Zomato's Gold Millions

With 1 million-plus subscribers, Zomato Gold is both the first and the largest of Indian unicorn loyalty programs. How successful has it been?

15 months on, Zomato Gold continues to grow; it accounts for 10% of the company’s revenue and could hit $20-25 million by the year-end

The company is focused on Gold's expansion across geographies and at the heart of this strategy lies the big question of customer loyalty

In the age of digital economy, with plenty of choices for customers, it is easier (and cheaper) for brands to tap existing customers for business

Amazon has rewritten the rules of brand loyalty with Prime, which crossed the 100 million paid subscribers mark globally last year

20-somethings. A penchant for restaurant food. And Zomato’s loyalty programme, Gold.

These are the three ingredients that Chandni Gajaria, 29, a freelance photographer from Mumbai; Ivan Mehta, 28, a Delhi-based journalist; and Shradhha Verma, 23, from Ghaziabad, who is currently between jobs; have in common.

Their restaurant choices are now governed by loyalty programmes. Gajaria, Mehta and Verma open the Zomato app, check if a restaurant offers discounts for Zomato Gold members. Yes? Awesome. No? Go to a partner restaurant.

Gold membership guarantees diners one of two options—buy-one-get-one on food, and buy-two-get-two on drinks—at over 4,500 partner restaurants across the country.

AUTHOR

Pradip Kumar Saha

Pradip has been a journalist for close to 12 years. In his previous stint at financial newspaper Mint, which lasted over a decade, he switched to reporting from desk and wrote on a variety of subjects, including sports, food, whiskies and all things luxury. Born and raised in Patna, Pradip has a diploma in journalism from Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He is interested in good stories across beats. When not pursuing a story, he divides his time between food, tea, whisky, watches, Ghalib and Gulzar, in no particular order. At The Ken he writes weekend features and also covers companies like Uber, OYO, Zomato and Delhivery.

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