Eatery chains set to score big with IPL, festival season

BENGALURU: The online food delivery sector in India is headed for full recovery led by a surge in demand during the IPL as well as the upcoming festival season, showed a survey by leading foodtech platform Zomato.

According to the survey, that was released Tuesday, the industry has already seen its sales touch 85 per cent of the pre-Covid gross merchandise value (GMV) level — up from around 75 per cent in August. 
While Delhi and Mumbai are nearing full recovery, with 95 per cent of pre-Covid-19 sales, other metros such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai are still behind the curve (with 80 per cent recovery).

Some cities such as Kolkata, Patna, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, and Siliguri have seen sales even exceed the pre-pandemic levels, the report stated, adding that the affluent parts within most cities are driving this recovery.  As the myths around the safety and hygiene of food delivery were busted, it was observed that the cities under the lockdown preferred ordering food online more than the others.

Customers, who had not ordered since the first day of lockdown, are 20 per cent more likely to order for the first time during such festivals and occasions, the survey said. 

“With the ongoing IPL season and the subsequent festival season, we expect food delivery in both metros and smaller cities to make a full recovery soon – and resume growing over pre-Covid levels,” Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO, Zomato said in the company blog post. 

Furthermore, the overall spend on the premium restaurants has grown by over 25 per cent of pre-COVID levels. The average ticket size per order, number of items has also increased by 20 per cent with a trend of group ordering now in place. Recovery on single person meals, which constituted nearly 60 per cent of all orders pre-COVID, now lingers at 50-70 per cent level for most regions. 

Steady sales

Sales of food delivery platforms recovered by an additional 10 per cent over last month to touch 85 per cent of the pre-Covid-19 levels in September, the report said.