What does Nlyten actually do?

We're a boutique consultancy that runs Swiggy and Zomato as a measured channel for restaurants and cloud kitchen operators. That means menu engineering, in-platform ads, discount strategy, ratings discipline, POC coordination, and a weekly operating cadence with the kitchen team. We do not run Meta or Google ads for new clients, and we do not produce social media content — we are deep specialists on aggregators.

How is Nlyten different from a marketing agency?

We are not an agency. We work as an in-house operator partner — a small team running a small number of restaurants deeply, with named operators on every account. The one-on-one relationship is the service. AI extends it (daily digests, automated reports, NlytenBot on Telegram) so one operator can carry more depth across more restaurants without thinning attention.

Who do you work with?

Independent restaurants, multi-outlet brands, cloud kitchens, and national chains — anyone running real kitchens on Swiggy and Zomato who wants to stop guessing and start operating the channel with discipline. Currently Mumbai-focused.

What kind of results can I expect?

Results vary by restaurant. Recent engagements have produced 2.1× Zomato growth in 5 months (Chakra Restobar), 2.1× Zomato growth in 5 months (Sudarshan), and 65× combined growth over 2.5 years for a multi-outlet brand (Vanilla Miel). Full case studies on /case-studies. Every engagement is treated as its own operating problem — outlet, cuisine, catchment, and the state of the listings when we start all matter.

How does the engagement start?

A discovery call, a free written audit, then a decision. The call is a 30-minute working session where we look at your aggregator dashboards together. The audit is a written read of the channel — where the leaks are, what's fixable, and a phased plan — yours to keep whether or not you choose to work with us.

What's the difference between Growth and Premium?

Growth is for independent restaurants and small multi-outlet brands taking Swiggy and Zomato seriously — minimum six months. Premium is for multi-outlet operators (3+ outlets) and cloud kitchen operators scaling across brands — minimum twelve months, includes new outlet launches and virtual brand strategy. Pricing is discussed on the discovery call.

Every client gets access to NlytenBot on Telegram — an always-on assistant trained on your live aggregator data. Use it when your operator isn't immediately available: ask 'how's [restaurant] this week', 'ROAS for [outlet]', 'what changed yesterday'. You get the answer instantly. Your operator picks up the thread shortly after to walk you through what it means and what we're doing about it. See /how-we-work for the full picture.

Which areas in Mumbai do you serve?

We work with restaurants and brands across Mumbai. Aggregator expertise applies city-wide since Swiggy and Zomato operate uniformly across Mumbai's zones, though hyperlocal competitor dynamics are part of what we analyse on every account.

What is the real all-in cost of selling on Swiggy and Zomato?

Commission is only part of it. Add GST on the fee, payment charges, and taxes, and net out the recoverable and pass-through portions. Tax-normalised, the real platform take on both settles around a quarter of order value, though ads and discounts can push the total far higher.

What take-home percentage should a restaurant aim for?

Track the share of gross order value that reaches your bank after commission, fees, ads, and discounts. A healthy delivery channel sits in the mid-fifties to low-sixties percent. Below that, look first at ad load and discounting rather than the commission rate.

Insights

Swiggy and Zomato commission, explained for restaurant owners

The headline rate is the number everyone quotes and the least useful one. Here's how the money really moves.

On Zomato the commission (the service fee) is a flat percentage, but it is not charged on your menu price. It is charged on the commissionable value: your item total, plus packaging, minus your own restaurant-funded discounts, and before the GST the customer pays. Platform-funded discounts do not reduce it. So the fee as a share of your menu subtotal lands a little under the headline rate when you run promotions, and a little over when you have heavy packaging and no discounts.

The base matters more than the rate

Commission is charged on the commissionable value, not your menu price: item total, plus packaging, minus your restaurant-funded discounts, before customer GST. Promotions you fund reduce the base; packaging adds to it. This is verified against real settlement statements, not a rule of thumb.

The service fee is a clean, consistent percentage

Applied to that base, the fee runs as a flat rate order by order. This is the line most owners mean when they say commission, and on its own it is predictable. Exact rates vary by contract and city, so read your own statement rather than trusting a number you heard.

Commission is only the first line

On top of it come 18% GST on the fee, a payment-mechanism charge, and tax collected and deducted at source. Some of that is not a true cost: the GST on commission is a recoverable credit, and a share of the tax is simply collected from the customer and passed through. Read raw, the deductions look larger than they are.

Take-home is the only number that matters

Add commission, fees, ads, and discounts together and see what reaches your bank as a share of gross order value. Where that dips, the cause is almost always ad load or discounting, not the commission rate. Below the mid-fifties, the channel is subsidising volume you would be better off without.

This is the kind of work we run end to end for restaurants in Mumbai. See how our Aggregator Growth engagement works.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

It is charged on the commissionable value, which is your item total plus packaging minus your own restaurant-funded discounts, before customer GST. Discounts you fund reduce the base; platform-funded discounts do not.