- Online food delivery order quantity for Zomato and Swiggy has fallen 70 percent to below 1 million a day in the last 10 days due to lockdown.
Online food delivery order quantity for Zomato and Swiggy has fallen 70 percent to below 1 million a day in the last 10 days, as consumers withdraw and top restaurants shut down shop in the midst of a shutdown triggered by the COVID-19 virus outbreak, investors, businesses and restaurants told ET.
“From a steady state of 2.5 million deliveries a day, today we are at sub-1 million orders which are slowly inching up,” a food delivery room investor said.
Food delivery orders declined 20 percent in the first two weeks of March, which was prior to the lockout, according to RedSeer Consulting, which predicted a further decrease in the future, without specifying the actual figure.
In the first few days of the lockout, the key food delivery apps grappled with bottlenecks such as supply workers reported being threatened by police. Swiggy said about 60 to 70 percent of its cities are still closed for food supply including few prominent ones including Vizag, Vadodara, Guwahati, Indore. The companies will do face other obstacles, however, including regaining customer trust in food safety and getting more restaurants back to their platforms.
“At this period, no more than 20 percent of restaurants have to be alive … and with the very few operating … the volumes for live restaurants are around 40 percent the usual volume,” said Anurag Katriar, president of the National Restaurant Association.
Katriar, who operates eGustibus Hospitality and several delivery brands like Neel ki Biryani, Indigo Burger Project and Indigo Deli, has also shut down his company.
Dominos, which was operating during the lockout, used most of its network to supply critical foodstuffs, increase the usage of its delivery boys and get on-ground curfew passes for operations.
Most of the other top brands are shut down though. Truffles, Mango Pizzeria, Mango, Monkey Bar, Soda Bottle Opener Wala, Fatty Bao, Smoke House Deli, Salt Water Cafe, Socials, and Smoke House Deli are among others.
The same pattern has occurred in China, wherein February, as per the report, Meituan Dianping-the largest food delivery service in the world saw revenue from the food industry drop by half. For Swiggy, who counts Meituan Dianping as an investor, other business lines such as concierge and grocery delivery services are likely to bump overall consumption numbers slightly.
Swiggy and Zomato both expressed interest in providing foodstuffs and basic products as a service. Zomato has partnered with the government of Punjab to deliver essential products and has also formed a partnership with Grofers to deliver from Kirana stores.
The food delivery space, which in October touched 3.2-3.5 million deliveries, has since slowed down, hurting by various factors including rationalizing discounts and selling Uber Eats India to Zomato.
Delivery volumes dropped by around 7 percent in January after UberEats-which was placing about 470,000 orders a day-was sold to Zomato and independent operations ceased. Both platforms, however, were able to maintain a growth rate of 1-2 percent until the outbreak led to the lockdown.
