Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study operating practices that make tech companies tick in the
growing food delivery service sector in India. The food delivery market is valued at over ₹12
billion as of 2016, where upwards of 7 % market share now reserved for online food delivery
services. As opposed to 'Delivery as a Service' companies, aggregator delivery services
generate a platform for consumers to navigate through a variety of restaurants hosted on it,
discovering restaurants and placing orders manually. This study compares growth and
operating strategies of four such aggregator food delivery companies in a booming Indian
market (Swiggy& Zomato). The market is expected to grow 40 % annually owing to a larger
disposable income from a wealthier middle class (also with long, erratic working hours).
Growing incomes have encouraged the creation of an increasingly health-conscious middle
class, desiring meals which may substitute nutritional values of home-cooked meals.
Aggressive growth strategies have not been as rewarding elsewhere in the food-service
industry (with multiple grocery-delivery services scaling down operations in 2015-2016).
However, the future seems brighter for the online food industry, as India catches up with
developed markets (where online food orders take upwards of 30 % of market share).

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 Introduction
The potential of a developing marketplace in the one of the largest economies in the world is
analysed. Grocery shopping, meal making plans and cooking is now taken into consideration
a chore through a very good percentage of the developing Indian middle class, inflicting a
surge in call for for offerings that unfastened them of such inconveniences. Upwards of
50,000 dine outs in India offers home delivery, and are frequently most effective capable of
see marginal income from their take-away sectors. This suggests a excessive capacity in a
fairly untapped marketplace .

The food delivery enterprise has emerged as one in all the most important on line structures
with numerous new organizations setting out in a beyond decade. The form of the
marketplace is converting with a breakneck pace with gamers like Swingy, Zomato, Food
panda, Uber Eats, and plenty of others. With those large gamers within side the food industry
marketplace, the industry is thriving now no longer simply within side the metros however
within side the tier II and III towns as well. The business of delivering and ordering food
online is converting with speed growth and those are attracting huge investment. But the
multiplied opposition and volatile increase rules has prompted a few causalities alongside the
way as well. Companies like Eat Fresh and TinyOwl needed to close down because of large
losses. Even Food Panda, a giant food delivery market available in 13 countries that went via
more than one first by Delivery Hero and then by OLA, is locating it hard to live to tell the
tale in online food delivery marketplace.

As the last decade attracts to a close, we've got commenced to look a few symptoms and
symptoms of consolidation in a marketplace which has gone through numerous shifts in
phrases of techniques and working procedures. The decade simply belonged to the 2 pinnacle
start-ups within side the space, Swiggy and Zomato. Even though Uber Eats, a fairly new
participant within side the Indian marketplace, controlled to make a significant dent within
side the marketplace in phrases of each day orders, we have to test how the 2 giants of the
gap fared in 2019 if you want to get a clearer photograph of in which the enterprise is
heading.

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Consumer Awareness and Buying Behaviour

Consumer purchases are expected to be influenced by physiological,

psychological and sociological factors. The commodities and services are bought by
the consumer to satisfy his basic needs, for comfort, pleasure, recreation, and
happiness. Every individual has a physiological need such as hunger, shelter, thirst, etc.,
which haveto be satisfied with survival. The psychological factors like status prestige
and social factors like friends, neighbours, jobs, and relatives influence their
purchasing activities.
People bear certain beliefs and attitudes towards certain types of goods, brands of
commodities and retail outlets based on their previous experience. When there is a need, they
are able to discover some of the new commodities capable of satisfying their needs. Before
the commodities and brands are selected, these commodities must compete successfully
against alternatives in the market. Again a selection of a particular commodity
depends on the income of the consumer and how necessary this product is to the individual.

Industry Profile

About Food Delivery Industry

Retail food delivery is a courier service in which a restaurant, store, or independent food-
delivery company delivers food to a customer. An order is typically made either through a
restaurant or grocer's website or phone, or through a food ordering company. The delivered
items can include entrees, sides, drinks, desserts, or grocery items and are typically delivered
in boxes or bags. The delivery person will normally drive a car, but in bigger cities where
homes and restaurants are closer together, they may use bikes or motorized scooters.

Customers can, depending on the delivery company, choose to pay online or in person, with
cash or card. A flat rate delivery fee is often charged with what the customer has bought.
Sometimes no delivery fees are charged depending upon the situation.[1] Tips are often
customary for food delivery service. Contactless delivery may also be an option.

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Other aspects of food delivery include catering and wholesale food service deliveries to
restaurants, cafeterias, health care facilities, and caterers by foodservice distributors.

History

The first food delivery service was for naengmyeon (cold noodle) in Korea, recorded in 1768.
Haejang-guk (hangover soup) was also delivered for the yangban in the 1800s.
Advertisement for food delivery and catering also appeared in the newspaper in 1906.

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Meal Delivery

Meal delivery orders are typically on demand, intended to be eaten right away, and include
hot, already-prepared food. Pizza delivery is the largest meal delivery industry at the moment.
Ordering for delivery usually involves contacting a local restaurant or chain by telephone or
online. Online ordering is available in many countries, where some stores offer online menus
and ordering. Since 1995, companies such as Waiter.com have their own interfaces where
customers order food from nearby restaurants that have partnered with the service. Meal
delivery requires special technology and care, since the food items are already cooked and
prepared, and can be easily damaged if dropped, tilted, or left out for long periods of time.
Hot bags are often used to keep food warm. They are thermal bags, typically made of vinyl,
nylon, or Cordura, that passively retain heat.

