Zomato Gold Opens for Deliveries, But NRAI Opposes Its Launch

The revised changes made to Gold scheme by Zomato now offers special benefits to members ordering food.

Zomato Gold for Food Delivery: Zomato Gold comes to existing users in a new avatar this week.

(Photo: The Quint)

Existing Zomato Gold users were greeted on the app with the news that deliveries are also now part of the Gold package. This decision was expected to be made after Zomato announced its intention to focus on its delivery business as well, where Swiggy has taken a big lead with its membership offering.

“There has been a long-standing demand from our users to bring Gold to delivery since this constitutes a large part of their engagement with us," the company had highlighted in August this year.

As mentioned in reports last month, the delivery option has been bundled with the revamped Gold offering, which is now available at Rs 1,800 for one year.

As you can see from the Zomato Gold posts below, the membership upgrade focuses on delivering benefits to those who dine out, as well as order in.

(Photo: Zomato app screen grab)

Existing Gold users are automatically getting upgraded to its new version, and Zomato is giving consumers the choice to opt-out if they’re not happy with the changes in Gold.

Benefits on Delivery with Zomato Gold

1. Zomato will offer the second-highest priced item on the order for free
2. This excludes combos, MRP items and special dishes
3. Gold on deliveries apply on minimum order values of Rs 300
4. Discount on food deliveries capped at Rs 300 per order.

Compared to this, Swiggy offers a ‘Super’ membership scheme which is priced at Rs 149 for three months. In terms of discounts, the Bengaluru-based delivery giant is able to offer up to 50 percent off on the whole menu, restaurant charges are also removed from this.

New Look Gold for Dine Out Users

In addition to this, Gold for people eating out has also been revised, which Zomato claims will offer fair usage for consumers as well as its partner restaurants.

1. Unlock Gold only once a day
2. Available maximum of 2 Gold unlocks per table
3. 1+1 on food, 2+2 on drinks continue to be the same

But NRAI is Against This

After going through the revised offers on Gold, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on Saturday slammed Zomato for extending its "Gold" programme on its delivery platform. It feels this is a desperate attempt by the online food aggregator to shore up the sinking fortunes of its flagship Gold programme.

It is another instance of Zomato changing the goalpost. Gold was originally launched as a tool to promote the culture of ‘dining out’, but now it is being extended on deliveries too.

NRAI statement on Zomato Gold to IANS

"Essentially, it is now a programme that merely promotes 'deep discounts' on both dine-in and delivery verticals, the cost of which is borne solely by the restaurant partners," the restaurants' trade body added.

The NRAI remains steadfast in its belief that Zomato Gold in its current form is not acceptable in either dine-in or delivery segment

Anurag Katriar, President, NRAI to IANS

According to the NRAI, Zomato's move will be calamitous to the business in the delivery segment. NRAI is appealing to all restaurants and cloud kitchen entrepreneurs to stay away from Zomato Gold on delivery.

Looks like the battle between NRAI and Zomato is unlikely to die out anytime soon. It will be interesting to see how restaurant partners with Zomato react to the latest changes in Gold. Consumers, meanwhile, are caught in the crossfire.

(With IANS inputs)