This article is written by Shyna Narula pursuing a Diploma in Business Laws for In-House Counsels from Lawsikho.

Introduction

–Never have a bad meal, Zomato

In 2008, Zomato was founded which is as of now one of the leading restaurant searches & discovery, restaurant table reservations and online food ordering. Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah founded the company and it is headquartered in Gurugram. 

Zomato is amongst those few companies which have gone global after starting its operations in India. Zomato has been a successful venture from its beginning and has come a long way. Currently, Zomato features more than a million restaurants globally. 

It all started in 2008 when the founders noticed that people weren’t even aware of the restaurants that are functional in their locality/ neighbourhood. They eventually thought of an idea to list all the restaurants on the internet along with their menus. This led to them launching FoodieBay in 2008. This start-up was initially catered to Delhi- NCR region but after its gained popularity, it was implemented across the country. 

In 2010, FoodieBay was transformed into Zomato in a rebranding exercise. Since then, Zomato has been expanded tremendously globally. It has international operations and covers more than 10,000 locations across 24 countries. Zomato has a million customers from all over the world who keeps on exploring restaurants for delivery or dine in.

The number of restaurant listings on Zomato globally has grown from 1.2million in September 2018 to 1.5 million in September 2019. Almost half of the increase comes from India alone.

The benefits of Zomato restaurant registration

Zomato gives an opportunity to all the restaurants to have a platform where their menus, photos, reviews, speciality etc are provided. Zomato helps small businesses and low laid businesses (restaurants) to come into the eyes of the customers. It is also a source for restaurant reviews and table bookings. A wide range of coverage is provided which would rather be an issue if not marketed well.

Upon registration, all the restaurants are provided with various marketing benefits. According to the following graphs and Zomato annual reports, there has been a huge increase in the restaurant’s registration on Zomato. Thousands of new restaurants have registered themselves in the past year on Zomato in India itself. Zomato, the biggest chain in the food ordering and restaurant discovery business in India, has benefitted both restaurants and customers over the years.

Legal formalities for registering a restaurant on Zomato

The process for registering a restaurant under Zomato involves the following two ways, i.e.:

1. Adding restaurant to the Zomato Restaurant listing
2. Obtaining a Registration on Zomato for Business app

Add Restaurant on Zomato Restaurant listing

If just in case the restaurant doesn’t exist already on the Zomato site, one can add it themselves. By default, the sole fields that are supposed to be added for a listing are the restaurant’s name, the city in which it is located, and whether or not the applicant/sis/are the owner or manager of the said location.

If any restaurant isn’t found on Zomato Listing, the owner or the user can follow the given steps:

Step 1: To feature a particular restaurant under Zomato, visit the Add Restaurant Link and fill the registration form with the restaurant name and mention phone number & city etc.

Step 2: Thereafter click on Add Restaurant to add the restaurant to the Zomato Listing.

There are additional requisites and fields to be filled out, they are all optional. However, providing as many details as possible could obviously help current and future customers. A number of these optional details include the following:

• Address/landmark
• Map coordinates of the restaurant
• Payment options
• Cuisine served
• Hours of operation
• Services provided (Lunch, Dinner, Nightlife, etc.)
• Seating availability (if available, specify whether it is indoor or outdoor)
• Contact information 

As one submits the form, an executive from Zomato will collect all the documents PAN Card, Copy of FSSAI registration, Aadhar card, pictures of restaurant &etc. A proper verification later, the name of the restaurants are added to Zomato Website.

Register Restaurant with Zomato business app?

Step 1: To get Zomato restaurant registration for the Business app, visit the Zomato app link for business.

Step 2: Search your restaurant within the search bar provided on the site to verify whether the restaurant is listed on the Zomato app or not.

If the restaurant is listed within the Zomato listing then click on it to claim the listing.

In another case, (if a restaurant isn’t available on Zomato) then Add Restaurant to Zomato business listings by following the steps mentioned within the ‘How to Add Restaurant on Zomato’ section.

Step 3: Post adding and claiming the restaurant scroll down below and go to the Business page where a registration form will be available.

