There has been a sudden surge in the food delivery market in India over the last few years. The proliferation of affordable smartphones and quality 4G connection has brought latest technology at everyone’s doorsteps.
In addition, the growing Indian economy has also given a push to budding entrepreneurs who have come up with various startup ideas providing myriad of services at customer’s fingertips.
The food delivery market, as mentioned above, has been one of the leading beneficiaries of this technology boom in India. Last few years have witnessed the rise, and occasionally fall, of food-delivery startups like Swiggy, Foodpanda, Zomato, etc.
Raising the competition to another notch, the cab-service providers Uber and Ola have also jumped into this pool. However, according to David Litchman, founder of Belly Melly – a unique online ordering service provider – this clutter of food-delivery providers has put the restaurants in a disadvantaged position.
Litchman states: “The restaurant community is under attack from 3rd party providers and restaurants are struggling to remain profitable.” To solve this problem and serve the interests of the restaurants, he launched Belly Melly in India.
He has been in the restaurant space for more than 30 years and launched a similar portal in the US with the name of iMenu360 in the year 2007. If he is to be believed, the initiative has helped thousands of restaurants “in developing their brand over the last 12 years.”
With Belly Melly, Litchman aspires to achieve something similar in India. The most important advantage for the restaurants if they associate themselves with Belly Melly is that their processing rate is only 5 percent while the other service providers charge a whopping 20-28 percent taking away a large chunk of the profits.
“The processing rate is the simplest factor. However, there are other factors like brand building, controlling the customers, and not being held hostage by 3rd parties,” Litchman tells youngnfab.
“The 3rd party providers are in many ways hurting the restaurants they partner with. The restaurant community must fight back. They must start to build their own digital presence and, whenever possible, get their customers to order directly from their sites,” he adds emphatically.
If you are a restaurant owner looking to create your own presence and stand out among in the digital space, it is an imperative that you work on building your own brand. Belly Melly also helps these individual players by building free websites. To know more about it, visit www.bellymelly.com.
I love the idea of making our own website and not depending on other apps and websites for our business.
Looking forward to buy my own website.
I have seen their banners in Delhi.
Wow! A foreign company establishing the market in India.
This is going to be a game changer in the Indian market.
Wow waiting for it.
Isnt this going to shut the market for Zomato and swiggy?
Waiting for swiggy and zomato to comment.
Loved the article.
Looking forward for more such articles.