Here’s Why Zomato Is Witnessing Surge In Orders From Smaller Towns

One in every five Zomato customers in metropolitan cities have accessed its app from a smaller town, reflecting a wave of migration after companies allowed people to work from home.

The foodtech startup said in a blog on Wednesday that nearly a third of its customers that relocated have started ordering again from their new locations.

The restaurant industry, which was one of the worst affected by the pandemic and the subsequent national lockdowns, has been slowly trying to get back on its feet ever since the restrictions were relaxed.

While food delivery has largely recovered and is back to 75-80% of the pre-Covid levels in terms of gross sales, the dine-in business is yet to bounce back as only 70% of the restaurants are operational, Zomato said in the blog.

Dine-ins, Zomato said, is operating at about 8-10% of pre-Covid-19 levels. The slump is largely due to the lockdown that still plays out intermittently, and restaurants aren’t opening up in certain places amid fears of contagion.

But there are certain affluent neighbourhoods that no longer fear infection from food delivery and such areas are clocking higher gross sales than before, the blog stated. Hence, recovery remains strong. Zomato expects the delivery industry to hit pre-pandemic levels of business in the next 2-3 months.

That may not be same for dine-in restaurants as Zomato says nearly 10% of the restaurants have already shut down permanently in the country, and 30% of the restaurants may not reopen at all.

Other Takeaways

• 60% of the restaurateurs estimate to retain less than half of their original business volumes for a few months even post-Covid-19.
• Many restaurants plan to decrease spending on dining out and shift towards food delivery.
• Residential areas are doing 50% better than commercial areas. Restaurants in and around commercial districts are expected to take the longest to recover.
• Zomato’s dining out transactions in markets like New Zealand, UAE and Portugal are already back to pre-Covid-19 levels.
• Indians have ordered 20 crore times since the lockdown.