Now, Zomato Expands Priority Food Delivery Service To Delhi, Hyderabad & Pune

A few weeks after piloting priority food delivery service in parts of Mumbai and Bengaluru, foodtech giant Zomato has now expanded the offering to other cities like Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune. 

As per details available on the Zomato app, the company is offering the users in these cities the choice to prioritise their order and get it delivered up to 5 minutes faster compared to the standard delivery.

Zomato is charging INR 19 to INR 29 per order for priority deliveries, Inc42 found. The company is charging the additional fee for priority deliveries from ‘Zomato Gold’ users as well.

 

Zomato claims that priority orders are not grouped with other orders to facilitate faster deliveries.

A questionnaire sent to Zomato about the priority delivery service and its expansion didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story. The article will be updated on receiving a response from the company.

The expansion of the priority delivery service is expected to further shore up Zomato’s topline.

The fresh development comes at a time when Zomato has been experimenting with a number of new offerings to boost its revenue. Last month, it was reported to be piloting last-mile delivery services for office workers within corporate parks.

Recently, it also introduced an all-electric “large order fleet” to deliver large orders for up to 50 people at once.

In March, Zomato also announced the launch of a “Pure Veg Fleet” which would have delivery executives in green uniforms and unveiled a new app mode catering to customers with 100% vegetarian dietary preferences. However, the decision to have a separate uniform for the delivery personnel of the new fleet was revoked after the company faced online backlash.

Last month, the Deepinder Goyal-led company also hiked its platform fee to INR 5 per order from INR 4 earlier.

The introduction of new fees and offerings have been paying dividends, as Zomato reported its fourth consecutive profitable quarter earlier this week. The company’s consolidated profit after tax zoomed 26.8% to INR 175 Cr in the quarter ended March 31 of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 138 Cr in the preceding quarter.

Operating revenue jumped over 8% to INR 3,562 Cr during the quarter from INR 3,288 Cr in Q3 FY24.

However, Zomato saw a decline in the GOV of its food delivery business on a QoQ basis. Its GOV fell to INR 8,439 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 8,486 Cr in the previous quarter. But, GOV rose 28% on a YoY basis.

Meanwhile, average monthly transacting customers for the food delivery business rose to 19 Mn in Q4 from 18.8 Mn in the preceding quarter.

Following the results, multiple brokerages, including Bernstein, raised their target prices for Zomato. The stock ended Wednesday’s (May 15) trading session 2.4% higher at INR 191.95 on the BSE.