Zomato's next: Inter-city food delivery, logistical nightmare or masterstroke?
PremiumZomato has listed a number of restaurants in different cities from where a customer can order their food like any other order
If you are sitting in Delhi and craving a plate full of biriyani from Hyderabad, you can now easily get it flown from the city of nizam - courtesy Zomato. In its latest endeavour, the food delivery app introduced intercity food delivery under the Intercity Legends branding that allows one to avail of the service.
How does the service work?
Under the initiative, the company has listed a number of restaurants in different cities from where a customer can order their food like any other regular Zomato order.
All food will be packed by the restaurant and then refrigerated before being shipped via air or road to reach customers the next day, the company said. However, some orders may take longer than one day to reach customers.
Unfortunately, the services are not available for all users yet.
A Zomato spokesperson told Inc42 that intercity delivery is still in the early stages of being tested. “It’s an experimentation basis customer requests we had garnered in recent times. We are glad to be connecting Indians all over, to the most legendary food, synonymous with the cities onboarded as a part of the Intercity Legends offering. It’s too early for us to share any details," the spokesperson said.
How successful the venture can be?
Zomato is infamous for launching such initiatives in style and then wrapping up unceremoniously. Such experiments include grocery delivery and nutraceuticals, which have bombed in the past. Given its history, it is yet to be seen whether the company can actually deliver what it has promised considering the fact that it is quite an ambitious project.
On the upside, the services are to be launched next month, and considering that it is the festive season, the experiment might draw some traction.
But there is a downside to it too.
The inc42 report cited it had ordered 1 kg Biriyani from Hyderabad to check how the initiative works. It said, our order was priced at INR 700 including taxes, the cost of the dish (INR 280) and the cost of delivery and shipping (INR 350). The same order placed within the city of Hyderabad had a final price of INR 350. So essentially, customers would be paying nearly 2X for some items depending on the dishes. (For first-time customers, company is also offering a discount of INR 200 for a customer’s first intercity order, and a further discount for bulk orders)
Now, considering that the food will come the next day or even later, you are actually paying 2X price for food that is ‘not exactly fresh’.
Meanwhile, for Zomato sending food via air cargo would be much more than delivering the same parcel a few kilometres away locally on a two-wheeler.
Besides, the cost of moving food from the airport to home would be higher for many customers — Zomato is also likely to need finishing stations or distribution hubs for these parcels in cities with higher volumes.
So, what's your take, would it be a logistical nightmare or a masterstroke?
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