Zomato Gold, the food delivery unicorn’s customer loyalty program, could make a comeback soon. The subscription service, which was shelved earlier this year along with the ‘Zomato Pro’ membership, was expected to be re-launched. Now, CEO Deepinder Goyal has confirmed via a tweet, a sooner-than-expected launch in early 2023.
While this development is not set in stone, Zomato’s founder and CEO stirred the waters with a subtle hint in a tweet. It simply read “Back soon!” and features a GIF of Zomato Gold.
Back soon! 👑 pic.twitter.com/Mm9o6bmbj8
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) December 29, 2022
If the Gold membership offering makes a comeback to the food delivery platform, then it will pick up from where it left before it had to be unceremoniously discontinued. Launched five years ago, the membership program used to let members once again have access to exclusive discounts and offers such as 1+1 on food and 2+2 on beverages at partner restaurants, which enables diners to get a free dish or free drinks as well.
But while getting exclusive deals at restaurants, bars, and pubs that Zomato has partnered with sounds like a great deal for diners, the same could not be said for the restaurants. In fact, there were several instances of restaurants opting out of the Zomato Gold program due to facing problems and having to bear the costs of the discounts.
This resulted in Zomato Gold getting a revamp and an upgrade three years after its launch – 2020 saw Zomato upgrade the service from Gold to Pro, and all members of the Zomato Gold program were automatically upgraded to the Pro service from August 1, 2020. At that time, the firm said that it hoped that “Pro can be one of the most important levers to drive growth and help restaurant businesses cover up the losses incurred in the last few months,” even as diners put a halt on eating out due to the pandemic.
The food delivery aggregator further added to its arsenal of loyalty programs with the launch of Zomato Pro Plus in the following year, which was available to a handful of users in the beginning and on an invite-only basis. It included, among others, unlimited free deliveries. However, Zomato stopped onboarding new members and merchants for its Pro and pro Plus programs and discontinued them both this year.
