Introducing "Order Scheduling" from Zomato

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Oct 29, 2024 — 2 min read

Introducing Order Scheduling from Zomato

Zomato, a well-known online meal ordering service in India, has added a new feature that will allow users to plan and pre-order their meals. The newly introduced feature is a replica of Swiggy's food scheduling model. Zomato claims that the new feature, called "Order Scheduling," allows customers "complete control over when their food is delivered" by enabling them to plan deliveries from two hours to two days in advance. More than 35,000 eateries in 30 cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Raipur, Ahmedabad, and others, presently provide this new feature.

Zomato Order Scheduling: How To Do It?

Zomato's new Order Scheduling function can be accessed by opening the app and selecting the "Schedule" option under the "All Restaurants" section in the Delivery page. Zomato will provide a selection of nearby eateries when users tap on it and choose their favourite time and day.

Put the desired food in the cart now. Users will see a card on the bill summary page that reads, "This is a scheduled delivery," and it will inform them that their order will be ready a few minutes prior to the time of delivery. The app lets customers cancel their order up to three minutes prior to the planned time if they need to change their plans or don't want the meal to be delivered.

Only Restaurants Adhering to Strict Timelines Will Be Featured in Order Scheduling

Restaurants that have regularly followed kitchen preparation times will be added, according to Zomato, and they will be informed in advance so that they have enough time to prepare and deliver the order. Prior to the introduction, Zomato began testing the functionality of this feature in August of this year, but it was only available in a few cities and was only available for deliveries totalling INR 1,000 or more.

Will Restaurants Benefit From the New Feature?

Customers and Zomato's restaurant partners both benefit from the Order Scheduling tool. Restaurants can better manage their capacity during dull times and possibly increase their continuous stream of orders by enabling pre-scheduled orders.

Staff members don't need any extra training or process adjustments because Zomato has designed the feature to blend in perfectly with the restaurant's current operations. Notably, restaurants can maintain effective stock and preparation management by selecting which menu items are accessible for planned orders. This increases the service's dependability by lowering the likelihood that some things will be unavailable during busy or planned periods.

Making Sure Everything Runs Smoothly

Zomato has put in place particular measures for order scheduling in order to preserve dependability and timeliness. In order to give these restaurants enough time to prepare orders, the Gurugram-based startup gives them proactive alerts prior to the scheduled delivery time. Additionally, restaurants can choose which items can be ordered in advance, reducing the possibility of last-minute shortages or substitutes.