Placing direct orders from a new age brand is a big hassle, and the reason why Zomato & Swiggy serve as great platforms to establish a brand in the beginning. I had this experience today with a brand I ordered from, and used their app due to a better deal they offered. But the mental exhaustion to just receive the order made me realise why brands choose to start with food aggregators in the beginning for gaining momentum. It took me almost 2hrs to receive the 2 items I had ordered, and it was dead cold by the time it arrived. Direct orders after you have operational efficiency makes sense, but aiming to start with that is a difficult & tedious thing. Managing delivery fleet along with food prep requires a different mindset & patience, of which Zomato & Swiggy have mastered 1 aspect of at least. We tried direct ordering systems in the beginning, but quickly realised that shifting consumers to your platform and changing the habitual process through Zomato & Swiggy would require deep spends on customer acquisition along with peak operational efficiency. Have you ordered from your favourite brand without using Zomato or Swiggy? How was your experience? #cloudkitchens #foodbeverages #zomato #swiggy #directorders (P.S. the photo you see has nothing to do with the post, I just wanted to give you a peek into a new concept that will start reaching doors in Delhi NCR very soon; watch out for updates on my page here)
Shaurya A. Yes correct, This is not only single problem, Yesterday i was chatting with one of restaurant owner and he shared me few more issue which realize me why own ordering platform is such important to save cost and building own brand.
Director at Saksham Ventures Pvt. Ltd
1moVery well articulated. The path to profitability has many hits and misses as you may have realised. The (bad) experience you had should not colour your growth strategy too much. The two delivery prima donnas are a necessary launchpad for any new entrant but profitability will always be a challenge given the commission and promotion costs. I believe every food establishment has to build a loyal set of customers within its micro-locale (0-2 kms) who will prefer to order directly. That’s the holy grail! Till then SwiZo Combo will rule 😎