In Mumbai, dabbawallas deliver hundreds of thousands of lunches to paying subscribers

every workday through a system of rail and bicycle links. The lunches are sent in tiffin

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carriers, and are prepared in the late morning by either a restaurant or family member
(typically a wife for a working husband, since many families still follow traditional
asymmetrical gender roles). The tiffin’s are then returned either in the afternoon or the next
day by the same system.

In the Philippines, most commonly delivered meals are from fast food chains like Jollibee,
McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Shakey's, KFC, etc. Orders are being done through their delivery
websites, mobile apps, or by phone. Time of delivery usually takes around 30 to 45 minutes.

Meal delivery services offer prepared meals by subscription.

Delivery of Ingredients

Community-supported agriculture schemes work on a subscription box model, where a box

of vegetables, dairy product, fish, or meat is delivered periodically from a local vendor.

Various meal kit delivery subscription services have started in Europe and North America
since 2007. These typically have pre-measured ingredients designed for accompanying
recipes.

Grocery Delivery

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Grocery delivery companies will deliver groceries, pre-prep or pre-made meals, and more to
customers. The companies work with brick and mortar stores or their own line of grocery
items. These orders are typically larger and more expensive than normal meal deliveries, and
are often not meant to be eaten right away, rather they are to replace items someone has run
out of, like flour or milk. They are almost always done online, and typically take at least one
day to deliver, though some companies offer same-day delivery. Many delivery services are
required to offer delivery within a couple hours because frozen and fresh foods have to be
delivered before they spoil.

Grocery delivery differs greatly from meal delivery in the sense that it is usually sent as a
parcel through common mailing services like USPS or FedEx, if it's only non-perishables.
Since non-perishable items are normally packaged before arriving at grocery stores, they can
easily be repackaged and delivered to customers without any special care. Sometimes, dry ice
is added to keep perishable items fresh. Fresh and frozen foods complicate delivery which is
done, usually by store/provider employees or third-party services such as Instacart.

The grocery delivery business has taken off, with hundreds of niche delivery companies
springing up offering a variety of different services from weekly grocery restock to pre-
planned, pre-measured family meals to make cooking easier. Online retailer giants have
hopped on board too. Amazon.com, for example, offers Amazon Fresh delivery service.
Amazon purchased Whole Foods Market in 2017, and by 2018 Amazon had added Whole
Foods items to its Prime Now service, for 2-hour delivery in certain markets.

According to Forbes, grocery stores should deliver their own groceries to help prevent third
party, part-time, non-store deliverers from becoming the 'face' or brand image of their local
grocer. Limitations of having to pick and deliver groceries within a short period of time need
to be remedied to allow for more flexibility to enable more deliveries to be more efficiently
routed. Frozen and fresh food refrigeration units inside the store and the delivery vehicle, as
well as lockable, consumer refrigeration boxes at the consumers home will be a solution that
allows the groceries to be delivered at any time, further relieving delivery issues. This
scenario will allow more local grocers to deliver with employee’s vs outside delivery
services.

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Associated Fees

In addition to paying for the food, customers will often have to pay a delivery fee. The
delivery fee will cover the cost of gas or other transportation costs, but usually does not go to
the delivery person. For meal delivery, it is common to give the deliverer an optional tip upon
paying for the order. In Canada and the United States, tipping for delivery is customary.
Opinions on appropriate amounts vary widely. In addition, grocery stores may charge more
for the foods that are ordered online for delivery than they charge for the same items off-the-
shelf.

In restaurant delivery, if the delivery service is provided by a third party, such as Uber Eats or
Deliveroo, the delivery fee, which can be as much as 25 or 30 percent of the value of the
order, is paid by the restaurant to the service provider. In addition to the delivery fees, the
service companies charge the restaurants a fee to set up the account, further cutting into the
restaurants' margins. Due to intense competition between the service providers wishing to
sign up restaurants to use their services, restaurants have been able to negotiate lower
delivery fees. McDonald's negotiated the delivery fees charged by Uber Eats from nearly 20
percent to "around 15 percent," according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

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Online Restaurant Delivery

In a 2019 market study of restaurant delivery services, the global market for online-ordered
prepared food delivery was estimated at $94 billion and is estimated to grow at just over 9
percent a year, reaching $134.5 billion in 2023.[14] The study defined the market as :-

1)"meals ordered online which are directly delivered by the restaurant, no matter if ordered
via a platform (e.g. Delivery Hero) or a restaurant website (e.g. Domino's)".

2) online meal orders and deliveries "both carried out by a platform" (Deliveroo, UberEATS,
e.g.).

3) "online orders that are picked up in the restaurant" by the customer. It does not include
phone orders.

According to research conducted by the NDP Group, online restaurant ordering is growing
300% faster than dine-in traffic.[15]

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"Online ordering has started to become the norm, thanks to the convenience, accuracy, and
ability to integrate payments. At scale, ubiquitous on-demand and subscription delivery of
prepared food could potentially spell the end of cooking at home.”

