Rucha Rane
The food-tech segment has seen a lot of action over the last year. As per a Tracxn report published in December 2014, the food-tech segment has seen a total investment of USD 1.2 Billion in 2014 alone. While the dine-out and online ordering segments have seen a large chunk of this funding, internet-first restaurants have also seen their fair share of interest from investors.
Currently, most of the internet-first restaurants primarily function on a ‘no/own kitchen + own delivery + on-demand’ model. The industry is seeing early signs of this concept germinating in certain urban clusters. However, a vast majority of the industry is dominated by the unorganised sector of asset-heavy restaurants, and there is a huge untapped opportunity to get them online, build innovative services, and drive more delight to customers. Zomato’s introduction of Whitelabel Apps aims to capture this opportunity. Zomato Whitelabel Apps is a plug-and-play platform which will power a restaurant’s digital identity with ease, enabling restaurants to spend more time focusing on their core business of food, translating directly to better dining experiences for users.
Ashish Goel, Chief of Product & Design, Zomato said “While speaking with a lot of restaurant owners, we realised that most of them do not have an app or digital presence and they want to harness the power and distribution of the internet and mobile to grow their business. And that there is no one single service provider for restaurants which can give them the entire suite of technologies required to run an internet presence closely integrated with the operations of their business. We see this as an opportunity to have a larger impact on the food-tech ecosystem, as well as create a larger overlap between tech and food.”
Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder, Zomato said “We are excited about the pace of innovation at Zomato. The bigger picture is increasingly becoming clearer to us and we are hoping that in a few months, we will be able to solve a large part of the pain points that users as well as business face in the industry.”
Zomato Whitelabel apps offer features such as targeted push notifications, real-time information and menu management, and marketing tools to merchants at their fingertips. The app is based on a subscription model that bundles Zomato’s existing restaurant management app – Zomato For Business – into each subscription for free. These Whitelabel apps integrate seamlessly into all the ancillary services Zomato offers, such as Online Ordering, Table Reservations, in-app Cashless payments, Loyalty programs and the upcoming Zomato Base (point of sales system).
Zomato Whitelabel Apps have already caught the attention of some top restaurant brands. Summerhouse Cafe in New Delhi, Miyabi Sushi in Dubai, and Shizuku Ramen in Melbourne are amongst the first 100 restaurants that have already signed up in the last week.
The Zomato Whitelabel Platform will be available to restaurants in all 22 countries Zomato is present in currently.