Zomato, the food delivery platform backed by Eternal, has begun imposing an additional charge of Rs 5 to Rs 20 for customers selecting cash on delivery (COD) payments.
The fee, labelled as a 'pay on delivery fee', appears separately on the bill summary within the app and applies only to orders paid in cash at delivery.
Most customers reportedly see a Rs 5 charge, although some have been billed Rs 7 or even Rs 20 as per multiple app screenshots and reports.
This new COD fee is over and above Zomato's existing platform fee, restaurant packaging charges, and GST, while users opting for online payment methods are exempted from it.
Zomato currently handles approximately 2.3 to 2.5 million food orders daily, despite competition from newer entrants like Rapido's Ownly and Flipkart's Eat In service.
Its main rival Swiggy has not yet introduced a similar charge, but it is unclear if such a fee will be implemented in the future.
in 2023, food delivery firms introduced platform fees, with Swiggy starting at Rs 2 per order and Zomato following. Zomato increased its platform fee from Rs 12.50 to Rs 14.99 this year, with GST extra, and at current order volumes, even small fee increments can result in hundreds of crores in annual revenue.
Recently, Zomato reduced its workforce by about 250 employees following a review of its customer delight operations and organizational structure.
As part of this restructuring, the company shut down Customer Delight operations in Hyderabad and consolidated remaining in-house operations in Gurgaon.
