Have you ever got so confused with the amount of restaurants in your locality and do not know where to head or what people are serving for today? Ever wanted something very easy and something that helps you get your food at the privacy of your home? I had a chance to look at FoodPanda and would like to share with you a few interesting aspects of this website with you today. FoodPanda is a german based company which has branches at many other places of the world. The Indian Arm is called foodpanda.in. The first thing you notice is the speed of the website load when you hit the URL and press enter. One of the main things about online ordering according to my opinion is how fast I can see the home page of the website. Most people who order online would already be hungry and a slow loading website is the last thing they want during this time to add to their frustration.
Foodpanda loads blazingly fast and helps you reach their home page easily. They have exactly four simple steps to get your food home, your location, your restaurant of choice, payment online or offline (Cash on delivery) and the actual delivery itself. All you need to do is simply type your city and location and that too is aided by the website itself, they give you enough hints to make it fast. Click “find my food” button and bingo – a list of all restuarants in that locality is already shown to you. If that was fast, then you can further directly “go to the menu” of any restaurant to see what’s on offer. You can filter by varities, or deals or types of food which makes you reach what you are looking for so much faster. Upon going to the menu, you are shown what really exists and is being served as of today and this hour. The page also has tabs for reviews and information about the store such as timings. What I also liked about the restaurant list page is the summary it shows about what type of restaurant and food is being served, delivery fee, and the minimum order value for delivery – the three most important things anyone would be really wishing to care about. The fourth and most crucial point is also the timelines for delivery – that is – how much time would the food take roughly to reach your home. This is something that I personally also look for while ordering online.
Coming to the menu itself, the items are neatly listed and a “+” button is placed next to each item to add that to your cart. Each time you add something to your order, the sidebar on the right automatically refreshes to show you what you are placing in the list. Without disturbing you from the page. Pretty neat !! I did see whether I could place differnt order items from different stores into one order list, but that was not possible. So I guess each order is store specific. Since many stores charge very nominal fees or even offer free delivery, this is hardly a matter to feel concerned about. I also found one more interesting thing, it saves your order list store wise, so if you did change your mind on the second store and went back to the first, your earlier choices are still present – saving you loads of time! Click the checkout option and either you can login to get your previously delivered address details or you can register as a new customer. Both were a snap to be done with. You can opt to punch in a voucher code if you have one for more discounts, or even opt for delivery or store pickup the latter saving you some time. If your minimum order value is not met, there is a gentle popup reminder for you to order more.
The payment itself is via credit or debit cards online or cash on delivery. FoodPanda uses PayU India as a transaction partner. I did find many banks listed under netbanking based payment option, but still there were few important banks missing – Citibank / HSBC / Standard Chartered. This is not the first website that I am noticing this lack of tie ups, this is just one of the many. I am really not sure why these banks are not listed here considering the flexibility and deal participation they offer which are on equal terms with other banks. Maybe its something specific to the payment partner, or something specific to the banks within that banking network where these banks are not part of. Whatever the reasons be, it is pretty annoying that the major banks are sometimes not listed.
What I assume would happen post my order is that after the stated 30 or 40 minutes, you must receive the order at your home as promised. At the time of this writing I have not had much to say on the actual packaging and delivery itself. I would be updating that information once I have some concrete information. Going by what other online shoppers offer, I would not be wrong if I assume standard food packaging and as expected delivery from FoodPanda. Foodpanda also offers a chat option where you can chat about your order with a live real time support executive. This is more of a commodity nowadays but a site cannot ignore or discount to include this option as some people prefer this route.
The ease of using FoodPanda is something that I am truly impressed with and they have really nailed the online ordering experience as compared to other providers. In future I would be reviewing other websites such as justeat.in and the likes to know the subtle differences, but I would for now safely say FoodPanda is a two-click easy-to-find-and-order-food portal which puts you at ease in knowing what type of food you would get in how many minutes and what is the minimum order you must make and what the delivery charges would be for that order. By putting info that you are looking for right before your eyes, what you would see is exactly what you would be getting with FoodPanda. And oh yes, if you are the mobile savvy types who want to order food from your pocket FoodPanda supports Apple and Android phones with relevant apps as well.
So what are you waiting for? Aren’t you hungry, Order something in a jiffy ! Tags: foodpanda, india, bangalore, bengaluru, blog, review, karnataka, order, ordering, food, online, german, shopping, meals, menu, store, online, payment, pickup, discounts, deals, mobile, hsr layout, hsrlayout, karnataka