Restaurant Delivery Services

In the United States, the first restaurant food delivery service in the world began in 1995 with
World Wide Waiter and still operates today as Waiter.com. The top three restaurant food
delivery services are Door Dash, Grub Hub, and UberEATS, which together account for
some 80 percent of the sector's revenue. The remainder is accounted for by smaller services.

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In Europe, major restaurant delivery services include Deliveroo, Delivery Hero/Food Panda,
Takeaway.com (founded in Holland in 2000 as Thuisbezorgd.nl, operates in 11 countries,
including Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Israel), and UberEATS.

In South America, food delivery services include UberEATS, Didi, the dominant ride-hailing
company in China, and Rappi, based in Colombia. Both Didi and Rappi are funded by
SoftBank, the Japanese investment fund that is also a major investor in Uber.

In India, the food delivery services include Zomato and Swiggy. Indian online food delivery
is expected to become an $8 billion industry by 2020.

Restaurant Delivery Software Services

As the number of restaurant food delivery systems has increased, so have the logistical
challenges of tracking online orders—restaurants using delivery services usually must have
each service's tablet or iPad to receive orders, which then must be transferred into the

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restaurant's own point-of-sales system. To streamline this, software-as-a-service (SaaS)
companies have emerged to integrate the online ordering, billing and dispatching of
restaurant food orders. In addition to providing online ordering software for restaurant chains
(e.g. Applebee’s, Cheesecake Factory, Chipotle, Shake Shack), these SaaS companies' digital
platforms also provide data analysis that these restaurants use for medium- and long-term
planning.

Ghost Kitchens

As the food delivery sector has grown, restaurants have turned to "ghost kitchens", also
known as "cloud kitchens", to fill the need for inexpensive kitchen space to handle the
increased volume. A ghost kitchen site will be purpose-built to be delivery-only and have
separate areas of stoves, refrigeration and storage space to accommodate food preparation
teams of several different restaurants. As they are often located in less densely populated
areas of a city, they also have parking areas for the delivery vehicles. Companies providing

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this service are often subsidiaries of the delivery companies. Ghost kitchens also allow for the
creation of virtual restaurant brands—restaurants that exist only online, with no bricks-and-
mortar presence.

Theoretical background of the study

Food is any basic substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It can
be plant or animal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins,
fats, vitamins, and minerals. Food is needed to produce energy, maintain life, or stimulate
the growth of the human body. Historically, people secured food through two different
methods agriculture, hunting and gathering. At present, most of the food consumed by the
world population is supplied by the food industry. India is the second major producer of food
next to China and also with the second largest arable land area in the world. It has the
potential to become the biggest food industry with the food and agricultural sector
contributing 17 per cent to the Indian Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (A report by
Corporate Catalyst India on Indian Food Processing Industry) Food accounts for the
biggest proportion of consumer spending in India. Increasing income are always
accompanied by a change in the food basket. Thus acceptability of variety in food
increases with the increasing income levels. Present time the food market has been
rapidly changed day by day/ day to day. Since the Internet came into existence the food
scene has been totally changed the demand for food fulfilled by the online. By single
(one) touch the finished food would be delivered at your doorstep though different online
food delivery companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Food panda UberEATS, and Dibz promise to
deliver not a doorstep but it can be delivered at the window like specially Swiggy
promised to deliver at the window and another food delivery company like Zomato it also
delivered at the doorstep. (A report by Corporate catalyst India on Indian Food
Processing Industry)
The recent development of information technology i.e. The Internet though website and
Application have boosted up the extension of online food delivery services by facilitating
people to search, compare, order, prices, quality, quantity and conveniently access these
services.

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The concept of online shopping developed gradually, after the launch of the World
Wide Web(WWW) . In 1990, the first World Wide Web server and browser were
developed by Tim Berners-Lee. It was launched in 1991 for the main purpose of business
use. Other developments were made in 1994, such as online banking and the opening by
Pizza Hut of an internet pizza store.

Indian Scenario

In a developing country like India, the majority of the population consume homemade
food. Nevertheless, consumption of processed and cooked food is increasing due to an
increase in urbanization, breaking up of the old tradition of the joint family system,
desire for quality, desire for the new taste and different dishes, changing preferences in
taste, willingness to try new cuisines, lack of time, need for convenience, rapidly rising
number of working women, increase in per capita income, changed lifestyles and
increased level of the affluence in the middle income group. The food delivery
companies in India have wide one of the largest industries in the country it is ranked fifth in
terms of production, consumption, export and growth prospects. While the industry is large
in terms of size, it is still at a bourgeoning stage in terms of development. India is
the largest emerging markets, having a population of over one billion. Now India is a
part largest economy in the world in terms of different purchasing power and has a middle-
class base, hence with changing food habits there is a great potential for online foods
delivery companies.(Investors Portal of Ministry of Food Processing Industries).

Importance Of the topic

Here are some reasons why food industry can be a good business:

1. Job security – The food industry is one of the largest on the planet, and people will
always have to eat. This means if you are working anywhere along the food supply
chain, you will always have a job. Although there are food companies that close or

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 have layoffs, chances are you can apply your skills to other foods or processes, which
I think is a huge benefit of this degree.

2. Diverse environment – When working in the food industry, there are literally
thousands of different jobs available. You aren’t limited to lab work or a desk job.
There is something for everyone, whether it be in quality, R&D, sales, marketing,
manufacturing, teaching or in government. The food science degree is inherently
multidisciplinary, which opens up a myriad of opportunities.

