A tie up with online food ordering aggregators such as a Swiggy and Zomato is essential for any restaurant – big or small. In this article, we will be listing down all that you need to know about tying up with Swiggy or Zomato.

1. February 7,
2019
Tying up with Swiggy and Zomato: The Essential Guide to
online food ordering aggregators
limetray.com/blog/how-to-tie-up-with-swiggy-zomato
A tie up with online food ordering aggregators such as a Swiggy and Zomato is essential
for any restaurant – big or small. In this article, we will be listing down all that you need
to know about tying up with Swiggy or Zomato.
We will cover the following:
1. How to tie up with Swiggy and Zomato
2. Legal documents that you would need
3. Reasons behind the growth of Swiggy and Zomato
4. Advantages of linking up with Swiggy and Zomato
5. Disadvantages of linking up with Swiggy and Zomato
6. Alternatives to Swiggy and Zomato
How to tie up with Swiggy and Zomato?
We will be taking you through the steps involved in a tie up with Swiggy and Zomato. The
processes involved are elaborate and the restaurants need to carefully fill out the details
to get listed. Without further ado, let’s get started.
How to register on Swiggy
Before you begin the registration process, you would need to have a permanent address
for your restaurant. And all the legal documents to support it.
Here are the steps you can take to partner with Swiggy
Step 1 – Go to Swiggy.com and click on the ‘Partner with Us’ link at the footer
of the screen
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2. Alternatively, you could directly click on the link below.
https://www.swiggy.com/partner-with-us/
Step 2 – Fill in your basic details
Name of your restaurant
Pincode
State
Your Designation
Contact Number
Step 3 – Click on Submit to have your application underway
Click on Yes for submitting some more information to proceed with your application.
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3. Step 4 – Fill the detailed form and upload the required documents
You would need to have the following information:
1. Website or online listing Link
2. Number of outlets
3. The primary area of your restaurant
4. Typical cost for 2
5. Type of Cuisine
You would also need soft copies of the following:
1. Shop License
2. FSSAI License
3. GST number/PAN details
Additionally, you would need to have pictures of your restaurant outlet. Pictures of the
facade, kitchen, dining and packaging examples, and locality shots. All in jpeg format.
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4. Step 5 – Next, keep the following documents ready with you, as hard copies or
originals.
1. Canceled cheque or passbook
2. An Image of your menu
3. Take away bill
Step 6 – Once the detailed forms are filled up, a representative from Swiggy
will contact you with the partnership agreement
Your restaurant should go live in 2- 3 weeks, from this time.
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5. Step 7 – You will get a confirmation notification
You will shortly receive a notification via mail and a phone call that your restaurant has
been registered.
Congratulations! You are now registered on Swiggy and can start accepting orders
immediately.
You could also watch this video that lists down all the essential steps of registering on
Swiggy.
Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/rACI7Y0LkuE
How to register on Zomato?
Get your restaurant listed in Zomato in 5 easy steps.
Step 1 – Go to zomato.com and click on the “Add a restaurant” button at the
bottom of the page
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6. Alternatively, you can click on the following link to begin the registration process.
https://www.zomato.com/addrestaurant
Step 2 – Fill the basic form to get your application underway
You would need:
1. Restaurant name
2. City
3. Your credentials
4. Contact Number
5. Opening Status
Click on Add Restaurant once you provide the required information
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7. Step 3 – Fill in the detailed form that follows
Here are the details that you must keep handy:
1. Address and the Google Maps location of your restaurant
2. Characteristics of your restaurant
Alcohol/Non-Alcohol
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, Cafe, Nightlife
Seating
Mode of payments
Type of Cuisine
3. Other details
Operational timings
Contact Information
Restaurant website link
Restaurant official email ID
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8. Step 4: Congratulations! Your listing is now complete
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9. Once you submit your listing, the verification process of your restaurant will start. Post
verification, your page will go Live on Zomato.
