To understand the discounting strategies employed by zomato in the city ahmedabad

Abstract

This capstone study examines Zomato's discounting techniques in Ahmedabad and their impact on consumer behavior, restaurant collaborations, and sustained profitability. Zomato is one of the leading players in India's food ordering industry, and it has widely used dynamic pricing, loyalty schemes, and time-limited offers to acquire and retain customers. Although these have driven high-velocity customer acquisition, they also create issues of sustainability, especially for local restaurants in Ahmedabad. With a demographically diverse populace of students, working professionals, and families, Ahmedabad offers an interesting canvas to study the influence of heavy discounting. Our study adopts a multidisciplinary approach - converging ideas from marketing, finance, and psychology - to gauge how value-focused discounts influence user interaction and loyalty, impacting restaurant margins in the process. Based on primary data gathered using surveys, interviews, and convenience sampling, complemented by statistical analysis, the research finds important factors influencing purchasing behavior in a price-conscious market. The results pinpoint a fine line between short-run consumer satisfaction and long-run business sustainability. Through this analysis, we hope to provide strategic suggestions for discount structuring that is beneficial to Zomato and its stakeholders, and insights into how technology-enabled platforms can facilitate sustainable growth in changing urban ecosystems such as Ahmedabad.