FOCUS: Table booker Gettable challenges coupon services with discounts

By Yekaterina Yezhova

MOSCOW, Feb 13 (PRIME) -- Gettable, a Russian table booking service working with 1,600 restaurants, has entered the highly competitive coupon market with an option of receiving free discounts for outdoor dining. Experts say the service has a chance to enter the niche to earn on transactions amid the avalanche of the mobile Internet.

“Restaurants understood that getting several fat bills a day is not enough, and tables should be taken during all hours,” Egor Goncharenko, Gettable’s founder and general director, said in a press release. “Statistics say that many spots are almost empty for eight to 10 hours per day. They cut their average bills, menu prices, work out campaigns and loyalty programs to attract more guests during the idle time.”

The service now offers discounts up to 50% for restaurants of Moscow and St. Petersburg. A user should open Gettable’s Web site or an application, choose an eatery from the list and receive an individual code to get a cheaper bill at the restaurant. Discounts are larger in the afternoon, when visitors are scarce, and leaner during peak hours.

This year Gettable intends to expand its partnership to 3,000–5,000 restaurants in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and other cities of the country.

Launched in 2012 by Goncharenko and his partner Dmitry Gromyko, Gettable received U.S. $1 million from investment fund AddVenture in 2015. The service earned 10 million rubles on average per month in 2016.

“In 2017, we want to double revenue thanks to entering 13 new regions with our discounts and a platform to commercially promote restaurants,” Goncharenko told PRIME.

Andrei Lukashevich, managing director of Delivery Club, a food delivery service, said Gettable is a kind of a marketplace or an aggregator, which means its main business model is commission per transaction.

“The fee charged by such a floor depends on an average bill: the bigger it is, the lower the commission is. In Moscow restaurants, the fee is at about 10% with an average bill of 1,500 rubles, if the service provides only aggregation without any delivery,” Lukashevich said.

“It’s quite hard to say how popular a project can be without testing. In our Delivery Club, coupons are in demand, but mainly in the mass sector, when people want to save on daily lunches. It’s an analogue to coupons and discounts at usual grocery stores, and people see the point. Gettable is a slightly different service, allowing clients to book tables at restaurants in the evening, in particular, on peak days.

“Evidently, the offer of coupons for Gettable is a pivot and an effort to enter a new, wider niche where the service can earn on transactions. Although the market is dominated by coupon projects, and Gettable would find it hard to attract new users.”

Despite the recent economic turbulence, some of coupon services, like Biglion, which sells discounts, feel well.

The market has been also entered by Rambler’s service Afisha Restaurants, and it could be even a bigger threat for Gettable, as Lukashevich said. “It’s clear that Rambler has more resources for Afisha, which is famous for its editor content and rating, which help it secure a unique base of loyal users,” the executive explained.

The service could be promoted by the growth of mobile device users and progress of the offline-to-online category. People are getting used to buying online, because it is comfortable.

“In some big e-commerce companies the share of sales via mobile devices exceeds 50%. In China, for example, offline-to-online businesses were the hottest topic last year,” Lukashevich told PRIME.

Gettable already cooperates with AliExpress, a gigantic Chinese marketplace, where clients can book tables for a token price of 10 rubles.

Among the world’s leading restaurant booking services Lukashevich named the U.S.’

OpenTable, India’s Zomato and France’s TheFork, which all work in several countries.

“They enjoy demand in the countries with a well-developed culture of regular restaurant visiting, meaning prosperous people or hordes of tourists. These countries are the U.S., the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Singapore, Turkey and Brazil. Russia is not on the shortlist yet, but it’s a matter of two to three years,” Delivery Club’s head said.

(58.8457 rubles – U.S. $1)

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