Food delivery platform Zomato has announced the relaunch of its 'Food Rescue' initiative, aimed at minimising food wastage from cancelled orders, after a failed attempt to implement it as a policy in September.
The company revealed that approximately 400,000 perfectly good orders are cancelled monthly on their platform. Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal, took to X (formerly Twitter) to address this pressing issue. "We don't encourage order cancellation at Zomato, because it leads to a tremendous amount of food wastage," Goyal stated. "Despite stringent policies and a no-refund policy for cancellations, more than 4 lakh perfectly good orders get cancelled on Zomato for various reasons by customers."
Under the new initiative, cancelled orders will be made available to nearby customers within a 3-kilometre radius of the delivery partner, offered at a discounted price. To maintain food quality, potential buyers will have only a few minutes to claim these orders, which will be delivered in their original, untampered packaging.
The scheme includes several thoughtful considerations. The original customer and those in their immediate vicinity will not receive the option to claim the cancelled order. Furthermore, customers who prefer vegetarian food will not be shown non-vegetarian orders, and items sensitive to temperature or distance, such as ice creams and smoothies, will be excluded from the programme.
Notably, the financial structure of the initiative appears to benefit all stakeholders. The amount paid by the new customer will be shared between the original customer (for online payments) and the restaurant partner, with Zomato taking no proceeds except mandatory government taxes. Delivery partners will receive full compensation for their entire journey, including the rerouted delivery.
The company reports an overwhelming 99.9% opt-in rate from restaurant partners, who will continue to receive compensation for the original cancelled order plus a portion of the new customer's payment. Restaurant partners can monitor these transactions through their partner app and weekly payout statements.
The announcement sparked interesting discussions on social media, with one user's thoughtful suggestions catching the CEO's attention. Bhanu, a Bengaluru resident, proposed several improvements to the feature on X, including restricting cancellations for deliveries within 500 metres of the destination and excluding cash-on-delivery orders from the programme.
His suggestions also addressed potential misuse of the system, warning about the possibility of coordinated cancellations between users to secure discounts. Additionally, he recommended implementing a monthly cap of two cancellations per user. Impressed by Bhanu's analytical approach, Goyal responded by expressing interest in discussing potential job opportunities with him, demonstrating the company's openness to user feedback and talent spotting.
This Food Rescue relaunch comes after a failed attempt to implement the scheme as a mandatory policy in September. The earlier version faced significant pushback from restaurant partners, leading to its swift withdrawal. Addressing this previous setback, Rakesh Ranjan, CEO of Zomato's food-ordering business, told The Ken, "It was a mistake on our part to call it a policy instead of an initiative. Thousands of orders are cancelled on an everyday basis, we were trying to solve that. The restaurants have a choice to opt in or opt out of this initiative."
The revised version now gives restaurant partners the flexibility to opt out instantly through their partner app and dashboard, making it a voluntary initiative rather than a mandatory policy.
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