Restaurants in Pune join hands to challenge Zomato, Swiggy
‘Order Direct’: An initiative taken by the United Hospitality Association in Pune aims at bringing hoteliers to end the monopoly of the food delivery giants.
Fed up with the dwindling revenue due to lockdown and forced to share a major chunk of food cost with online aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato, many restaurants have come together to launch a campaign appealing to customers to order food directly from the restaurants.
United Hospitality Association (UHA), which came into existence in February this year ahead of the second lockdown, is spearheading the campaign.
“UHA has about 700 members in Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and surrounding rural areas of the district. Online aggregators eat about 30-40% of the total cost of the food. However, if we deliver the food on our own it will cost us 5-10%. We can give discount and offers to customers instead of paying commission to Swiggy or Zomato. This will help us build the loyalty of customers also”, said UHA vice president advocate Ajinkya Shinde informing Pune Pulse.
According to the UHA plan, customers can directly call the restaurant and place their order. If there are more items, then the restaurant will share a link on WhatsApp or through text message, where all the menu will be there for the customer to place his/her order.
“Many restaurants have already built the mechanism for this. Their contact numbers are available on Google Facebook and Instagram search. People can also check menu and cost on online aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato and then call the restaurant. They will get the same food at a lower cost. The restaurants can directly provide the delivery or tie-up with Dunzo or other such delivery platforms. Later on, UHA can have a common platform for order and tracking”, he added.
He further explained, “The idea is to save money on commissions and marketing costs, which will help in providing better food service to customers.”
In order to train and prepare the restaurants, UHA is organising three days online camp on this link from June 7-9, 2021.
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