What Zomato and Swiggy Teach a Small Restaurant About Selling Online (and What They Don’t)

In the quarter to September 2026, Swiggy reported food delivery gross order value of ₹10,054 crore, up 17.7% on a year earlier, from 19.8 million monthly transacting users, according to its own press release of 22 October 2026. A year earlier, Zomato’s food delivery business was serving 24.1 million average monthly transacting customers through 3.27 lakh active restaurant partners, as MediaNama reported from parent company Eternal’s results.

A typical owner I meet runs a 30-cover restaurant in Kharghar or Vashi. Half the kitchen’s orders now arrive through the two apps. The owner has strong feelings about that, some grateful and some not. But the more useful question is a narrower one: what do these platforms do well that a single restaurant can copy on its own website, Google profile and WhatsApp, and what is out of reach at any budget? That is what this article answers.

One note on approach. Every statement about either company below comes from its own published results or reputable press reports of them, with a link. I treat both as case studies, not as villains or as partners. Neither company has reviewed or endorsed this article.

1. What the published numbers actually tell a restaurant owner

It helps to look at both businesses side by side before drawing lessons. The figures below are from different quarters and use different measures (Zomato reports net order value, Swiggy gross order value), so read them as scale, not as a race.

Sources: Zomato figures as reported by MediaNama, 17 October 2025 from Eternal’s Q2 FY26 results. Swiggy figures from Swiggy’s Q2 FY27 press release, 22 October 2026. Different quarters and different order-value definitions; not directly comparable.

Two things stand out to me. First, the scale of demand: tens of millions of Indians order food on a phone every month, so ordering online is a settled habit, not an experiment. Second, the margins: even at this scale, both companies report single-digit adjusted EBITDA margins on order value. Delivering food profitably is hard for them too. That should make a small restaurant cautious about building its own delivery fleet just to avoid the apps.

2. Lesson one: sell from a structured menu, not a photo of a printed one

Open either app and every dish is a separate item with a name, a short description, a price, often a photo, and tags such as veg or bestseller. That structure is what lets a hungry person scroll, compare and decide in under a minute. A photo of a laminated menu, which is what many restaurants still put on Google and Instagram, does none of that.

You can publish the same structure on Google for free. Google’s menu editor is available to food and drink businesses on their Business Profile. Each item can have a name, description and price under section headings, and you can add photos of individual dishes after publishing. Google says changes can take one to two days to appear on Maps and Search.

What makes a menu item sell

• A dish name a stranger understands. “Chef’s Special No. 4” means nothing; “Malvani prawn curry with rice” sells itself.
• One line of description that answers the first question a customer would ask: spice level, portion size, or what comes with it.
• A clear price, including whether packaging is extra.
• A real photo of the dish as it arrives, not a stock image. Google’s photo guidelines ask for images that are in focus, well lit and without heavy filters, at a recommended 720 by 720 pixels.

Google’s editor also offers an experimental tool that reads a menu photo or PDF and extracts sections, dishes and prices. It requires the whole menu to fit on one page in one clear photo. I would use it to save typing, then check every price by hand.

3. Lesson two: build a price ladder that starts low

The most interesting change in both companies’ recent results is the push towards cheaper meals. In October 2025, MediaNama reported that Zomato had cut the minimum order value for free delivery from ₹199 to ₹99, and that CEO Deepinder Goyal said the company was “okay being the last mover” on a separate budget app. A year later, Swiggy reported that Toing, its standalone app for affordable meals, was running in 50+ cities, and that two out of three new Toing users were new to food delivery altogether.

I read that as a signal about customers, not about apps. A lot of people who would order more often are held back by the price of a single order. The platforms responded with cheaper formats. A restaurant can respond with its menu.

• Create one or two entry items: a single-portion thali, a rice bowl or a combo priced for one person on a weekday.
• Keep a clear middle: the dishes most regulars order.
• Offer a family or party pack at the top for weekends and festivals.
• Price the entry item so it still makes money after packaging. A cheap item that loses money on every order is a discount, not a ladder.

My opinion: a small restaurant does better with a few honest entry items on the regular menu than with constant percentage-off offers. Discounts train customers to wait for the next discount. A well-priced single-portion meal trains them to order on Tuesdays.

4. Lesson three: reward the habit, not the first order

Swiggy describes Swiggy One as “the country’s only membership program offering benefits across food, quick commerce and dining out” in its press release. Whatever you think of memberships, the business logic is simple: a customer who already has a reason to come back orders more often and compares less.

A neighbourhood restaurant cannot run a paid membership across categories. It can run a far simpler version of the same idea with the customers who already know it.

• A regulars’ list on WhatsApp, built only from people who agreed to join, with one useful message a week: today’s special, a festival menu, or a new dish.
• A visible, simple benefit for direct orders, such as a free dessert on every fifth order or a fixed small saving on direct pick-up.
• Remembering preferences: “less oil, no onion” noted against a phone number so the second order is easier than the first.

On WhatsApp, follow the platform’s rules. The WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy requires opt-in before you message people and asks businesses to honour opt-outs. A list built from every number in your billing software is the fastest way to get your number blocked.

See also: for how to set up broadcasts and opt-in properly, read our WhatsApp marketing guide.