3. The people – Those I have met who work in food are some of the most hardworking
and passionate people I know, and I am truly glad to call them friends. There is a
certain attitude we all share and I think it stems from our drive to help people. After
all, food is a service industry and we take pride in what we do.

4. Salary possibilities – A degree in food science offers many opportunities to earn top-
dollar salaries. The median salary in 2011 for people with a B.S. in food science was
$80,000 and even higher for those with graduate degrees. Median starting salaries
were $44,000. People who got into management positions made six figures and
above. (Source: 2011 annual IFT salary report).

5. The food – If you love food you will definitely enjoy working in this industry.
Whether you are creating exciting new products, testing products for quality, or doing
research, you will be exposed to a plethora of amazing food. You will discover dishes
and flavor combinations you have never even knew existed (and may even like it).

6. Travel opportunities – The food industry is global, and many large companies in the
United States also conduct business in several other countries. Depending on your
position, it’s likely you will get to travel, often paid for by your company or agency.
I’ve been lucky enough to travel around the US a little as a food inspector.

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 Review of Literature
The review of literature guides for better understanding of the methodology used by the
earlier studies and also the limitations of various available estimation procedures, database,
logical interpretation and understanding conflicting results. A brief review of some of the
earlier studies is discussed in this section.

Marketing strategies

Serhat Murat Alagoz & Haluk Hekimoglu (2012) determined a noticeable growth in e-
commerce with a substantial speed worldwide, similarly food industry has been noticed to
grow by the time. Researchers have used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) model to
study the online food ordering system. Ease and usefulness of the online ordering and
delivery services has been emphasized as a major factor towards the acceptance and growth
of these services.

Varsha Chavan et al. (2015) in their studies aimed to gauge the impact smart device based
interface on business management and service delivery have concluded them as a supporting
factor for restaurants in taking orders and delivering foods with more convenience. Author
shave stated online services as more convenient, user friendly and most effective tools for
food businesses.

Ansar Z. & Jain S. (2016) specified the growth in the ecommerce industry as prime factor
for the success of online food ordering and delivery services. Research has mentioned that
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more than 400 food delivery apps are nurturing in India with a funding of about $120 million
from venture capital firms and other such investors. Considering the fact that a minimum
3meals are consumed by each individual in a day the food industry is called as a
repetitive business industry which attracts the interest of investors and entrepreneurs towards
this growing business segment.

Leong Wai Hong (2016) in his studies has published the online food ordering and delivery
services as an efficient system to improve productivity and profitability of restaurants through
online marketing and business strategies.

H.S. Sethu & Bhavya Saini (2016) have wonderfully investigated the perception, behaviour
and satisfaction of students towards online food ordering and delivery services. The study
emphasized the online food ordering and delivery services helping students in time
management and having their favourite food at any time of the day. Researchers have also
revealed that easy access to internet as one of the supporting factor to the use of such
services by the students.

Philip Kotler et al. (1999) stated that the marketing strategy is the marketing logic by which
the business unit hopes to meet their marketing objectives. It is an endeavor by a corporation
to differentiate itself positively from its competitors, using its relative corporate
strengths to best satisfy customer demand in a given environmental setting. For an
organization, aim consumers are at the center of the marketing policy. The company
identifies the total market it wants to serve and splits it into smaller segments. It
then selects the most encouraging segments and focuses on serving customers.

Menon et al. (1999) proposed a model of antecedents to and outcomes of the

marketing strategy making the best process. Centralization, formalization and innovative
cultures act as antecedents to strategy making and conferring to the model situation
analysis, comprehensiveness, highlighting on marketing assets and capabilities, cross-
functional integration, a good communication quality, strategy consensus commitment,
and strategy resource commitment are the most important factors affecting strategy
formulation process. The outcomes of marketing strategy making process are the
creativity of strategy, organizational learning and market performance.

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Krishnan et al. (1999) reported that pricing strategy to be followed when the
distribution of product through two different channels one being a physical channel
and another an internet (online) channel. They developed a model of four network structures
to determine the optimal pricing strategy.

Andotra & Pooja (2007) conducted a study among selected customers of Small
Scale Industries (SSI) products of Jammu and Kashmir State with a focus on devising
marketing strategy with customer orientation. The scale consisted of factors contributing
to the four Ps (4Ps) of the marketing mix. The study concluded accentuating the
importance of assuming a simultaneous, multivariate analytical method to justify the
efforts to improve.

Maritz (2008) gave an empirical demonstration of the association of marketing factors

with that of the service quality. The study was conducted among the small business
sector that is showing a higher growth rate in Australia. The factors considered were Service
profit chain ingenuities, relationship marketing initiatives and best exercise initiatives and
their associations with service quality were studied. These prepositions were established
to have a positive and effective relationship with over fulfillment service quality.

Zaman et al. (2012) reported that organizational commitment, market orientation, business
performance, and data sources (top management, employees and annual reports) are the
main factors in the theoretical model when implementing the internal marketing
programs in organizations.

Hung and Tang (2012) conducted in-depth interviews with restaurant managers to identify
marketing strategies and activities for building brand equity about managerial strategies
such as product development with the best quality, customer service, restaurant ambiance,
and integrated marketing communication.

