities to start with with over one lakh restaurants which will work this way. This concept can be a great success as it is helping the restaurants to restore their business which had been closed for a while.
This concept of contactless ordering and dining has been brought to stop the spread of coronavirus infection after the reopening of the country. Restaurants have also been told to properly sanitize and create a particular distance between the customers and the owners.
Zomato which is an online delivery platform has also said in a statement that they are working towards adding some new features on their app in which it will allow the diners who are having food in restaurants and placing order can have an online menu which will promote contactless delivery option.
Statement By Paytm On Contactless Ordering
Paytm has said that its solution will support all of their payment methods which includes Paytm wallet, Paytm UPI, net-banking and cards and the orders will be updated time to time as the restaurant changes them.
“In the first phase, the company is in the process of onboarding over a lakh restaurant which will help them to ensure social distancing amidst covid-19 fears. This, in turn, will also enhance the restaurant’s efficiency and trust for the customers to recover their business while reducing cost overheads,” Paytm spokesperson said in a statement.
contactless ordering by Paytm
Paytm also added that it will extend this unique solution to many big franchisees and dine-in restaurants so that it could reach out to maximum people.
Paytm Vice-President Nikhil Saigal in a statement said, “We understand that after the lockdown, our country will require a safe dining and food ordering experience. Therefore, we have built this technology to help restaurants and their customers to follow social-distancing norms. With our ‘contactless in-store ordering’, they will avoid touching menu cards and cash for a safer experience”.
Paytm has been an revolutionary industry for the Indian market. When they brought in the method of online payment services it created a great impact in the market for a while now. When they brought in the concept of online payment it was not a big hit but the promotion of this concept at the right time which was just after demonetization helped them to have a good hold in the Indian market.
By bringing in this new concept of contactless in-store ordering this can help them creating a good impact in the market once again. At this time of crisis people are looking at the ways which can help promoting the concept of social distancing with no human contact as it has become a necessity now. By launching of this concept it can become a major hit among the people and will also help in promoting this concept.
The e-commerce giant Amazon, now a days is to expand all of it’s service in all the sectors by entering in the new sectors trying to build tough competition for the existing players of that sector. Now, the company has joined India’s online food delivery market, and now focusing on becoming the market leader in this sector by giving tough competition to the top local players i.e. Swiggy and Zomato. Let us see the complete report on the topic, Amazon experimenting in food delivery services in India.
Insights of Amazon Food
The American-based e-commerce giant Amazon, has invested a good amount in their new venture i.e. around $6.5 billion in India. The name given to their brand new food delivery service is Amazon Food. At the present moment, the Amazon food is working in selected pin-codes of Bangalore i.e. 560048, 560037, 560066 and 560103. From the past news from many sources, it was heard that the company was originally planning to launch their food delivery service in India last year, which they pushed to match. No clear reason was provided by the company in this regards but later on they had to push it further more due to the nationwide stay-at-home order (National lockdown) by the Indian government, which they issued in late March before the immediate starting of their services.
E-commerce giant at present testing the food delivery service with the selected restaurant partners in Bangalore with some of the employees. They are going to expand this venture in the upcoming span of time.
Competition in food delivery services
The basic idea behind the Amazon’s entry into the food delivery market sector to try the new sector. Also, many of it’s rival in their sectors are presently started working in this sector. Google is also working in this sector indirectly with the help of their funded company i.e. Danzo. At present, Danzo (Google backed startup) is working in all types of delivery services and now has started delivering the food services.
Other startups like Zomato is itself working in this sector and has now acquired Uber Eats in the starting of the year. The biggest rival startup, Swiggy is also giving the tough competition in this sector, making this sector difficult for any type of future competition. After looking a great opportunity in this food and delivery sector, Amazon is also trying to experience this sector.
Amazon strategy behind Amazon food
Amazon is now promoting it’s Amazon prime services to their customers to experience all the facility under a single roof. The company was waiting to integrate this facility with their prime services. According to the company, this brand new integration of this service can help them in increasing their revenue and can help in achieving their goal of converting their business model into profits. This will also help them in acquire more customers which can become their potential customer and so they will be able to experience all the facility within the same brand name in the single servicing platform.
Food is the basic necessity of the life and now has also become a luxury in many cases. People around the world love to eat delicious food, due to which there is a huge demand for food business ideas with low investment. To run any business successfully, you must have interest in doing that thing. Many people like to eat variety of food, many people like to make different kind of fusion food, many people like to make food for others. So, if you have interest and operate this business properly, it is very rare to find a food business failing to succeed. Here we have made list of startup food business ideas.
