Paytm launches ‘contactless dining’ feature, Zomato ups the game and makes it free for six months

• Paytm has introduced a ‘contactless dining’ feature for restaurants just days after foodtech unicorn Zomato launched a similar feature for the post covid world.
• Both Zomato and Paytm are offering a QR code for scanning the menu and payments.
• Now both Zomato and Paytm are out in the market trying to onboard restaurants.

Indian digital payments leader Paytm has introduced a ‘contactless dining’ feature for restaurants just days after foodtech unicorn Zomato launched a similar feature for the post covid world.

Paytm said it has innovated a unique QR for restaurants. “Our users will be able to scan this QR from their Paytm app to browse the menu and place instant orders, thereby avoiding the need to touch the menu card which could be unsanitized and also minimizing interaction with the servers,” said the company’s official blog.

But it’s not too different from Zomato’s contactless dining feature which also involves the scanning of a QR code, and payment through the app. “Contactless Dining is a step forward in the right direction for the restaurant industry; this will provide for a better and hassle free dining experience for customers, and also improve the economics of the restaurant industry – by helping bring down manpower costs, as well as reducing the table turnover time,” said Zomato’s blog.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Tuesday said that the company has made its ‘contactless dining free for all restaurants across India and other global destinations for a period of at least six months.

And now both Zomato and Paytm are out in the market trying to onboard restaurants. While Zomato already has a user base of lakhs of restaurants across the country, Paytm said that it is in the process of onboarding one lakh restaurants.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the restaurant industry as social distancing norms meant people stayed away from crowded gatherings and then with the lockdown, restaurants had to close doors.

Even after the lockdown, restaurants will see fewer crowds as people will tend to be careful and stay home.

In such a scenario, restaurants will have to quickly innovate to be up and running while ensuring safety and contactless dining seems to be a step in the same direction.

“All restaurants will have to rethink operations to suit these post-COVID sensibilities of their customers. For the restaurant industry, the pace of recovery will be governed by how quickly it can restore consumer confidence and trust,” said Zomato’s official blog.

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Zomato announces contactless dining with QR codes and digital payments in a post-lockdown world