Cronin and Gilmore (2012) conducted a study among small business in the United State of
America to explore marketing doings pursued by them and to find out underlying factors that
noble competitiveness. The small business owners of a resort to formal and informal
networking as the key source of marketing. The study accomplishes that lack of marketing
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education and training is a major problem faced by the insignificant businesses.
A clear understanding of competition and market analysis can progress performance.
These businesses have been reported to formulate strategies extending only for a period of
only six months or less.

Mokhtar & Ismail (2012) stated that marketing strategies and the way business
Owners market their product is having a positive impact on business performance.
They conducted a study among Small and Marginal Enterprises in Malaysian, in which
the sample was categorized into two namely, high and low performing Small and
Marginal Enterprises based on annual sales and profits for three consecutive years.
This study identified the strategic difference between high and low performing units in
the same industry. The comparison is made with factors such as direct sales, out-of-
state sales, international sales, advertising frequency ,and effective promotional tools.
Most of the small business units have been observed to concentrate on short term as well as
long term business aims and strategies.

Boohene et al. (2012) stated that businesses traditionally concentrate on the finance
function while a focus on marketing strategies with better market orientation was lacking. A
coordinated marketing strategy that ensures high performance can be successfully
adopted by small businesses.

Oyedijo et al. (2012) conducted a survey among business owners and senior
marketing personnel of enterprises in Nigeria. Two constructs to evaluate the best
marketing practices and organizational performance of small business enterprises was
employed to determine the relationship between them. The study proposed a model
for assessing the impact of marketing activities on the performance of the firm. The
model has three components; marketing practices, performance (outcomes) and
the microenvironment of businesses and indicates that different marketing orientation results
in differing levels of performance.

George (2012) conducted a study on occasion based marketing strategies adopted by the
consumer durable segment in Kerala through content analysis of print-based media reveals
that sales promotion is undoubtedly the most important ingredient of strategy.

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Free gifts, price offs, contests, sweepstakes, exchange offers are the most popular
sales promotion strategies adopted by retailers and manufacturers of consumer durables
in Kerala.

Mokhtar (2013) conducted a study in Asian countries which revealed that the
enterprises considered growth strategy to be most important for business development
while adoption of strategy varied amongst the managers.

Ramaseshan & Ishak (2013)studied the interactive effects of marketing strategy

formulation and implementation upon firm performance in manufacturing service sector
of Indonesia. The factors, changes in technology and different market orientation were
found to have a negative influence on performance whereas credibility of the strategies
and market attractiveness were found to make a positive influence. The behavioural
aspects like the involvement of marketing managers and the presence of an innovative
culture within an organization influence the organizational commitment to a strategy
which positively influences strategy viability.

Poister & Edwards (2013) investigated the relationship between marketing

strategy formulation and performance by conducting a study among small and
medium-sized firms or enterprises in the United State and concluded that the firms
that concentrated on marketing strategy formulation performed better in the market.

Jemaiyo (2013) stated that the main aims of marketing strategies for business
leaders areto fill market needs, increase market share, and increase shareholder value.
Small, independent restaurant owners must improve stakeholder strategies to support
annual strategic initiatives and support in accomplishing opportunities for growth.

Maria et al. (2013) studied the influence of innovative organizational culture on

marketing strategy formulation and results and its mediating role on organizational
performance. The hypothesis was empirically tested in Brazilian companies using
structural equation modeling to establish the relationship between the constructs. Results
showed a positive relationship between the factors, while innovative culture did not have
a direct influence on the performance of the firm.

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Awan & Hashmi (2014) conducted a study among the SMEs in Pakistan and finds that these
Small Medium Enterprises are efficient and innovative in their operation, product
development and marketing strategies. The study categorizes Small Medium Enterprises
based on marketing variables such as modification, integrated marketing, customer focus,
and unique proposition. Market focused firms that are able to stay close to their customers
have a larger probability of survival than others.

Khan (2014) proposed that the small business executives should use pricing to
reinforce other marketing activities because although high price rate will lead to higher
profitability initially, higher prices may result in lower sales and profits in the long term.
Creating short-term and long-term marketing and advertising strategies that align with
strategic plans may help small business executives achieve profitability.

Tabaku and Mersini (2014) studied that by using the concept of marketing as an
adaptive strategy is crucial to ensure resources are available when implementing various
marketing activities.

Julio & Eugenia (2014) proposed a marketing strategy formulation model essentially
based on customer segmentation and value generation. The model is built based on
customer lifetime value, the current value of client loyalty and segments by self-organized
maps. The model was empirically tested in agro-industry in Colombia.

Liao et al. (2014) introduced a marketing strategy model for micro enterprises in Taiwan
based on resources and capabilities perspective. According to the model the micro
enterprises can adapt to any of five strategies namely, overall cost leadership, focus cost
leadership, cost leadership and differentiation, differentiation and focus differentiation based
on their product/ service and customers.

Harrison (2014) stated that strategic brand orientation has a positive impact on the
effectiveness of the marketing strategy.

Danziger et al. (2014) stated that price strategy plays a major influencing role in the
behavior of consumers in choosing a retailer store. The study was conducted among

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consumers in Israel and the results indicate that a consumer chose a retailer who offered an
everyday low pricing strategy and the retailer who offered price discounts.