Step 5: You might be contacted by a Zomato Sales Representative to cross-
check the details
You may want to keep the soft and hard copies of the following documents handy.
1. Shop License
2. FSSAI License
3. GST number
4. PAN details
Note: Don’t put any false or dummy information on Zomato, because they cross-check
your data before it goes online.
You could also watch this video which lists down all the key steps of registering on
Zomato.
Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/pDFXb9HNV2A
Legal requirements in the registration process?
You might have to tread carefully when it comes to keeping track of all the legal
paperwork.
While Swiggy includes this in their application process, Zomato may also ask you for the
legal documents during the verification process.
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10. The following is a list of all the essential documents you will need to complete the
verification process. It is essential that you have them, both the hard copies and soft
copies, ready.
1. Restaurant registration paperwork
2. Shop License
3. FSSAI license
4. Owner’s PAN card
Also, after registration completion, keep in mind that:
1. You will now be liable to pay a 17-25% commission on all orders made through
Zomato and Swiggy’s online ordering portal.
2. You may have to keep track of the menu and price details regularly to ensure they
are reflected correctly.
3. You can get an API link done with your restaurant POS system and all your
channels of online orders to ensure you stay on top of the status of all orders, at all
times.
Reasons behind the growth of Swiggy and Zomato
According to Statista, the Online Food order delivery market is projected to grow by a
compounded annual growth rate of 9.1% and that will result in a market volume of USD
11,569 million by the year 2023.
And in India, Swiggy and Zomato are synonymous with the online food delivery space.
The success of these leading online food aggregators has attracted a lot of funding. In
fact, the capital invested in these companies is now in billions. Swiggy, for instance, has
raised more than a billion in a week and is the highest valued food delivery business in
the country. Pretty impressive.
Here are the top reasons behind the astronomical growth of these
companies:
1. The convenience of getting food delivered – The ease with which an individual
can place an order today is amazing. Swiggy and Zomato have made it extremely
convenient for people to log in and place orders. No need to now call up and
struggle to get heard or rush to the nearest outlet.
2. The growth of the smartphone culture – The success of many online food
delivery companies can be attributed to the easy availability of smartphones
loaded with high-speed processors, all at extremely affordable rates. Added to this,
the rise of internet technology has further improved the user experience. Most
internet providers now provide 4G technology which provides superfast data
services.
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11. 3. Savvy Marketing – The Swiggies and Zomato’s have spent thousands of dollars in
getting their marketing right. Be it the TV advertisements, or the youtube video ads
or the OOH advertisements.
4. Ever increasing restaurant options – Especially attractive to millennials, is the
option of choosing between various options. People love to experiment. They love
trying out different restaurants, different cuisines, different locations, and all these
filters are now built into these online ordering platforms.
5. Easy and flexible payment gateways – The convenience of payment which these
food delivery startups are offering cannot be ignored. Be it cash or debit/credit
cards, wallets, customers are enjoying the flexible modes of payment. Also, the
security layers embedded help address any hesitation of paying online.
6. Restaurant reviews – People want to make informed decisions while choosing a
restaurant. Every restaurant profile also has a star rating which shows how people
have rated the restaurant. Also, customers like to add detailed descriptions about
what they liked or disliked about an experience.
Advantages of partnering with Swiggy and Zomato
There are several advantages of being linked with an online food ordering platform.
1. Piggyback on Swiggy’s or Zomato’s marketing to get people to find you – It is
always challenging to formulate a marketing strategy for your restaurant. A
strategy that encompasses all the essential marketing levers – website, social
media, app, billboards, TV commercials, YouTube ads, Search Engine Optimisation,
Google Ads, CRM – email and SMS and so on. Swiggy spends a fortune on ads and
marketing. In other words, they make you more visible by having you on their
platform. That is why they charge that heavy commision rate.
