Zomato announces new feature for cash on delivery orders and it can help solve a huge problem

Think of this. You have ordered food online and have marked it as cash on delivery. The delivery person arrives and the bill amount is Rs 488. You hand over Rs 500 to the delivery person and there’s that commonly heard phrase, “change nahi hai kya.” Most of us have been in situations like these and now that UPI payments are more common than ever, hardly anyone seems to be carrying change.

Food delivery giant Zomato seems to have found a solution to this problem. The company’s CEO Deepinder Goyal announced in a post on X that delivery partners can now add COD orders’ balance amount to a customer’s Zomato Money account instantly. That way, nobody has to worry about carrying change.

Zomato CEO has answer to your change problems

In his post on X, Goyal wrote, “For cash on delivery orders, finding exact change can sometimes be inconvenient. Starting today, our customers can pay delivery partners in cash, and ask for the balance amount to be added instantly to their Zomato Money account. This balance can be used towards future delivery orders or dining out.”

Goyal also acknowledged that this idea was inspired by Tata group-owned Big Basket. “Thank you @bigbasket_com for the inspiration for this solution, and our delivery partners (three of them are working as product managers with us) for insisting that we develop this asap,” he wrote.

Zomato earns crores from platform fee

Zomato was also making headlines earlier this week for raking in a lot of moolah by charging platform fees.

The company started charging platform fees in August last year and this has proved to be a successful business move. During its annual report, Zomato revealed that it has collected Rs 83 crore till March from levying platform fee.

For the unversed, platform fee is a small additional charge that the company adds to your order. Think of it as a convenience fee for using the app's services, including delivery, customer support, and the seamless experience of browsing through hundreds of restaurant options.

Initially, the company used to levy Rs 2 per order as platform fee. But that amount has grown in the last year and today Zomato charges Rs 6 as platform fee in key areas. It can be located when you load the bill details of your order.