Zomato Likely To Bring Back Its Customer Loyalty Programme ‘Zomato Gold’

Foodtech giant Zomato is likely to bring back its ‘Zomato Gold’ programme, its founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal hinted in a tweet on Thursday.

Goyal shared a teaser of Zomato Gold, saying, “Back soon.”

Zomato Gold membership offered many benefits for subscribers such as 1+1 on food and beverages at partner restaurants.

While Zomato launched the customer loyalty programme as Zomato Gold in 2017, it was later rebranded as Zomato Pro in 2020 to incorporate 50% more dine out and delivery restaurants.

However, Zomato stopped fresh signups or subscription renewal of Zomato Pro earlier this year as part of a restructuring exercise undertaken with the goal to become profitable. However, it became a matter of concern for many investors as these programmes help build a stable customer base.

Later in November, the startup rolled out the third iteration of its dining-out feature Zomato Pay in a few Indian cities.

During its earnings call for Q2 FY23, Zomato also hinted that it would soon come up with a new loyalty program.

“We are, as we speak, working on creating something which is more differentiated, we believe, at least, and to perhaps make sure that we get the benefit of customer loyalty without really losing a lot of money. So I would request you to please wait and watch for that and we will come back with some loyalty programme construct soon in the market,” it said.

It must be noted that Zomato is facing probes by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for allegedly indulging in deep discounting and predatory pricing through its loyalty programmes. In September this year, the NRAI urged partner restaurants of Zomato and Swiggy to make an “informed decision” on Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner as the offerings could “adversely impact” the overall restaurant industry in the long run.

The foodtech giant reported a decline in its consolidated loss to INR 250.8 Cr during the second quarter of FY23 from INR 434.9 Cr in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

Zomato’s total expenses rose about 31% to INR 2,091.3 Cr in Q2 from INR 1,601.5 Cr reported in the same quarter last year.