They have thus been able to stop a fifth to a third of their earnings from going to food service aggregators (FSAs). Not surprisingly, from five-star chains, such as the Taj and ITC Hotels, to restaurants, from Domino’s and Taco Bell to The Table and Big Chill, food service providers are fast migrating to tech-supported direct ordering platforms. And now, even Swiggy has made significant concessions. Will the NRAI’s #OrderDirect Movement finally change the rules of engagement between the FSAs and their rebellious restaurant partners?

SPEAKING at a Townhall organised by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) in early May, The Beer Café CEO Rahul Singh, who’s also a past president of the trade body, echoed the overwhelming sentiment of an industry hit hard by the two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic: “The takeaway from today’s session, and the countless messages we got during it, is the overall sense of disdain over the way the food service aggregators (FSAs) are eating into the margins of restaurants, which are already under pressure.”

Profitability, without doubt, is a major concern, but two other factors are equally important for a restaurateur such as Gauri Devidayal, co-founder of The Table and Magazine Street Kitchen, Mumbai, where the emphasis is on creative fine dining. Speaking on behalf of the NRAI, Devidayal said: “Three important concerns motivated us to set up our direct ordering platform: Quality, Control and Profit.” She went on to expand on the three points:
Quality in terms of our guest experience of the way the food is delivered. Receiving your pizza held horizontally, not vertically, for instance.

Control, or access to data and building a relationship with customers, which is the foundation of hospitality. Knowing what our customer preferences are, and being able to deliver a certain standard day after day, isn’t possible if you don’t know who you are serving. Similarly, improvement through after-sales service also isn’t possible if you don’t know whom you are serving.

Last but not least is of course Profit. This is not just about saving on commissions; it is also about servicing an increased delivery radius and therefore developing the potential for earning higher revenues.

It is nobody’s case that the two big FSAs will be replaced entirely by the new generation of tech-enabled digital ordering and billing solution providers. To quote Rahul Singh: “We will continue to co-exist in a typical love-hate relationship. Tech, after all, has to be an enabler, not a distorter.” There’s however a clear market need for direct ordering and it’s increasingly being addressed by viable and more restaurant-friendly platforms.