Expect to find out about more restaurants where there are no seating places
With the rise of internet in India, there were a lot of e-commerce sites launching.
Every brand started opening their e-commerce stores and the phase was termed as e-commerce boom. Services, like zepo and gharpay, started popping up which aimed to specifically support this boom and make it easy for everyone to run and operate an online store.
The conditions were right, people were getting online and starting to trust sites. Internet penetration was improving, mostly in urban areas, and the likes of redBus and Flipkart made sure people knew how to buy stuff online.
SEO, Ads, and social networks were the main discovery tools used by stores to get new customers and grow. Content marketing was also being taken seriously as it gave them a chance to go viral.
Another thing which worked in e-commerce stores’ favour were the costs of starting up. Suddenly, you didn’t need a place with premium rent in obscure places of the city to sell things, you could get started online for very less amount.
Also, developers in India were available for less than the security deposit of a shop, so being clueless about websites wasn’t a problem.
Rise of Hyper Local
The e-com sites were doing just fine with them delivering all over India, promising a 3, 4, or 7 day delivery.
But a lot of these things changed with the Hyper Local mania.
The biggest change was that a lot of people (outside of institutional funding) started thinking about this internet thing not being only about scale. People started connecting users with local businesses through apps and websites.
While the Hyper Local mania died because of the need to scale and do it as quickly as possible, what it really did help in was to increase awareness that internet can be used for geographically limited area and still make money from it.
To serve the businesses in the hyper local circle, other businesses like runnr and ShadowFax came into picture which handled delivery for you in the city.
So, with payment and ordering handled by a marketplace app (like Swiggy, TinyOwl, or Zomato) and delivery handled by outsourcing through delivery services, it seems fit to see the rise of online restaurants.
These restaurants aren’t like your typical restaurants, where you book a table and go to eat, but more like dominos without any outlets.
DeThaali.com is one such restaurant that I discovered. Our cook once bailed on us, and we had to order food. I opened TinyOwl and there it was, a restaurant with the name “DeThaali.com”.
I opened it and saw that restaurant seemed reasonable with prices and promised home cooked food. I ordered and was delighted that they worked as advertised (funny, how this is something which delights us, and not be taken for granted).
Later I opened their site and realized they don’t have outlets, but work from a home and only have the option of getting food delivered. Later, I discovered FreshMenu which did the same.
Extending this concept, I started thinking that there may exist, not a long time later in future, where you can create your restaurant as easily as you can create an e-com store today.
So, let’s assume you are known to create amazing vada paos.
You list yourself on these marketplaces. Startup costs are same as a restaurant, but, and this is a big but, you don’t need to rent out a place, pay exorbitant money as rent every month, decorate the place and wait for 2–3 months to get started.
In fact, you get started by serving customers from “food tech apps” to the point where you have created a little name for yourself. And with serving people there, you must have made some money, which you can reinvest to create your own site, app, or even rent out that place in South Bombay!
This can help create many new entrepreneurs, from the least expected places. (I know, everyone is thinking that their mom might be able to pull this off)
What do you think about this new trend?
Would to know your thoughts in the comment below or you can reach out to directly on twitter – @shobhitic
asha chaudhry
i love this new trend. makes every home chef a foodpreneur and an e-com player at the same time!!
(i’m one such foodpreneur sitting on the fence – but i would rather have a food truck coz in goa that would be cool!)
you should check out InnerChef’s indulge that has many home bakers on board and they make the most awesome desserts (i remember you are a sucker for chocolate – but do try their red velvet cake. it’s to die for – yeah my ghost is commenting on your post :)))
but not all food apps treat their home chefs fairly you know 🙁
https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/dear-food-ordering-apps-we-need-to-talk
btw – do you know how Bawi Bride started?
read this 🙂 https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/bawi-bride-opens-kitchen-thanks-to-the-rodinhoods-1
Shobhit Bakliwal
Thanks for the links!
Bawi Bride is exactly the kind of thing I think will get more popular in the future. Obviously, the systems in place need to act fair or else the amazing vendors they have will have no choice but to switch!
And for the red velvet cake, it is not available in Bangalore. 🙁 I did have a nutella cheesecake 😀
asha chaudhry
when you’re in delhi/gurgaon next – do have it 🙂
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Sounds like a textbook plan but its never easy
What happens when you get 10 orders and did not expect so many?
If you do not fulfil, the ‘Food App’ gets a bad name and thats just bad karma on your part
Vice versa – if a company like Tiny Owl collapses, what happens to your brand?
More important point – I don’t think ‘having or not having’ an outlet is the decision. Its about PROFITABILITY
Swati in Tardeo has a full restaurant because it MAXIMISES ROI – instead of depending on apps and their performance
Shobhit Bakliwal
Same goes out for e-commerce, right?
What if you don’t have inventory to handle all the orders Flipkart is bringing you? (You mark out of stock, which is also an option for Food Apps).
Also, I am not saying they’ll operate only on Food Apps, but this is a way to get started.
Having an outlet increases overheads a lot, just like opening a shop does. By doing most of the things online, you’ll save a lot of money and can work making your “delivery” processes more efficient.
Japheth Paramanandam
I would think you go the other way, instead of making it to order, you post what you have… like today, I am making 5 meals of Chicken Biryani and first come, first served. So its a supply and demand question at that point. SO basically I post what I have available and when the supply is gone, its gone. If my food is good enough, then that actually creates a market demand for my product and I would think I can scale that to a certain degree without going commercial.
On a side note, at a typical restaurant, how many order the usual items and how many order the exotic items. Am guessing the Pareto principle (and this is a complete guess on my part, with no evidence to prove it) works even in the restaurant industry where 20% of the items are ordered by 80% of the people and the other 80% is ordered by the 20%..:) So why would I as an individual have 20 items and have all of them available.
Shobhit Bakliwal
Yeah, these are early times and businesses are still figuring out how to go about things, but there are people who have made it work.