Restaurants to tap ONDC to take on Zomato, Swiggy

MUMBAI: Restaurants have a plan to take on

food delivery giants

Zomato and Swiggy who they claim are eating into their business by launching

private label food

— they will tap govt-backed

ONDC

(open network for digital commerce) to deliver food to customers. The groundwork has started and the modalities for easy on-boarding of restaurants on to the network is being worked out.
“By partnering with ONDC, we will start the process of gaining back the ownership of our digital . Most importantly, restaurants will have access to their

customer data

. In the short-term, there maybe some hiccups in terms of adjusting to a new system and processes but in the long-term, the move will help us regain our territory,” Anurag Katriar, trustee at

National Restaurant Association of India

(NRAI) told TOI.
Swiggy and Zomato-owned Blinkit’s recent foray into the quick

food delivery

space with the launch of separate apps Snacc and Bistro, respectively, have irked restaurants because they claim that the companies are essentially selling private label food through the apps which have been curated by using their customer data.

Swiggy’s Snacc has, however, also partnered with a few brands like Blue Tokai for the service although restaurants argue that it’s just a small part of the business. Restaurateurs said that private labels in

quick commerce

are already impacting their business and they are bearing the brunt of Zomato and Swiggy’s quest to compete against rival Zepto’s 10-minute cafe service.
In a recent letter to restaurant partners, Zomato co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said that Bistro is not a private label or Zomato Kitchen. “…Bistro is a separate app, and its menus are curated using publicly known snacking patterns. The Bistro team has no access to data that would create an unfair playing field. India’s out-of-home food consumption has room to expand, and new service models like Bistro will help acquire new customers, benefiting the wider

restaurant ecosystem

,” Goyal said in the letter, adding that many restaurants have already reached out to the Bistro team and are working with them to help and partner. A copy of the letter has been reviewed by TOI. Zomato and Swiggy’s food delivery business runs on their partnership with restaurants.
NRAI said that working with ONDC will also lower their costs and allow them to choose their own logistics partners. Restaurants need to pay commission to Swiggy and Zomato which can go up to as high as 35%, they claimed. Zomato and Swiggy are bundling their services, said Katriar. It basically means that they are controlling the whole ecosystem starting from discovery of a restaurant to the delivery of food. “Today, Zomato and Swiggy do not allow us to use our own logistics capabilities to deliver food. With ONDC, this will change,” said Katriar.