NEW DELHI: Social networking service, Instagram on Thursday announced its partnership with online food ordering platforms, Swiggy and Zomato, to help small businesses survive amid the ongoing coronavirus-led crisis. The platform also announced the launch of a sticker that will aid such businesses stay in touch with customers, enabling them to order food from restaurants.
Under this initiative, businesses can share Instagram’s food order sticker on their stories and users can tap on them to place their orders through the Swiggy and Zomato websites.
“We want to do our part in helping small businesses stay open, keep in touch with customers, and be informed on how to navigate this crisis. For the food industry in particular, we’re rolling out the food order sticker, which will aid order discovery and spur engagement, and we’re glad to have partnered with Swiggy and Zomato for the same," said Nitin Chopra, industry head, e-commerce and retail, Facebook India.
To use the sticker, restaurants should have the latest version of the Instagram app and use a business or creator account. They can add one of the partner’s links, either Zomato or Swiggy, for food orders to their Instagram profile.
They can then share these links to their followers by using the ‘Food Order’ sticker in stories, or share on their Instagram profile with the 'Order Food' button.
“Supporting the small business ecosystem, especially the restaurant business, which is severely affected, is a huge priority for us. As physical distancing continues and businesses innovate with online models, features like the food order sticker from Instagram will aid engagement between customers and their favourite food businesses, and ideally have a positive impact on increasing online food delivery order volumes," said Srivats TS, vice president - marketing, Swiggy.
When users see options for food orders, they can tap to make purchases through Zomato or Swiggy’s websites. They can also re-share the stickers with their followers to spread the word.
“At Zomato, we are focused on the overall development of the food delivery sector and have been working with restaurants to design different growth models. Instagram’s food order sticker will not just help restaurants introduce themselves to more customers, improve their engagement but also add a new growth avenue for their businesses," said Sandeep Anand, chief marketing officer - growth marketing, Zomato.
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