1. Catering Services
Catering Service | Food Business Ideas
Catering service is a popular business idea in the food industry. Do you love hosting parties, making food for your friends and family members? Then, this is best food business to start. For every small and big gathering and get together people are always looking for catering services. Apart from that, you will get business through event planners also. Catering business ideas in India is great idea as Indians give lot of importance to food in any sort of program, function, parties.
With moderate investment and proper planning, any individual can initiate a catering service of his own. Moreover, catering services are rising at a rapid rate to cater the need of customers and it is ideally a great food business ideas which can be started with low investment and can give you a high return.
2. Coffee Shop Business Idea
Coffee Shop | Food Business Ideas
Coffee is such a beverage which most of the people need to drink twice or more in day. Many people start their day with Coffee and many people end their day with coffee. Are you expert in making special coffee? Then this is the perfect business idea for you. Over the past decade, the coffee shop business is increasing rapidly. An entrepreneur who is passionate and talented about coffee can initiate coffee shop business with substantial capital investment. Although, the coffee shop is actually treated as a place outside of work and home to relax. Coffee shop business is one of the best ways to turn into a profit making business.
Furthermore, a classic successful coffee shop chain is Cafe Coffee Day which has a significant presence throughout the globe and now the rising coffee house which is much more renowned as Starbucks is expanding its outlet network in India. India with its high population and never-ending demand gives a very good opportunity to start a food business with a coffee shop chain.
3. Baking Business Idea
Bakery | Food Business Ideas
Are you an expert in baking cakes, breads? Do you like to make cake have tempting look with beautiful icing? Then, this idea is perfect for you. A bakery business can be initiated in two ways. You can establish a bakery with a retail location and sell fresh baked items from your store or you can establish a large scale bakery unit and sell product through the retailers. The bakery is one of the proven and most profitable food business ideas that can be initiated with proper planning.
However, some famous bakery which has quickly grown itself from scratch are Cookie Jar, Krazy For Chocolates, French Loaf, etc. They have immensely grown themselves with little investment and a great food business idea to work on.
4. Buffet Restaurant
Buffet Restaurant | Food Business Ideas
Buffet only restaurant is one of the most trending food business ideas. People always love to have the food according to their own choices by selecting from many options. Right location and proper marketing strategy are important in starting a buffet restaurant business idea. As well as one price, all-you-can-eat buffet-style restaurants have become extremely popular with the budget-minded dining crowd. This is a good food business ideas.
Unlike a typical restaurant, a buffet restaurant has one major benefit for the operator–shorter work hours. Typically, buffet restaurants cater to lunch and supper diners and do not open until 11 a.m. and are closed by 9 p.m. Based on volume, a buffet restaurant can be very profitable, as often the operating overheads are much lower than similarly-sized restaurants, simply due to the fact that fewer employees are required to run the business. Additionally, wholesale food items can also be purchased for lower cost based on volume buying, which adds to beefed-up profits.
5. Cooking Classes
Cooking Classes | Food Business Ideas
If you love to cook and enjoy crafting new tasty food recipes then you should consider starting a cooking classes business. This can be initiated as a home-based business with small capital. You can have business tie-ups with the retail store that sell fresh fruits. Many people wish they had skills in the kitchen and are willing to pay to learn. Like other culinary jobs, a cooking instructor can focus on a specific area, such as baking or grilling, or be a generalist.
You can lead cooking instruction in your home, or have someone videotape you and you can sell the videos as part of a home-learning course. Another option is to create your own cooking show posted on YouTube, which can pay you advertising income. Therefore, one opportunity in segment gives you a by-opportunity to generate more and more money by little effort. This is a good food business ideas from home.
6. Food Truck Business Idea
Food Truck | Food Business Ideas
The mobile food truck business is different from the normal restaurant in two major ways. One is you are moving and you don’t have a permanent location. Second is you are going to the customers. A person having minimum experience in the food service industry can initiate this business in the city area. This can be a small food business idea. From food truck, you can sell frozen and packaged items like ice cream, soft drinks, sweets, and snacks or you can go for cooked items with a specific menu including for breakfast, Tiffin, lunch. Food truck business is profitable in India as people opt for outside food more now a days.
