Food delivery platform Zomato has published a report that reveals the current state of the Indian restaurant industry amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The company claims to have contacted thousands of restaurants and customers across various cities in India to prepare this report.
In the report, Zomato says the food delivery industry has ‘largely recovered’ with around 75 to 80 percent of pre-COVID Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). The company even points out that affluent neighborhoods are hitting higher GMV than before as they no longer fear getting coronavirus from food delivery.
Zomato has fulfilled 7 crore food orders since the coronavirus-led lockdown started on March 25. Moreover, the company estimates a total of 20 crore food orders across other food aggregators and direct restaurant channels.
Almost 70 percent of restaurants are now offering food delivery as an option. Of this 70 percent, 5 percent of restaurants did not offer food delivery services before the pandemic kicked in. Zomato expects the food delivery to bounce back to pre-COVID levels in the next 2 to 3 months.
Zomato notes that 1 in every 5 Zomato customers in metro cities have opened the app from a smaller town. As you might be aware, several employees have moved to their relatively smaller native places since remote work is now a viable and socially acceptable option in the country.
However, Zomato points out that the dining out industry is yet to recover. As per Zomato’s estimates, the industry is currently operating at 8-10% of pre-COVID levels, especially due to lockdowns. Even in cities without restrictions, just 17 percent of dining out restaurants are open for business.
Unfortunately, out of the 83 percent of restaurants that are currently closed, 10 percent of them have permanently shut down. Going by the trends, Zomato expects an additional 30 percent of restaurants to take such extreme measures.
