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Online food-delivery start-ups are loosening their purse strings to acquire customers and increase customer mind-share and marketshare.
Big discounts are being doled out on a range of food items from biriyabnis to desserts and snacks. Some of them are trade discounts being offered by restaurant or payment partners.
Foodpanda launched its biggest food campaign on Wednesday called ‘The Crave Party’, with teaser deliveries of popular desserts to select customers across the country, along with a message that said: “Alert your taste buds cuz the biggest food party is in town. While you savour your favourite desserts, save some space for more, much more.”
The campaign will start with desserts offered at ₹9, followed by snacks starting at ₹19 and biryani starting at ₹79, with more to follow over the next two months.
To meet the demand that the campaign hopes to generate, and for seamless ordering, Foodpanda is hiring 60,000 delivery riders who will be paid upwards of ₹25,000 a month (including incentives). The start-up will cross-sell its offerings to over 100 million customers of cab aggregator Ola.
Food, the great unifier
“There is nothing more unifying than the love for food,” Foodpanda CEO Pranay Jivrajka said in a statement. “Through the most popular categories we intend to provide our customers with the best food experiences on the platform and at the same time, aim to establish long-term relationships with our partner restaurants.”
The start-up’s bigger rival, Zomato, has been on a discounting spree over the past couple of months, in an effort to acquire customers and ramp up its overall numbers, which is crucial for the start-up as it is in the midst of closing a fresh fund-raise. Zomato is offering a flat ₹250 discount for its customers in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Customers can save ₹150, and an receive an additional ₹100 Paytm cashback.
Selective Swiggy
Market leader Swiggy, however, is selectively doling out introductory 50 per cent discounts on customers’ first three Swiggy orders with a minimum order value of ₹99 and a maximum discount per transaction of ₹100 in new cities like Vadodara, Surat, Vizag and Indore, as it continues to expand its reach. It has also partnered with Kotak Bank and Amazon Pay to offer 25-40 per cent discounts.
Uber Eats, which entered the food delivery market last May, is offering snacks starting at ₹39, rice bowls for ₹99 and free desserts with some orders.
“As growth tapers in the cab-hailing market, companies in the space looking for new avenues of growth are making an aggressive push in the online food delivery market,” said Anil Kumar, CEO of RedSeer Consulting.”
The online food delivery market GMV grew 150 per cent to $300 million in 2016, more than doubled to $700 million in 2017, and is expected to hit $1.5 billion by the end of 2018 and reach $2.5-3.5 billion by 2021, according to RedSeer estimates.
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