There are two types of food carts: the mobile food preparation vehicle (MFPV), where food is prepared as customers wait, and the industrial catering vehicle (ICV), which sells only prepackaged foods. An MFPV costs more than an ICV, and both cost more than a food cart. A used hot dog cart may cost under Rs. 50,000, while a retro-fitted used food truck typically costs Rs. 80,000 or more. A new MFPV could cost upwards of Rs. 120,000. Complying with additional health department rules and regulations can also drive up food truck costs.
7. Juice Business Ideas
Juice Bar | Food Business Ideas
The juice bar is one of the most popular food business ideas from the early days. You can also keep cool drinks including fresh fruit juices. Fresh juice bar can be initiated with low startup capital. Location plays an important role in getting success. A juice bar that serves customers fresh-squeezed fruit juice drinks and smoothies is a fantastic new business enterprise to put into action, as more and more people are striving to lead healthier lifestyles.
Ideal locations to establish a juice bar include busy tourist attractions and beach areas, mall food courts, fitness clubs, and public markets. To boost sales and profits, additional items such as sandwiches, salads, and healthy snacks can also be added to the menu. The profit potential for a juice bar will vary based on factors such as operating overhead and total sales. However, an established and well-run juice bar can easily generate profits in excess of Rs. 50,000, and the profits can go much higher by adding additional menu items and delivery services.
8. Pizza Delivery Business Idea
Pizza Delivery | Food Business Ideas
Now a days, people like fast food more. Pizza Delivery can be good fast food business idea. The main focus area of the pizza delivery business is choosing a right delivery boy and preparing the menu. A lot of the people will likely to have meals at their doorsteps due to their busy work schedule. Pizza is now well known, favorite, tasty dish all over the world. Although, starting a pizza delivery business can be profit making. There are two ways to start a pizza delivery business. You can either learn how to make your own pizza (which you would deliver to your customers on order) or partner with a notable pizza shop and simply buy from them to deliver whenever there is an order.
9. Sea Food Selling
Sea Food Selling | Food Business Ideas
Initiating a specialty seafood selling business is a wonderful and profitable business idea one can start from their home. You will need to source the products as a wholesale purchase and store them in a freezer. Through a delivery vehicle, you can make the delivery at customers door step. Proper product promotion plan is required in this business. This can be a good food business idea with small capital.
10. Tea Bag Making
Tea Bag Making | Food Business Ideas
Tea bag making business requires only two major raw material components tea and paper bags. A tea bag is a small sealed bag containing tea leaves and it is used with a hot cup of water to prepare the drink called tea. An aspiring entrepreneur having good knowledge about tea leaves can start the tea bag making business with moderate capital investment. However, the tea bag has a high sale as leading coffee shops, airlines, hotels, trains, etc, provide tea bags to their customer. Furthermore, you can start with a premium tea bag and set up high-quality tea with different natural flavors to cater to the need for tea lovers.
11. Organic Food Shop
Organic Food | Food Business Ideas
If you health conscious and you really give stress on quality before buying food, then this new food business idea is perfect for you. Now a days people are more conscious about health and what they are eating. People have started understanding the importance of organic food. They are ready to pay little extra and buy organic food. If you like farming, you can also do organic farming and sell products. This can be best food business ideas in India.
India ranks as the single largest producer of organic foods worldwide. You have many options to do organic food business depending upon availability of sources. Like,
Organic Farming
Organic Kitchen Garden
Organic Juice Stall
Organic Fertilizer
Organic Vegetable Seeds
Organic Health Supplements
Organic Body and Skincare Products
Organic Baby Food
Organic Fish Farm
Organic Poultry Farm
Organic Food Export
Organic Recipe Book
Like these, many options are there if you start thinking.
Being an enthusiast for food, these food business ideas with low investment will be great for you, so try them when in need. Also, do let us in the comment if you already have any Food Business which are running successfully.
India is a market where our homegrown companies are competing fiercely with multinational giants. For Ola there is Uber, for Flipkart there is Amazon and Swiggy is competing with ubereats. One thing which greatly differentiate Indian companies from MNCs is the service quality. We all agree to the fact that Amazon and Uber provide better customer service than their competitors. This was also found in a recent survey by redsheer, where NPS score of MNCs were higher. ✔️
FoodPanda and Ola 🐼🤝🚗
I was talking to my friend who is currently working with Ola and he said that sometimes he has to work for Foodpanda when workload is higher (If you don’t know ola acquired Foodpanda this year). I instantly asked him if he can provide me Foodpanda coupons. He laughed it off and said, “why do I need a coupon when Foodpanda is already giving away food for free”.