2. No need to care about delivery – Managing deliveries is always a tedious task.
Taking orders from customers directly is also a pain. Swiggy and Zomato do that
for you. The core selling proposition of the leading food aggregators is timely delivery
and excellent order tracking. The success of a food aggregator relies on the
customer experience it is able to provide. Although, off-late there has been a
growing trend of restaurants hiring their own delivery fleet.
3. Reviews on Swiggy and Zomato – Swiggy and Zomato have built great products
that help customers discover new places to eat. Swiggy and Zomato provide excellent
platforms for customers to compare restaurants, check out what people are saying
about them and then make a well-informed decision.
4. Built for customer service as a priority – With their excellent order tracking
features, customers can now stay updated on the status of their deliveries. In the
rare occasion of trouble with delivery, they are very quick to respond and solve
queries. In fact, if they happen to delay the customer’s order, they are likely to
compensate them with free credits for the next order. Customer service is of
paramount importance to their brand and they never compromise on that.
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12. 5. Get traffic in the tune of thousands – The leading online food order aggregators
get a lot of traffic on their platforms. This is due to their all-round marketing and
promotion efforts over the last few years that has cemented their brand in the
minds of users. With traffic coming into their platforms in huge numbers, it is more
likely for an order to come through to you.
Disadvantages of partnering with Swiggy and Zomato
1. High Commision Rates – Commissions are the biggest disadvantage of tying up
with a Swiggy and Zomato. Currently, at 17-30%, this number was at a single digit
number when the online food delivery market was starting out. Since then the
rates have more than doubled. This should be a cause for concern for restaurants
as nothing stops the aggregators from increasing their commissions even
further. Restaurant owners in a few states are already contesting the high
commission rates charged by online food aggregator. Case in point, the recent
stories from Kerala and Ahmedabad.
2. Reduced profit margins – Higher costs of tying up with a Swiggy or a Zomato is
eating up on the profit margins of the restaurant. As a Swiggy and Zomato are
raking in the mind space of a customer, it becomes increasingly difficult for
restaurants to move away from this set-up, even though the net revenue they get
per order is largely diminished.
3. Limited space to advertise and brand yourself – When you tie up with a Swiggy
or a Zomato you are given a small space to promote and advertise yourself. You
might want to run your special offers, run your campaigns, promote the dish of the
day but alas. You find yourself constrained by the aggregators’ guidelines. This
really inhibits your marketing strategy. Also, who wants to be known as a discount
brand?
4. Inability to differentiate from the competition – With a Swiggy or a Zomato tie
up, you run the risk of getting lost in the crowd of listings. At which point it
becomes about price. So if your restaurant has a unique concept or you serve a
special experience it is likely to go unnoticed.
Alternatives to Swiggy and Zomato?
Clearly, there are drawbacks of associating your brand with a Swiggy’s and a Zomato’s.
What are the alternatives then?
1. Have your own online food ordering system – Now it is very easy to have your
own online ordering website and app. Its merits are obvious.
2. Do your own marketing and advertising the way you want – Now you can build
your own set of promotions, run your ads, use eye-catching images and direct
traffic to your website or app.
3. More online space – Yes now you don’t need to share your space with other
brands. With your own website and app, you can enjoy control of your own space
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13. 4. No more commissions to be paid to 3rd party – With Zomato and Swiggy you
always lose out on a healthy fraction of your profit through commissions. And the
percentage rate just keeps going north. With your own ordering platform, you will
benefit through higher margins.
5. Tie up with the smaller players – if you do not want to tie u with a Swiggy or a
Zomato, you can think about choosing the smaller players out there. Like Uber
eats, Tiny Owl, Foodpanda – their platforms are currently less crowded and you
can benefit through higher visibility on their platforms.
Summing Up
In this article, we have presented you the guide to tying up with Swiggy and Zomato. We have
also highlighted the merits and demerits of linking up with them.
Our verdict? Whilst it may be a good idea to sign up with them, the need for your own Online
Ordering Platform is now greater than ever. Not only to establish your brand in the
competitive online food ordering market but to reduce your dependency on third parties.
As always, more power to you!
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