Senapati (2014) published a case study of marketing in small business in India; the
study is based on the secondary data published by government organization which
assessed the existing marketing framework of the small business in India which includes
indenting agents, traders, third-party manufacturing, contract manufacturing, and tender
marketing and evaluated various marketing assistance programs by the government.
According to him, neglect of marketing practices is the major problem faced by these
businesses and the development of the innovative strategies for marketing of the units is the
need of the hour for growth and sustainability of the firm

Vadlamudi (2014) studied sales promotion activities of dairy products based on

preferences and satisfaction of consumers in the southern part of India through personal
interview. The promotion mix of the company was analyzed to find out the most effective
promotional element and celebrity endorsement was found to be the most effective.

Mishra (2015) analyzed marketing strategies of small scale milk producers in northern
parts of India based on the four Ps (4Ps) of marketing.

Astuti et al. (2015) studied the influences of the 7 Ps of marketing in determining appropriate
marketing strategy in Indonesia and price is found to be the most influencing variable. The
various pricing strategies considered in the study were, follow competitor pricing, odd
pricing, discount pricing and promotion pricing. According to the author, odd pricing is
the most appropriate strategy for psychologically influencing price-sensitive consumers.

Kamboj & Goyal (2015) revealed in their study of mediating role of marketing
capability, operations capability on financial performance among small business in India
that pricing strategy has a positive influence on the financial performance of the business.

Shohrowardhy (2015) studied the impact of marketing strategies on the business

performance of sachet products. The study was conducted in Bangladesh using a
scheduled questionnaire that measured the strategy constructs based on the Four Ps (4Ps)
of marketing and the relationship is established through multiple regression analysis.
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Promotional strategy influenced the sale of the product followed by pricing strategy.
Product strategy was found to be the least affecting factor.

Gokus (2015) studied the effect of prospectors and defenders strategies on the
performance of the firms that exhibited a negative relationship. Additionally, the study
established the mitigating role of market orientation on performance.

Sanjay Anandaram Advisor Sattva, Volunteer ISprit; Advisor SeedFund, Ideaspring,

Endiya, Ennovent, KARSEM says:
“While online kitchen businesses will raise money and continue to grow, the
real battle and fight will be between players like Zomato and Swiggy,”.

Sathish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst, Forrester Research, says:

“If you look at it even now, the game is of the big players. The funding is coming only for the
big guys. There is a market for food delivery and food tech, but now that the money is being
pumped deeply into one segment.”

According to a recent sectoral report published by IBEF

“food has been one of the largest segments in India’s retail sector, valued at$490 billion in
2013. The Indian food retail market is expected to reach Rs 61lakh crore ($894.98 billion) by
2020”.

Hart & Stapleton in the year 1977 says:

"a statement in very general terms of how the marketing objective is to be achieved, e.g.
acquiring a competitive company, by price reductions, by product improvement, or by
intensive advertising. The strategy becomes the basis of the marketing plan"

Nashwan mohammed Abdullah Saif , Wang Aimin School of Management, Wuhan

University of Technology, Wuhan, China say:
“In terms of the program perspective the marketing strategy standardization/adaptation is
important in the sense it can separate marketing
mix elements to be standardized or adapted in the international market. “

According to Chavan et al., (2015)

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digital restaurant uses smart phones to take customer orders. PDA interface was replaced with
smart phones to provide customer user interface to view menu or track their orders. With
secured login system, customers have the facility to view menu, place orders, track their
orders, receive real time updates and make online payment and collect receipts from smart
phone itself increasing customer comfort.

according to Dwyer and Welsh (1985)

Marketing channel strategies refer to the choice of structure in designing the distribution
channel by manufacturers. They also include influence strategies which refer to content,
frequency and intensity of communications intended to achieve demonstration of favourable
behaviours by their channel partners.

Bhavik Rathod, Head of UberEATS India, says:

“It is a huge opportunity. The unorganised food delivery is still $80 billion. And
one of the reasons it is so attractive is a problem - can you bring the cost of delivery down so
low that the economics actually become super viable? Today with better technology it is
easier to bring the cost of delivery lower with a
sizeable business.”

Business competitors/strategic competitors

Porter (1980) reported that much competitive information is bounded by the

assumptions that managers have with admiration to their industry and these conventions may
lead to blind spots. The outcome of such blind spots may cause the tactician to not recognize
the significance of events, interpret them unsuitably, or see them only slowly.

Day (1994) stated that beneath a competitor’s marketplace strategy lie the organization
and the functional operations and processes that make the best strategy possible. If the
rival is rational, then its marketplace strategy will have been built around those functions and
activities where it is competitively advantaged versus competitors.

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MacMillan et al. (2003) defined an approach to estimate the competitor’s reactiveness
to a competitive move on an actual product in a given geographical market and the relative
clout it has with which to respond to the competitive move. Reactiveness is simply the
competitor’s incentive to pledge competitive moves. It can be measured by assessing the
impact (revenues, profits, etc.) that the product carries in that market and that it
conveys to the business unit of which it is a part adjusted for the tactical importance
of the product and market to the competitor.

