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Zomato, Swiggy remove 'rain fee waiver' for loyalty members as profit pressure mounts
Users of Zomato Gold and Swiggy One will now have to pay extra charges for deliveries during bad weather, just like non-members.
Over the past few months, Zomato and Swiggy have introduced new ways to increase order-level earnings.
Zomato and Swiggy have quietly removed a key benefit from their loyalty programmes, the waiver of surge fees during rain. Users of Zomato Gold and Swiggy One will now have to pay extra charges for deliveries during bad weather, just like non-members.
Until recently, these loyalty members were exempt from such fees. But updates on both apps now show that this perk has been discontinued. Despite paying for membership, customers won’t get any weather-related fee waivers anymore.
This move comes as both food delivery giants face growing pressure from investors to boost profits. While their food delivery arms are profitable, both companies are spending heavily on their quick commerce businesses, which are still loss-making. To offset those losses, they're trying to earn more from food delivery, their most reliable source of revenue.
Over the past few months, Zomato and Swiggy have introduced new ways to increase order-level earnings. For example, they started charging a platform fee, which has steadily increased from Rs 2 per order to Rs 10 in many areas. That might not seem like much per user, but when multiplied across over 2 million daily orders, it adds up to Rs 2 crore in extra daily revenue per company.
In Q4 FY25, Eternal (formerly Zomato) posted a 78% year-on-year drop in profit after tax (PAT), bringing in Rs 39 crore compared to Rs 175 crore in the same quarter last year. This also reflects a decline from the Rs 59 crore PAT it recorded in Q3 FY25. Meanwhile, Swiggy's financial performance continued to worsen, with net losses rising to Rs 1,081.18 crore in Q4 FY25, nearly doubling from the Rs 554.77 crore loss it posted in Q4 FY24.
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