Food delivery service Zomato has decided to supply groceries and other essential goods to its customers straight from its app to more than 80 cities across India. Due to the on-going nationwide lockdown that’s in effect till April 14 to contain the spread of Coronavirus, many businesses have been affected drastically. As such, restaurants and the food industry at large is amongst the worst hit services during this health crisis.
This has forced Zomato to circumvent around the issue by adopting several measures such as contactless delivery of food items and keeping a check on the hygiene maintained by both restauranters and riders. In a blog post, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal revealed all that the company was doing in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Grocery delivery has been deployed in 80+ cities across India via Zomato Market where the company is making use of its vast delivery fleet. For this, Zomato has also partnered with government authorities, FMGC companies, grocery stores and more to ensure that the customers don’t step out of their respective houses to shop for essential supplies.
Moreover, Zomato is also extending the duration of the Zomato Gold subscription by two months without any additional charges. A dedicated Zomato Gold Support Fund has also been set up for lending financial assistance to restaurant workers. The company has announced that all the proceeds from its Gold tier subscription for April 2020 will go directly to restaurant workers in need.
Following social-distancing norms, the food delivery service has also restricted cash on delivery (COD) orders in order to avoid physical contact between the customer and the Zomato rider.
“At Zomato, we are doing everything we can to support our community – our customers, delivery partners, restaurant partners, and the daily wage workers who have been impacted the most in these times,” wrote Goyal.
“We have received overwhelming support towards all the initiatives we have taken and we would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our heart for the courage and resilience they have shown to help out those in need. Your love and support keeps us going,” he added.
On-demand ride-hailing service Uber recently partnered with Flipkart to deliver essential supplies across six cities. It also launched a dedicated cab service for medical workers called UberMedic. Apart from this, Amazon Prime Now is also delivering groceries to its customers across India.