After the call, I checked the app and I found this 😍
Offers on Foodpanda app
I was really happy after seeing this, I will save money and time, as I won’t have to look in the big 4 (Zomato, Foodpanda, Ubereats and Swiggy) for coupons and offers. FoodPanda was my goto place.
Here is what I found one day! 🥧 Pastries in 5 rupees!
So we ordered like 25 pastries and we had party in the office that day. We could only order one item in one order but there wasn’t any restriction on the number of orders. 25 different delivery boys delivered those 25 packet worth 5 rupees (after discount).
Inefficiency kills me! Even though we enjoyed pastries, It was really surprising that, foodpanda or any other food delivery app don’t have any option to club the orders if two orders are from point A to point B. What’s more funny is that the a delivery guy who is 5 km away is assigned to pick an order from a restaurant who is just 800 mts away!
This clearly shows that foodpanda wants to increase it number of order no matter what, probably to show investors, raise more funding and burn more! This events reminds of one business leasson from ashish hemrajani, founder BookmyShow!
Ashish Hemrajani, founder bookmyshow on doing business
In StartupTalky, I learned a trick to check click data of any bit.ly or goo.gl url shortener. Just add “+” sign after the url. Foodpanda send a goo.gl URL whenever you place an order (to track status of delivery guy).
[I don’t understand any company will leave one real data point open?] I checked the data if the offers had done a great work, and yes they did. I am sure the team was able to increase the number of orders at least 3 fold! Congrats! You are now ready to raise more funds! 💸💰
Data of url sent to customers after delivery
Update: Well they recently removed the offers and we can see the clicks have gone below the average. 📉
Data of url sent to customers after delivery
Well, this the joy of ordering food for so cheap was very short lived. with scale came problems!
FoodPanda Problems
Foodpanda problems
Restaurant is closed still showing
Order not delivered
App not working
Late or No delivery
Coupon not working
Order cancellation and refund
Bad customer support
Difference in taxes with orders with and without coupon
Chef at work showing for the last 4 hours
Order is showing delivered in the app but not in reality
Was I the only one? NO!
Just to know that if Foodpanda is just messing with or with everyone, I checked their Facebook page to see and in a post with more than 170 comments not a single comment was positive. Just like me, other customers were also having all sorts of issue with the order. It was very hard for Foodpanda support team to handle all these queries.
Customers comment from their facebook page
I am sure their twitter handle is also filled only with such queries. One of the comments which made me laugh like anything was
We know running a startup is a tough job. Keep Indian customer happy feels like heaven but Mr. Panda how to plan to compete with global players when the situation is so pathetic? 🤔
What people think about Big 4, Food Delivery startups
I conducted a poll in StartupTalky to understand what people think of all food delivery startups.While swiggy stands at 157, food panda just got 8 votes!
Poll conducted in the group
What was the matter?
To know the reason, I again talked to my friend and here is what I got to know.
After the acquisition, Ola had announced that it would invest $200 million – over Rs 1,400 crores – in Foodpanda to elevate its market presence. Discount was one easy way to get new users and engage existing users. So a campaign “The Crave Party” was launched to relaunched Foodpanda. It was launched across all major cities and all discounts were given by Foodpanda only (restaurant was not bearing any cost for discounts, they just have to pay 23% commission on the original cost which Foodpanda anyways takes as an aggregator).
Woah! No words
Now to fulfill the orders, Foodpanda started to recruit 60,000 delivery men by offering a substantially higher salary than anyone in the hyperlocal delivery business but solwly they started reducing the salary from INR 1320/day to INR 40/delivery which comes around INR 400-450/day. Here is what happned next (in diagram).
Bad Experience, Bad Experience, Bad Experience!
How one thing at the top of the funnel affects the whole food delivery business
So you can see these are all operations are connected as a funnel. Also, we can see that foodtech startup is more about the operation than tech.
Learnings 📖
Scale your business but not at the cost of customer satisfaction/happiness.
Things may go out of your control while you scale, always be prepared for that.
Treat your team well, be true with them. They are one who will stand with you when no one will.
Indians are understood to love offers and discount, but everyone on the planet expects a minimum level of service quality. Especially when you are in food delivery, No one likes free pizza when they are not hungry.
Marketing is important but it must be supported with the efficient operation and tech.
Liked the article? Don’t forget to give feedback and share it with your friends! 🙂
Varad Kitey
