Abstract

India’s leading food delivery apps Swiggy and Zomato, which had gained customers rapidly due to the discounts they provided, found it difficult to maintain loyalty once the discounts dried up. The loyalty went beyond just price and was influenced by restaurant partners, delivery associates, membership design, and customer support systems apart from the companies themselves that designed the app and the teams in the company that managed operations across several cities. The Head of Food Marketplace at Swiggy faced a strategic dilemma: should the platform focus on subscription-focused, promotion-focused retention or reframe loyalty around experience, trustworthiness, and ecosystem orientation.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the sources of customer loyalty in a digital platform, while distinguishing between price-driven and experience-driven loyalty
• Evaluate the trade-offs between centralized and decentralized control in the digital platform business
• Compare transactional loyalty mechanisms with experience-driven customer relationships.
• Assess strategies for balancing economic performance with stakeholder trust in a platform ecosystem

Keywords

Digital Platforms,Customer Loyalty, Platform Competition, Food Delivery Platforms Platform Ecosystem, Experience Differentiation,Platform Governance