5. Lesson four: treat ratings as part of the product

On both apps, a restaurant’s rating sits next to its name on every listing, before a customer sees a single dish. That placement is a design decision, and it tells you how much the platforms believe ratings drive the choice.

Off the apps, your Google rating plays the same role. Google’s ranking help page says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that review count and rating factor into prominence. For the reader, BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 of 1,002 US adults found 74% looked for reviews from the last three months and 89% expected owners to respond. That is American data, but the direction matches what I see in Mumbai.

• Ask every satisfied dine-in table and every direct-order customer for a Google review, with a short link or QR code.
• Reply to every review, especially the bad ones, in a calm and specific way. The reply is for the next reader.
• Read the complaints for patterns. Three reviews about cold food in a month is a packaging problem, not a reviews problem.
• Do not offer discounts or freebies in exchange for reviews. Google’s contribution policy prohibits incentives and selectively asking only happy customers.

See also: our step-by-step guide on how to get more Google reviews covers scripts and QR placement.

6. Lesson five: be the easy choice when someone searches nearby

Much of the platforms’ strength is being where hungry people already look. But a lot of food decisions still start on Google Search and Maps, and Google has quietly given restaurants control over what happens there.

Sources: Google Business Profile Help: About the menu editor, Manage online ordering options, Manage your local business links, Business Profile performance. Features and placement vary by country.

The setting I find unused most often is the preferred link. According to Google’s ordering help page, you can add your own ordering link alongside third-party providers and choose which one customers see first. If you have your own ordering page, you can mark it as preferred for pickup or delivery. If you remove a provider’s link, Google says providers must take it down within five business days of your request.

My view: do not hide the app links. Some customers will always prefer to order through an app they already trust. Make your own link the first option and let the customer choose.

See also: for the full set-up, read our Google Business Profile guide and local SEO in Navi Mumbai.

7. Lesson six: dine-in and going out are growing too

Delivery gets the headlines, but Swiggy reported that its out-of-home consumption business, which includes Dineout, grew gross order value by 34.9% year on year to ₹1,508 crore in the September 2026 quarter, its seventh straight profitable quarter. That is faster than its food delivery growth in the same period.

For a sit-down restaurant, that is a reminder that “online” is not only about delivery. People search, compare and book tables on their phones too, and a full dining room usually earns more per cover than a delivery order after packaging and deductions.

• Make sure your Google profile has current hours, special hours for festivals, and interior photos, not just food.
• Add a table-booking option: a phone number with click-to-call, a WhatsApp link, or a booking provider if you use one.
• Promote dine-in-only dishes or experiences that do not travel well. They give people a reason to come in.

8. Lesson seven: own the relationship, even while you rent the reach

This is the lesson that matters most to a small restaurant, and it is about your business, not theirs. When an order comes through any marketplace, the marketplace runs the customer relationship: the app, the notifications, the offers, the reorder button. That is part of what you pay for. It also means the customer’s habit belongs mostly to the app.

Check your own partner agreement and dashboard to see exactly what customer information and tools you receive. Then decide how much of your business you are comfortable having inside someone else’s app. For most restaurants I work with, the answer is to keep the platforms for discovery and build a direct channel for regulars.

• A simple ordering page on your own website, linked from Google and Instagram.
• A WhatsApp number with a catalogue for regulars who prefer to message.
• A direct-order benefit that is honest and sustainable.
• Your own record of direct customers, kept with consent and handled properly under India’s data protection rules.

You do not need to leave the apps to do this. You need the direct channel to be easy enough that a regular chooses it on their own.

What you cannot copy

It is worth being honest about the parts of the platforms’ model that a single restaurant will never match.

• The delivery fleet. Swiggy cites over 7.6 lakh delivery partners and Zomato reported 5.09 lakh. Running your own riders is possible within a small radius but brings fuel, insurance, peak-hour and idle-time costs.
• The discount budget. Platform-funded offers, free delivery thresholds and membership benefits are paid for at a scale you do not have.
• Reach on day one. Tens of millions of people already have the apps installed. Your ordering page starts with the customers you can send to it.
• The technology team. Live tracking, recommendations and payment handling are built by large engineering teams. Buy simple tools for these; do not build them.

Where this advice breaks down

• The company figures are from two different quarters and two different definitions of order value. They show scale and direction, not a ranking of one company against the other.
• Delivery-only and cloud kitchens are different. If you have no dine-in footfall and no regulars yet, the apps may be your only realistic source of orders for a long time, and the direct channel will grow slowly.
• Direct ordering needs someone to answer. If no one replies to WhatsApp during the dinner rush, direct customers will go back to the app, and they will be right to.
• The review data is American. BrightLocal surveyed US adults. Indian diners may rely more on friends and society WhatsApp groups.
• Google’s ordering features vary by country. The “Order with Google” checkout described in Google’s help is for the US; in India you work with “Order online” and “Place an order” links. Check what your own profile shows.
• I do not have published, verified figures for typical commission levels that I am comfortable quoting, so I have not used any. Your own payout statements are the only numbers that matter for your decisions.

Checklist: what to copy this month

Tens of millions of people order food on their phones every month, and the platforms have taught all of them what a good ordering experience looks like. Copy what they teach, keep using the reach they offer, and make sure your best regulars have a direct way to find you.