Exclusive: Zomato suspends its first paid subscription service ‘Zomato Treats’

Zomato has put a brake on its first ever paid subscription service Zomato Treats after running it for over 18 months. Priced at 249 a year, Zomato Treats used to offer free dessert on every online order. While the company will keep delighting existing subscriber but it’s suspended subscription service for new users.

The suspension of subscription comes at a time when Zomato’s rival Swiggy integrated Delight that promises free dessert from select restaurants to Swiggy Super subscribers. Last week, Entrackr had exclusively reported about bundling of Delight into Swiggy Super.

While Zomato hasn’t given any new figures for Treats subscribers recently, according to an ET report, it had about 2,50,000 subscribers till July this year.

The Alibaba-backed foodtech major has confirmed the suspension of Zomato Treats subscription to Entrackr.

"We are in the process of adding many more features to it and revamping our overall loyalty and subscription offering. While we do this, we have suspended fresh sign-ups for Zomato Treats. However, all existing members continue to enjoy the benefits associated with the program,” said a company’s spokesperson via an email.

Since the beginning of this year, Zomato has a stellar ride with subscriptions including Gold and Piggybank. While Piggybank has been able to attract over 1 million members who placed over 2 million orders using Z coins within two months of launch, Zomato Gold also sold like a hotcake.

Unlike Zomato that has been rolling out separate subscription programmes, Swiggy has been bundling several programmes into one – Swiggy Super.

Until the last financial year, food delivery business was dominated by Swiggy. However, Zomato has impressed with its meteoric rise. With a mere 3.5 million deliveries a month at the beginning of this FY, Zomato had claimed 21 million monthly order run rate and lead over Swiggy.

Although Zomato had stopped free sign-up to Treats, it’s expected to package it with Piggybank in future. Since Swiggy and Zomato are slated to add more benefits to subscription programmes, consumers will have more reasons to subscribe them.