Zomato co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said in a series of tweets on Friday that the company posted 60% more sales on December 31 compared to the previous New Year’s Eve. He added that peak orders per minute reached 4,254, resulting in a gross merchandise value of Rs 75 million per day.
A Swiggy spokesperson told ET the company saw a doubling of dinner traffic from the same day last year, with growth in Tier II cities and beyond outpacing that seen in metropolitan areas. The person added that December 31 was Swiggy’s biggest day in 2020.
Yesterday, we recorded 60% more GMV than on New Years Eve. That’s a GMV of 75 crore in a single day, with a spike … https://t.co/RWw3KqbjzP
– Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) 1609483683000
“The demand last night was much higher than what we could process. We ran out of delivery partner capacity long before rush hour, ”Goyal tweeted. “If we had an unlimited supply, yesterday we could have reached GMV 100 million rupees. I need to do better next time. ”
Goyal added that Zomato had 100,000 delivery partners on the night of Dec. 31, while also saying customer complaint and failure rates are at an all-time low for food delivery in India. Swiggy also hit a peak in orders per minute over New Year’s Eve, a person familiar with the matter said. The company declined to share the exact number.
Executives at large chain restaurants said the deliveries saved New Year’s Eve business, which otherwise would have plunged 65-70% due to curfews in big states.
Lite Bite Foods, which operates the Punjab Grill, Artful Baker and YouMee chains, said the contribution from online delivery increased 50%, up from 30% on the previous New Year’s Eve.
“Order sizes also increased 100% compared to last year, with party delivery packages at a record high as people celebrated indoors. This is the peak when it comes to delivery orders, ”said Rohit Aggarwal, director of Lite Bite Foods.
The president of specialty restaurants, Anjan Chatterjee, said that deliveries and takeout food grew a record 50% since December 31, 2019.
“New Year’s Eve is a time of celebration. The online delivery and takeout businesses made up for what we lost due to the drop in dinners, ”Chatterjee said. Specialty restaurants operate brands like mainland China, Oh! Calcutta and Sigree.
Saurabh Khanijo, managing director of Asian cuisine chain Kylin, said that year-on-year sales on deliveries doubled, while walk-ins were cut in half on New Year’s Eve. “There was a huge increase in online orders,” Khanijo said.
Fast food chains like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut reported a 50-70% increase in deliveries on New Year’s Eve, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
A Swiggy spokesperson said there was “a lot of participation from the restaurants, who were very well prepared with their kitchen staff. Cancellations triggered by restaurants were quite low even during the peak of the peak. ”The person added that Swiggy saw a doubling of new users on his platform during the period.
The New Year’s Eve sales performance comes less than a fortnight after Zomato announced that it had closed a $ 660 million round of financing with an after-money valuation of $ 3.9 billion. “10 new investors join us on our journey. This list includes Tiger Global, Kora, Luxor, Fidelity (FMR), D1 Capital, Baillie Gifford, Mirae and Steadview ”, Goyal had said then.
A $ 140 million side transaction is underway, he said, of which about $ 30 million has already been distributed to former employees, providing them with liquidity.
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