Will Rebel Foods' food delivery app EatSure find its niche in an industry dominated by players like Swiggy-Zomato?

When we have food cravings, we may end up going for all sorts of combos - like manchow soup with mutton biryani. Especially, while ordering in a group, a person may want to have a burger, while another may want a chicken bhuna roll or garlic bread.

People find it difficult to zero in on one restaurant, especially during group ordering of food online. In such a situation, most people tend to compromise on their choice of food and end up ordering from one restaurant.

In order to address this consumer pain point, online restaurant brand Rebel Foods launched an ‘omnichannel platform’, called EatSure, in 2020. It allows users to order from multiple restaurants in a single order, without any delivery charges.

EatSure houses multiple Rebel and non-Rebel restaurants. It has just rolled out its first 360-degree campaign, titled #FoodcourtOnAnApp, created by Leo Burnett India. The campaign highlights how the platform is a solution to modern day food ordering issues.

Speaking to afaqs! about the platform, Sagar Kochhar, co-founder, Rebel Foods, says that in 2014, the brand pioneered the cloud kitchen format. It then wanted to look into the food and beverage (F&B) space from the lens of a consumer.

He explains, “When we see the F&B industry, it’s not just about ordering a burger or a pizza. The opportunity size in this industry is massive. Consumers move between a two-by-two grid that includes regular and indulgence means on one axis, and singular and group orders on the other. They move on this grid, and that was the holy grail of us when we decided to come up with EatSure, ”

Keeping this insight in mind, Rebel Foods wanted to move beyond the basic brick and motor restaurants. “EatSure wasn’t looking at different offerings for different needs and use cases,” adds Kochhar.

The two ad films in the campaign speak to two target groups. One highlights food ordering problems that a person in a group faces. The other one highlights food ordering problems that an entire family faces.

Speaking about the platform’s audience, Kochhar points out, “Our target group is pretty broad, because ultimately this is a problem that a college going student faces, as well as family members. People aged between 18 and 40 years form EatSure’s TG. The problem accentuates when people are ordering in a group. That is when users should think of our platform as the go-to one.”

EatSure hosts Rebel brands like Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Oven Story, Mandarin Oak, Firangi Bake, Lunch Box, The Good Bowl, Sweet Truth and The Biryani Life as well as non-Rebel ones, like Anand Sweets, Mad Over Donuts, Naturals Ice Cream, etc. “Rebel Foods has also taken license for some global brands, like Wendy's that happens to be the third-largest burger brand globally. In just a year, we have been able to expand Wendy’s to 82 locations,” informs Kochhar.

When asked how EatSure is different from other food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato, he says that the core strength of conventional players is to pick up a product from point A and deliver it to point B. He believes that in the F&B space, there are very few players who are trying to solve a lot of problems.

In the entire food delivery experience, sometimes, the dessert may reach you before the starter. Paying multiple delivery fees is another hassle. EatSure was launched to address these specific pain points of online food delivery ecosystem.

“We are not trying to go after every other use case by being very sharp and focused on our offering of ‘food court on an app’. The entire campaign is also focused on acquiring more users. We don’t want to dilute our offering by trying to go after different value networks, like single meal orderers. We are only focused on the key problem that the platform is addressing,” states Kochhar.

EatSure can be accessed through the website as well as its mobile application. Most consumers use the app for ordering, as it’s more convenient.

The platform currently operates 450-plus kitchens in over 70 cities in 10 countries. It hosts about 4,000 Internet restaurants. EatSure follows precautionary and safety measures across its kitchens. It has stringent checks, zero artificial flavourings, medically-certified kitchen and delivery staff, and so on.

Both BTL and ATL will be a part of the campaign’s media mix. Using TV, digital and OOH, the campaign aims to create a whole new ‘food court on an app’ category by focusing on its core strength of ‘no-compromise orders’.

“Since it is a new category creation that Rebel Foods is doing with EatSure, our job is exciting, but it also becomes a lot more challenging. By delivering our message across mediums, our aim is to reach out to more people to increase our user base,” concludes Kochhar.

Expert Analysis:

According to brand strategist Jasravee Kaur Chandra, EatSure is an attempt to bring all Rebel Foods’ brands under one umbrella in a separate app. It also aims to encourage customers to buy directly from their app and not through Zomato/Swiggy (which charge 30 to 40 per cent commission).

“The savings on delivery costs would be attractive for price-conscious customers. The customers may also end up saving on inflated prices on the Zomato app where in certain cases prices of the same dish on Zomato could be higher versus the printed price on the restaurant’s menu card. We have seen this trend in the case of Domino’s which gets a lot of orders directly on its app,” mentions Chandra.

She points out that Swiggy’s annual ordering trend (top orders per city) had no mention of pizza as the top-ordered food in any Indian city. Obviously, this doesn’t imply that people didn’t eat pizza. It just meant that most people moved to native apps of pizza companies. A quantum jump in Domino’s Pizza app downloads was also witnessed.

EatSure may also see a lot of traction, believes Chandra. However, a large chunk of customers will still go to Zomato and Swiggy for a wide variety of restaurant brands that they may offer or for items that aren't available on EatSure (say a Dal Khichdi).

“While platforms like Zomato and Swiggy offer discoverability, restaurants’ own apps like EatSure or Domino’s have an opportunity to promote loyalty & personalisation,” Chandra signs off.