Zomato in Dubai gets 'cashless feature': No need for card or cash at restaurant

Zomato, which is India's leading restaurant-search app, has announced a new feature for Dubai-based users which will bring 'Cashless' facility to the app's users.  Zomato has a partnered with Emirates NBD bank to bring this service. Zomato users can avail of this facility at participating restaurants, thus eliminating the need to swipe cards or pay via cash.Using the mobile wallet system, Zomato will store the users' credit card details. Users then have to tell the server at the restaurant that they wish to use the Zomato Cashless facility to pay the bill. If the restaurant is a participating one, the bill is sent directly to the app on the diner’s smartphone and the payment is automatically deducted from the registered card.In order to boost the feature's usage, Zomato is giving diners using the Cashless system get a 10 percent discount on their first transaction. Additionally the first 500 Emirates NBD Credit Cardholders who pay using "Cashless" at participating restaurants will also get up to 100 Dirham in cashback. Also Emirates NBD Credit Cardholders are getting a 10 percent cashback until the end of February 2015 on each Zomato Cashless transaction.[caption id="attachment_252792" align="alignnone" width="640"]

Zomato now has a cashless option in Dubai.[/caption]According to Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder and COO of Zomato, "Credit card usage is extremely strong in Dubai which makes it the perfect market to launch a consumer feature as powerful as Cashless. Our focus has always been on making dining experiences more convenient for users, and this is going to change the way people dine out. We will be taking Cashless to more markets in the very near future.”The feature is only getting rolled out on Zomato iOS app for now and other platforms will get it later. Zomato has managed to rope in over 120 restaurants for this facility.The Cashless facility is an interesting addition to the app. Let's not forget that so far Zomato hasn't introduced the facility to make reservations by directly using the app, without having to dial the number of the restaurant separately. Unlike US rival Yelp, which allows users to directly make reservations from the app, Zomato has so far restricted itself to search.Now with the launch of this Cashless facility, Zomato seems to be trying something new. However it's far from perfect as, it's noticeable that in order take this Cashless facility, you have to inform the server and restaurant separately and then the bill is sent your app. There's no direct system to have the app Cashless facility simply pop-up say when you are searching for the restaurant within the app.How well Zomato's Cashless feature does in Dubai remains to be seen but given that it's credit card restricted, it's not clear if and when the feature will come to India. Also let's not forget that in India RBI rules don't allow credit card transactions to take place without an authentication code, and even Uber faced trouble for this in the past.For now the cashless feature shows that Zomato isn't afraid of trying out something new. Also given the sizeable Indian population in Dubai and that their tie-up includes some Indian restaurant chains as well, this feature might just help the app stand out in the market, at least with the Indian consumers.