Industry body National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) has reportedly started sending advisories to restaurants to step up their own loyalty programmes with the return of Zomato’s loyalty programme– Zomato Gold.

The NRAI has more than 500,000 member restaurants across the country.

“We are still negotiating with them (Zomato Gold) on certain terms. Until that’s not completed, our members will wait for the outcome,” Kabir Suri, president of NRAI, said as quoted by ET.

Zomato relaunched its loyalty program Zomato Gold, last week replacing the Pro Plus membership that was discontinued in August 2022. Zomato Gold has been launched with an introductory price of ₹149 for three months.

There are several benefits for Zomato Gold users. Food delivery to such users is free provided the restaurant falls within 10 kilometres distance and the order is above INR 199. Further, Zomato is offering a ‘no delay guarantee’ to Gold subscribers as well.

“We are, as we speak, working on creating something which is more differentiated, we believe, at least, and to perhaps make sure that we get the benefit of customer loyalty without really losing a lot of money. So I would request you to please wait and watch for that and we will come back with some loyalty programme construct soon in the market,” Zoamto said during its Q2 earnings call.

Riyaaz Amlani, managing director at Impresario Handmade Restaurants, which runs Social, Smoke House Deli and Salt Water Cafe said they will not come onboard for Zomato Gold unless the terms benefit restaurant partners. “We have urged all restaurant companies to take forward their own loyalty programmes,” Amlani said.

Rohit Aggarwal, director at Lite Bite Foods, which runs Punjab Grill, Artful Baker and YouMee chains, also said that they are not using Zomato Gold. Lite Bite Foods is planning to either launch individual brand loyalty programmes or a collective one.

While Aggarwal claims to have a large internal database of its own, it plans to drive repeat transactions using such loyalty programmes .

In general, the food delivery platforms have been in loggerheads with NRAI for some time now. In September this year, the NRAI urged Zomato and Swiggy’s partner restaurants to make an ‘informed decision’ on Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner as the offerings could ‘adversely impact’ the overall restaurant industry in the long run.

Back in 2019, the industry body’s restaurant partners started a #Logout campaign against Zomato Gold due to the high commissions charged from the restaurants for customer bookings and huge discounts being offered on food and beverages to Zomato Gold subscribers.

In April 2022, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) also ordered a probe into the alleged anti-competitive practices followed by the food delivery platforms based on a complaint by the NRAI.

Zomato reported a decline in its consolidated loss to INR 250.8 Cr during the second quarter of FY23 from INR 434.9 Cr in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

The foodtech giant’s total expenses rose about 31% to INR 2,091.3 Cr in Q2 from INR 1,601.5 Cr reported in the same quarter last year.