Swiggy on Tuesday said it is offering affordable lending products, training tools, discounted ad spots, and economical food packaging material to help its restaurant partners to open up for business.
The food ordering app has also activated a bi-weekly payment option to enable smooth cash flows for partners, it said.
Restaurants have been among the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. At least four out of ten restaurants are looking to shut down as they are unable to support high rental costs, working capital requirements, and staff salaries, ET had earlier reported.
Swiggy said its ‘Jumpstart Package’ will be maximized for restaurants with higher hygiene ratings to incentivize strict adherence to safety and hygiene protocols. A push towards enabling visual assurances for customers through photos and videos of hygiene protocols in play has been integrated into the package.
“Building on these efforts, ensuring business revival, continuity, and growth for restaurant partners will be absolutely crucial to enabling Swiggy and the industry to overcome this challenging phase,” said Paul Varghese, vice-president of Supply at Swiggy.
Order volumes of food delivery apps fell to 35% of pre-Covid-19 levels due to the lockdown. And to get back to business as usual numbers, restaurant aggregators are focusing on hygiene and safety, as well as supporting eateries with sustainable order volumes.
Rival Zomato too has waived all fees from its contactless dining product including payment gateway charge. It also separately raised money to support restaurant partners to disburse employee salaries amid lockdown.
“To revive our business to pre-Covid days, Swiggy is also offering discounts from their end for the outlet, ensuring the highest safety standards as this is a new normal,” said Kanwaljit Singh from Amrit Sweets in Chandigarh. “This has helped us to reduce the cost of doing business indirectly and better our bottom line.”
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