Step 4: Fill the form out by mentioning the restaurant name, the owner’s name, contact number, e-mail address and locality. Then click on Submit.

Step 5: After successful submission, an executive from Zomato will contact the restaurant to verify the details provided. On verifying the account, Zomato for a business account will be activated.

Zomato business app

1. Before using Zomato for Business App, claim the listing.
2. Download the app and log in by claiming the listing.
3. Start managing the restaurant directly from any device.

The registered partner can achieve the following with the Business App.

• Answer to reviews directly and also get real-time notifications.
• Manage and update your listing’s information online directly through your device.
• Promote your business with promos on Zomato.
• Upload your special menu directly through the app.
• Promote any events like musical events, food festivals etc. that are hosted in the restaurant.

Guidelines for restaurant

Restaurant name

Users of the app search for and identify the places in order to eat or order by using Restaurant names.

• Names of the restaurant must be written on Zomato as they seem to appear on the board of the restaurant.
• Restaurant establishment types and also taglines (unless the name of the restaurant is registered with its tagline) shouldn’t be mentioned along with the name of the restaurant on Zomato.
• No restaurant abbreviations in the restaurant name are accepted on Zomato.

Restaurant address

The restaurant address is to guide the diners and delivery assistants to the restaurant.

• The address of the Restaurant shall be in a very standardized format in order to be easily understood by the users and for consistency.
• Adding more than one landmark shall be avoided, and there shall be no use of abbreviations.
• Adding other restaurant names as landmarks can affect searching results for any other restaurant.

Restaurant features

A diner looks for a particular facility when deciding about where to dine or get delivery from. These are called attribute tags on Zomato.

• The Pure Veg (no meat and egg) tag is used for restaurants that serve only vegetarian food
• The smoking Area tag is marked only for restaurants that have a separate smoking area as well as a non-smoking section.
• Happy Hours are exclusively for restaurants that serve alcohol and that offer special offers or discounted rates during a period in the day.
• Wi-Fi Available is marked if the diners can use Wi-Fi services at the restaurant and not only by the management.

Business hours

The operational hours of a restaurant are added so that the customers can plan up their visits at a convenient time and in accordance with the restaurant timings.

Photos

A photostream of any restaurant gives diners/ customers an idea about what to expect from a restaurant in terms of ambience, service, and food.

• Food shots are the images of food curated by the specific restaurant
• No images with people in the frame shall be put up.
• Ambience/food shots that are stock images, or taken from Google Images/other websites is put up, as that would be copyright infringement.
• OnlyJPEG and PNG file formats for photo uploads are supported.
• A single image can only contain a particular single photo. Photo collages shall be avoided.
• The Images where logos and social media handles take up a significant portion of the image are not used to avoid the notion of promoting restaurants.

Menus

Diners/ customers rely more on the menus on Zomato when deciding where to eat or what to order, and also to know how much it might cost them.

• Only the relevant portion of the restaurant’s menu should be kept on the page
• Order for menu pages shall be maintained similar to the way a customer would read through a menu: [Appetizers/soups] — [Entrées] — [Main course] — [Desserts]
• Putting up menus without prices should be avoided as it affects a user’s decision. The menu must definitely include the names of all the dishes and their prices along with it, as it helps users get an idea of how much they will spend at that particular restaurant.

Conclusion

New entrepreneurs running restaurants through Zomato can initiate their small business and make some profit as Zomato is a great platform for diners/ customers to find their restaurants. People who are especially trying to establish their businesses can try this method to enter the market. Zomato is that platform that is used by so many people around the globe. By adhering to Zomato’s registration policies and requisites, one can register their restaurants and let the people know about their ventures.  

References

1. https://www.zomato.com/blog/h1-fy2020-report
2. https://www.zomato.com/blog/annual-report-19
3. https://www.zomato.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ZOMATO_AR_FY2020_Q1FY211.pdf?update=1
4. https://fssaiindia.in/fssai-food-safety-license-registration-for/zomato/
5. https://www.reviewtrackers.com/blog/zomato-restaurant-registration/

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