Banks play ‘Robin Hood’ in food delivery business by waiving fees, charges

.SCB’s “Robinhood” app, which aims to help community level eateries by waiving application fees and gross profit fees, expects some 50,000 members when it is officially launched next year.
Meanwhile, KBank subsidiary KBTG’s “Eatable” a platform serves as a “helper” for restaurants by allowing customers to book tables or order in advance.
In the “new normal”, the food delivery business has grown exponentially, especially since the need for social-distancing to curb Covid-19 infections has taken the joy out of going to restaurants.
Kasikorn Research Centre found that since the arrival of Covid-19, the food-delivery industry has become very competitive, with as many as 20,000 small to medium-sized eateries signing up to delivery apps every week. In the first half of this year, the food-delivery sector grown by about 150 per cent compared to the same period last year.
It is believed that up to 68 million food deliveries will have been made in Thailand by year end.
Meanwhile, Srihanath Lamsam, managing director of Purple Ventures which created SCB’s Robinhood app, said the aim of the platform is to help society and small merchants by waiving gross profit fees. Most food delivery apps charge up to 35 per cent.
He said by using the Robinhood app, restaurants can save money and focus on boosting the quality of their products.
Under Robinhood, the delivery person also gets paid delivery charges in full without any deductions.
The Robinhood platform, which was introduced in October, will be officially launched early next year.
Even before its official launch, this platform is proving to be very popular, with 300,000 transactions taking place over the last few months with nearly 30,000 restaurants participating. There are more than 10,000 drivers looking after the delivery side of things.
Meanwhile, KBank’s “Eatable” platform is not a food-delivery app but serves more like a “helper” for restaurants and provides customers a new experience by offering them the options of dine-in, dine-out and delivery.

Eatable can be accessed via any web browser, and allows customers to order food for delivery, book a table, or order in advance for pick-up etc.
These services are provided for free and can help boost sales for small businesses.
Ruangroj Poonpol, president of Kasikorn Business-Technology Group (KBTG), said more than 1,000 eateries have joined the platform since it was launched for trial two to three months ago.
The platform will be officially launched in early 2021.
KBTG is also in the process of creating a new platform called Kai Tai Dian Cai that Chinese tourists can use via WeChat. This system is also expected to be launched next year.