Zomato has introduced a new feature called ‘order scheduling’, enabling customers to book their deliveries a minimum of two hours to a maximum of two days in the future.
Zomato introduces features in 30 cities
On Friday, October 25, food tech giant announced in a blog post, “This feature is now available at more than 35,000 restaurants across 30 cities – Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Raipur, Ahmedabad, and others.”
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This comes shortly after Zomato raised its fee to INR 10 for the fourth time this year, ahead of the festive season. Swiggy, Zomato’s rival, already offers a similar service called ‘Swiggy Scheduled,’ launched in 2018.
Zomato receives board nod to raise INR 8,500 Cr
Meanwhile, the company got board approval to raise INR 8,500 Cr (about $1 Bn) through a qualified institutional placement (QIP). However, after five straight quarters of profit growth, they reported a 30% drop in net profit, falling to INR 176 Cr this quarter from INR 253 Cr last June.
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Furthermore, the quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline was due to rising expenses. However, year-on-year (YoY), profits surged 389% from INR 36 Cr in Q2 FY24. Despite the profit drop, Zomato’s offline business grew quickly this quarter, due to its recent acquisition of Paytm Insider.
In the quick commerce space, Zomato is competing with Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Tata’s BigBasket, and new players like Reliance’s JioMart and Flipkart’s Minutes.
Reportedly, Zomato’s Blinkit recently saw its market share in Delhi NCR fall from 47% to 42%.