Zomato, the world’s fastest-growing restaurant and nightlife guide announced the launch of its catering sections for Delhi NCR, Bangalore, and Mumbai.
The catering section is unique in its offering to users, allowing them to select from a wide range of options among the most premium caterers in a city. A typical Catering page on Zomato includes detailed description of cuisines, occasions, types of live counters, estimated price range, and the number of guests they can cater to – the type of information that will help users to conveniently shortlist and select a catering service. Zomato launched the catering section for Delhi NCR in March this year and based on the excellent response, have rolled out the section for Mumbai and Bangalore this month. Similar sections for other metro cities in India are expected soon.
On the occasion of the launch, Saurabh Sengupta, Head of India Operations, Zomato, said, “Over the last couple of years many of our users had asked us whether it would be possible to search on Zomato for caterers for their private parties or important occasions like weddings, corporate functions and birthdays. It made sense for us since a lot of restaurants also offer catering services and it was possible for us to source the data and create a separate section for our users.”
Recent reports by Business Standard suggests that the catering industry is worth Rs. 15,000 crores in India growing at 15-20% year on year. However, a big chunk of the industry is fragmented causing discoverability problems for customers. Up until now, with the lack of a consolidated platform, most people have relied on limited recommendations from friends and family to fulfill their catering needs. Zomato’s catering section aims to fix this problem for good.
Caterers too face the problem of finding clients on a consistent basis. Until very recently, caterers have relied on traditional means of word of mouth and tie-ups with banqueting venues to promote themselves. They would also turn to print and electronic media to spread the word. This activity reaches its hilt during the wedding season. With reports suggesting that as many as 30,000 weddings happened in a given day in Delhi last year, the catering platform from Zomato can be a boon to the industry. Caterers can now share detailed information on their services and packages, along with high-resolution pictures, which in turn helps customers make an informed decision. In addition, user reviews help customers gain a better insight into the quality of services provided by the caterer in question.
“With Zomato catering, we plan to make gourmet and economical options available to our users to help in their party planning”, Saurabh added. Gourmet catering is, indeed, an upcoming trend in the industry with large players like Speciality Restaurants opening up verticals to cater to it.