Coyne et al. (2009) defined the more practical terms for the strategist; this means working
two moves ahead-estimating whether the entrant would see its action choices as leading to
more or less effective countermoves. Game theory provides one agenda for analyzing
the situation. The main point, however, is to endeavor to calculate the relative economic
implications of the competitor's possible responses. A second tactic suggests that one
analyze the past effectiveness of the participant's marketing mix elements. As theory
would recommend, a competitor's response to, say, the market access of a new
product will be to accept the approach that has shown the utmost response elasticity
in the past.

Consumer satisfaction

Oliver (1977) defined “The level of satisfaction is the consumer’s main completion of
the response. It is a decision that any product or any service feature, or the main product
or service itself, a favourable level of consumption-related execution, including levels of
under-or over-fulfilment”.

Oliver (1981) described in his study that customer satisfaction is a major part of
marketing and play an important role in the market. In any organization satisfaction
of the customer is more important, because if your customers pleased with your
facilities or products, your position will be increased in the market. In old times
consumer satisfaction was not too much important and people were not concentrated on the
quality of the product. But now a day’s rivalry is tough and customer is attentive of all the
products and companies due to education and learning atmosphere and this is the reason that
every business is a concern to fulfil properly customers need and wants.

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Westbrook and Reilly (1983) stated customer satisfaction as “an emotional response
to the experiences provided by, associated with particular 32 products or facilities
purchased, retail outlets, or even molar outlines of behaviour such as spender and
buyer behaviour, as wellas the overall market place”

Oliver (1993) suggested that customer satisfaction is the core philosophy of the
marketing strategy of any organization and it plays a key role in organizational
growth and success. In fact, customer satisfaction is the core opinion of the modern
tool of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) being used by marketers to appeal and
retain customers.

Zeithaml (1985) stated that customer satisfaction is a scale with multiple

parameters good validity and reliability, many researchers use this instrument to
appreciate and find the service expectation and consumer’s perception for refining the service
quality. The anticipation of a customer is an important factor. The more service value
is near to customer expectation more satisfaction and vice versa.

Tse and Wilton (1988) stated that “the consumer’s response to the evaluation of the
perceived discrepancy between prior prospects (or some other norm of performance) and the
actual performance of the product/service as perceived after its consumption” .

Berry and Parasuraman (1991) reported that customers’ satisfaction is affected by the
availability of customer services, the provision of quality customer service and has
become a major concern of all businesses. Customer satisfaction is typically defined as a
post-consumption evaluative judgment concerning a specific product or service. It is the
consequence of an evaluative process that contrasts pre-purchase expectations with
perceptions of performance during and after the consumption experience.

Anderson, Fornell, and Lehmann (1994) stated that there is a significant

relationship between customer satisfaction and economic profit for the company.
Arguably, customer satisfaction is an important component in order for the company
to be more profitable.

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Fornell et al. (1996) defined customer satisfaction with three manifest variables:
customer satisfaction as a whole, as an estimation how ex-19 expectations were fulfilled, and
as a comparison with the ideal service or product. They believe this choice is
consistent with the orientation of American consumer satisfaction index.

Woodruff and Gardian (1996) defined “Satisfaction as the estimate or feeling that
consequences from the disconfirmation process. It is not the assessment itself (i.e., the
disconfirmation process), but it is the customer’s response to the comparison.
Satisfaction has an emotional component.”
Anton (1996) stated,
“customer satisfaction as a state of mind in which the
customer’s needs, wants and prospects throughout the product or service life have been
met or exceeded, resulting in consecutive repurchase and loyalty”.

Thorsten and Alexander (1997) found Customer consummation with the product and
services of the company as the strategic factor for reasonable advantage. In the context
of relationship marketing, customer gratification is the way that leads to long term
customer retention because unsatisfied customers have very high switching rate.

Zairi (2000) the sensation of pleasure and expectation fulfilment is known as

Satisfaction. If the product will not gratify customer feelings they will be dissatisfied, and
if product satisfied them after the use client will be satisfied and become faithful to that
product or brand. In other words, customer gratification is goods or facilities which fulfil
the customer hope in terms of quality and service for which he paid. If Customer’s
satisfaction advances they will become loyal to that product or product and their
allegiance will be good for the company in sense as a Profit. Customer’s satisfaction is
part of marketing and plays an important role in the market. In any organization
satisfaction of the customer is more significant, because if your customer is pleased with
your services or products, your position will be respectable in the market.

Ranaweera and Prabhu(2003) stated that the more satisfied customers are, the greater
is their retention, the positive word of mouth created through them and the financial
benefits to the firms who serve them. It is not surprising therefore that the essential

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aim of firms is to seek to manage and surge customer satisfaction at least in this era of
reasonable global marketing.

Zeithaml et al. (2003) defined satisfaction as the customer’s valuation of a product or

facility in terms of whether the product or service has met his needs or expectations.
Failure to meet needs results in dissatisfaction, or a pathetic perception of the service
quality. Satisfaction can be acknowledged in various senses depending on what needs
the customer had before the service; it ranges from feelings of fulfillment,
contentment, pleasure, delight, relief, and ambivalence. Although it tends to be measured as a
static quantity, it is dynamic and evolves over time being influenced by a variety of factors.
Schiffman and Kanuk (2004) defined customer satisfaction as “The individual’s
observation of the presentation of the product or service in relation to own prospects”.

Kotler and Keller (2006) defined satisfaction as a person’s feeling of delight or

disappointment which resulted from comparing a product’s perceived performance or
resultant against his/ her expectations.

