Swiggy agrees to limiting discounts and offers to special days
Deepinder Goyal in a picture sourced from his Twitter account
With the NRAI and Zomato being in a state of cold war over the deep discounting issue, the food delivery giant has refused to budge even as another food aggregator offered changes in their discount models. At Thursday's meeting, it instead proposed to extend discounts to delivery too, Anurag Katriar, Mumbai chapter, NRAI president, told mid-day after a long day of meetings with Swiggy and Zomato on Thursday.
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The NRAI, on August 15, began a #logout movement against the deep discounts offered by most food aggregators on dining out. After rounds negotiations, most aggregators agreed to scrapping hefty discounts on dine-out. Zomato, however, continued with its problematic gold offer, with CEO Deepinder Goyal saying it had said enough.
On Thursday, NRAI's meeting with Swiggy moved well with an agreement to kill round-the-year discounts and instead create episodic offers around special days. "This will bring down the impact of discounts to a manageable level for restaurants and make discount feel special. The commission charges will also be rationalised as per business metrics. They have promised to come back in two weeks with a new proposal."
Also Read: It's an official war between Zomato and restaurant owners
Zomato, on the other hand, has taken a mum stand on the issue of deep discounting. The meeting started on a false note where it confirmed introduction of Zomato Gold in delivery too. "Here we are trying to solve the issue of deep discounting on dining out but Zomato is instead proposing to extend it to the delivery vertical as well," Katriar said.
However, not all was downhill as both parties agreed to put a cap on commissions depending on volume of business for the outlets. "We have to wait and watch," Katriar said. Swiggy's spokesperson said, "Swiggy and NRAI are committed to creating value for restaurants and consumers in a sustainable manner. We have had a constructive and collaborative dialogue and agreed to reconvene on all points. Our goal remains to enable a win-win for small, medium and large restaurant partners and the food delivery ecosystem."
Also Read: Zomato replates Gold, restaurants not impressed
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