Your orders on Zomato might become costlier soon
What's the story
Zomato, a leading food delivery platform, has introduced a new 'long-distance fee' for its restaurant partners.
The move is aimed at improving profitability and ensuring better compensation for delivery partners.
The charge will be applicable on orders delivered beyond 4km from the restaurant or cloud kitchen.
For orders worth over ₹150 and delivered between 4-6km from the restaurant, Zomato will charge ₹20 extra per order. If the delivery location is over 6km, the fee will double to ₹40 per order.
Pricing
What about smaller orders?
To note, for smaller orders (worth less than ₹150), no extra charges are levied if delivered within 6km. Beyond that distance, Zomato will charge ₹40 per order from the restaurant.
Strategy
New fee not applicable to customers
The new fee structure is only applicable to restaurants and not customers.
The total charge payable to Zomato, including this new fee and others, will not exceed 30% of the order value.
This implies no restaurant partner will pay more than 30% of the order value in commissions.
The company continues to levy a ₹10 platform fee on customers, along with packaging charges.
New initiative
Zomato launches 'visibility assurance plan'
Along with the new fee structure, Zomato is also launching a 'visibility assurance plan' for brands.
Under this scheme, brands can pay around ₹6,000-6,500 per month per restaurant identification (RID) to ensure better rider availability for their business.
The increased visibility plan is still being rolled out and has not been proposed to all partners yet.