Kurniawan (2010) stated that branding is one of the factors which has been
identified repeatedly customer choice in the selected product. Branding has an impact on
the purchase decision of consumers. The more a brand is prospered in their earlier period
the more value for its brand can be generated.

Lim (2010) revealed that for the customer it is not necessary that better class can be a better
taste if customer like the taste of the food he/she will be willing to pay for it. Based on prior
research, there is a significant correlation between customer satisfaction and taste.
Researcher found that Good taste of food has a positive influence on customer’s
satisfaction and it also increases the customer’s retention rate which also depends upon
customer’s satisfaction. Therefore, restaurants focus is on the taste of the food and services
that have an influence on customer’s satisfaction.

Rajasekaran, B and Saravanan, P. A. (2014) studied consumer satisfaction on fast-moving

consumer goods which focused on the attitudes, values, perception, and belief of the
consumers with regards to the intake of fast moving consumer goods. To study the

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brand liking of fast moving consumer goods, the preference and opinion of the consumer to
popular brands have been taken into consideration.

Consumer Preference

Lohse and Spiller (1999) studied on online shopping and it was found that online shopping
is a result of ease of access to greater amounts of information that helps in customer
decision making and increases market penetration for the merchants.

Smith and Rupp (2003) in the study entitled “Strategic online consumer decision making
leveraging the transformational power of the internet” concludes that age is the important
factor which determinant for online purchase intentions. They argued that older people who
had no frequent interactions with the internet and the computer would not use the internet as a
medium for purchases while the youth would.

Allred and Swinyard (2006) in the study entitled “E-shopping lovers and fearful
conservatives: a market segmentation analysis” and found that online consumer tends to have
the following characteristics: younger, wealthier, better educated having a higher
computer literacy and are bigger retail spenders.

Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI, 2006) conducted the study in
collaboration with cross tab marketing services, clearly established the dominance of
people-to-people (P2P) reference in online shopping space, with 31 percent respondents
finding such sites through word of mouth. As much as 55 per cent visitors to e-commerce
sites have adopted the internet as a shopping medium, out of which 25 per cent of regular
shoppers are in the 18-25 age group, while 46 per cent in the 26-35 age group and 18 percent
in the 35-45 age group.

Prasad and Aryasri (2009) have studied that the determinants of shop behaviour such
as convenience, customer service, trust, web store situation, and web shopping
enjoyment and examine the effect of these factors towards online buying behaviour.

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Dahiya (2012) found that online shopping is a recent phenomenon in the field of online
business and is definitely going to be upcoming of shopping in the world. Most of the
companies are successively their online portals to sell their products/services online. Though
online shopping is very mutual outside India, its growth in the Indian Market, which
is a large and tactical consumer market, is still not in line with the universal market.
The potential growth of online shopping has activated the idea of conducting a study
on online shopping in India. The results of the study reveal that online shopping in India is
significantly affected by various demographic actors like age, gender, educational
qualification, marital status, family size,and income. The results of the study could be
further used by the investigators and practitioners for conducting future studies in a
similar area. Realizing the significance of e-commerce, companies would like to discover
more business opportunities and to bring back more customers. As such, it is very
important to understand consumers’ e-commerce adoption behaviour and their online
shopping behaviour. This is believed to be different from their behaviour in the
traditional shopping environment. Thus, there is a need for the theory of consumer online
shopping behaviour.

Problem Statement

A lot of food delivery companies have been engaged in the marketing of online
delivery of food.Hence, consumers have many options to choose from. In this situation, a
study on consumer behaviour was reasoned to be relevant to understand the buying
behaviour and many kinds of preferences of different consumers. Comprehending the
consumer behaviour would help the firms in developing strategies to cater to the
requirements of the consumer and thereby upsurge their market share. Consumer‘s taste,
preference, and satisfaction were found to change rapidly, and it is necessary to
understand these changes. Keeping in view the importance of consumer buying behaviour
and their consumption pattern, determination of various strategies regarding product
development, marketing, and pricing aspects, and the present study was undertaken with
the following objectives.

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Objectives of the Study

The following objectives were framed to achieve the goal of the thesis:

1.Understanding different marketing strategies of two major Indian players inthe aggregator
food-tech sector.

2.To find out the comparative analysis of marketing strategies between Swiggy and
Zomato before COVID-19.

3. To find out the comparative analysis of marketing strategies between Swiggy and
Zomato after COVID-19.

4.To study the SWOT analysis of both the company.

Scope of the Study

This study was conducted within India. The study mainly focuses on Swiggy &
Zomato food delivery websites and applications and analysing the marketing strategy
opted by these companies before the pandemic and what all the changes the came up with
during the pandemic to attract customer and keep their sail going . The study concentrates on
statistics of online food delivery website/ applications in India namely Zomato and Swiggy.
Hence, this study would help in understanding the market share and marketing strategies,
awareness level, promotional tactics during pandemic of the customers in India.

It will give a broad picture of the pre and post pandemic marketing and promotional tactics of
online food product websites/applications among consumers, future scope, and knowledge
about the leading market players. This study throws light on understanding the factors of
these companies that let the customers have brand loyalty and engage with it even during
pandemic which will help the online food delivery companies in developing future

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marketing strategies, in making modifications in present products and developing new
ones and in their pricing, packaging and delivery decisions.

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