Despite Logout campaign, more restaurants joining Gold: Zomato
New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Zomato on Tuesday said that despite the Logout campaign run by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), more dine-out restaurants have joined its Gold programme in days that followed, and those who returned to Gold have seen a 100 per cent increase in revenue.
At the start of the Logout campaign that began on August 15, Zomato had 6,100 restaurants in India on Zomato Gold for dining out.
“As of today, we have 6,300 restaurants in India on Gold (for dining out). In addition to that, we have 10,000 restaurants that are participating in recently launched Zomato Gold for delivery,” the company said in a statement.
The NRAI has slammed Zomato for extending its “Gold” programme on its delivery platform, saying it is a desperate attempt by the online food aggregator to shore up the sinking fortunes of its flagship Gold programme.
According to Zomato, the number of restaurants participating in Gold outside of India stands at 6,500.
The company said it now have 1.4 million members worldwide on Zomato Gold who are using their privileges more than thrice a month.
“So far, less than 5 per cent restaurants participate in Zomato Gold, and less than 5 per cent of our MAUs (monthly active users) are Gold members. There’s so much headroom to grow here,’ said the company.
“Some restaurant owners in India campaigned against Zomato Gold last month (#logout campaign); we engaged with the restaurant owner community and rolled out some changes to the programme that were widely accepted by most restaurants, as well as users,” the online food aggregator said.
Bengaluru-based research firm RedSeer reported last month that Zomato Gold has been a game changer in terms of driving the dine-out habits of customers, saying there has been a 20 per cent decline in bill volumes for partners after they logged out of Zomato Gold programme.
Gold partners witnessed growth over 35 per cent growth in bill volumes after partnering with Zomato Gold and weekday growth has been marginally better than weekend growth, it added.
“Ninety per cent of Zomato Gold Members try out new restaurants just because of the programme. Dine-out frequency for Gold members has increased from 2.8 to 3.3 times/month after subscribing to Gold membership and is 50 per cent higher than that of non-Gold members,” the findings showed.
The NRAI, however, said that it continues to remain firm in its belief that Zomato Gold in its current form is an unacceptable proposition.
