How to Start a Cloud Kitchen and the Best Ways to Market it.

Introduction – 

Cloud kitchen or Ghost kitchen is delivery only based kitchen in which there is no heavy upfront setup cost like we have in  normal restaurants. The main focus is to make good food and deliver it to customers’ homes or offices timely with taking care of hygiene and food safety also. In this blog you will get and idea of how to start a cloud kitchen, its investment  and ways to Market it. 

Advantages of Cloud Kitchen over Traditional Restaurant –

There are many advantages of cloud kitchens over traditional restaurants.

1) Location : you don’t need to open a restaurant in a Porsche or high society area to serve premium clients. You can open in any nearby adjacent area and can serve more than one premium societies   2)Property: You don’t need a big area like in a traditional brick and mortar restaurant model you can start in 600-700 sq ft area rather than 2000-2500 sq ft which is required in traditional restaurant also you don’t have to do interior and ambience creation for dining area  which is again very cost saving.

3)Staff : since its a delivery only based model you only need staff which is required in the kitchen no customer service person, waiters and managers  is required in cloud kitchen 

4)Expansion: In ease of expansion there is an edge for cloud kitchens in respect to dine in restaurants. Because of much cheaper cost and no location priority , and low staff and operation cost you can easily expanded to other areas and also with one kitchen you can serve 3-4 adjacent areas with the help of delivery 

How to start a cloud kitchen –

Now as you know there are many benefits of opening a cloud kitchen over a traditional dine in restaurant business let’s find out the steps to setup cloud kitchen after this you will get a clear answer of how to setup cloud kitchen and ways to market it.

1)Understanding Indian Market:

Cloud kitchen market in India is expected to grow at 24 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) to reach USD 1.9 billion by Financial Year 2026. It was estimated at USD 800 Million in Financial year 2022, According to a survey report  Published by Consulting Firm Wazir advisors.

source : Retail.economicstimes.com

If you take and example of India capital Delhi theme there are already 20000+ active cloud kitchen , and there number is increasing by the rate of 20% annually.these cloud kitchens support a considerable amount of direct and indirect jobs. Fassos by REBEL FOODs and Biryani By kilo are some famous examples of cloud kitchen branded chains in India. 

2) License and registration to Setup Cloud Kitchen:

    License and registration required for opening a cloud kitchen are  

1. Fssai (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India)
2. Fire Safety License
3. Shop and Establishment License
4. Health and Trade License
5. GST Registration(turnover of INR 20 lakhs and above)

3)Niche Opportunities 

 Finding niche opportunity according to area and type of people in the area you serve will play the vital role in your cloud kitchen success for example. If you setup your cloud kitchen near the industrial area then there is good chance of getting order for lunch as many employee will not take there lunch to office from home so they are looking for some home cooked food in the lunch.

But if you are in a residential area there might be chance of you geeting order in the evening snacks time so you can cook some fast food options which are yummy and tempting for them.

On the other side if you are situated in a market area where there are lots of gym and fitness center. The people are obviously looking for healthy food options to eat after there gym and exercise, a full meal with a prescribed diet plan is what they are looking for.

4)Investment:

Investment for the cloud kitchen will be depend on variety of factors including the cuisine you serve, the level of tech infrastructure you want and the Type of cloud kitchen you are going to open . However, i have listed some common expanses. Which will help you to get and idea about the investment required for cloud kitchen.

Investment For	Home Based Cloud Kitchen	Multicuisine or Multi Brand Cloud kitchen
Machinery & Equipment	Nil – Rs 15,000	Rs 20k to 1 lakh
Rent & Security	Nil	Rs 30k to 1 lakh
Government Licenses	Rs 10,000	Rs 40,000
Marketing & Media	Rs 10,000 – Rs 15,000	Rs 10,000 – Rs 50,000
Raw Materials	Rs 2000 – Rs 5000	Rs 10,000 – Rs 20,000
Packaging Materials	Rs 2000 – Rs 5000	Rs 10,000 – Rs 50,000
Reserve Surplus	Rs 10,000	Rs 1 lakh
Tech Infrastructure	Rs 20,000	Rs 50,000

5)Marketing:

Marketing place a major role in any business. Same in the case of cloud kitchen although its a online business model but some offline marketing activities will also help in generating more revenue. 

Here are five offline marketing tactics that will help in cloud kitchen business.

1. Take part in local events and meetups
2. Support a social cause or be a part of some csr activities 
3. Branding having a good recallable logo and packaging
4. Word of Mouth
5. Public Relations

Here are five online marketing tactics that will help in cloud kitchen business.

1. Build a good Google Search Presence with Local SEO or Google my business.
2. Leverage social media, facebook and intagram is the best way to reach out to your customers don’t forget to join the meme trend and make use of it 
3. Go with Influencer Marketing reach out ot local influencer to review your food and quality
4. Maintain Positive Reputation Online on delivery platform keep eye on reviews and ratings
5. Run Exclusive Offers & Contest for all users and also participates in delivery apps marketing campaigns 

6) Use of third party online food ordering and Delivery application:

The rise of online food delivery is being met by online meal ordering services like UberEats, Zomato, and Swiggy which offer restaurants and cloud kitchens on their app and websites and enable customers to make orders online in a matter of seconds. Since these systems allow the cloud kitchens, or delivery-only food enterprises, to generate orders from day one, partnering with these online food markets becomes even more essential for them. You can not miss this opportunity to serve to a huge amount of customer who are already ordering food online, so registering with these vendors is also a necessary thing in cloud kitchen

Food Safety and Hygiene:

Because cloud kitchen or ghost kitchen are deliver only based kitchen customer always concern for the safety of food and hygiene taken in the process. So dont forget to empower your customer with proper safety and hygiene Customers are also expressing concerns about the health of delivery partners, given their exposure to multiple people on a daily basis. To tackle with that and win the trust of customers online food aggregators Zomato,uber eats and Swiggy are taking aggressive measures in ensuring proper hygiene and promoting contactless delivery.

Here are some common measures that you can take:

1. Enforce frequent handwashing, provide kitchen staff protective gear, require disposable gloves, offer sanitizers to delivery staff, ensure sanitized deliveries.
2. Maintain post-pandemic hygiene: disinfect kitchens, vehicles, packaging; offer hand wash stations at food pickup for safe delivery partner practices.
3. Promote secure packaging, use outer bags for delivery, opt for eco-friendly paper/cardboard bags for safety.
4. Embrace Zero Contact Delivery, partner with digital payment services for diverse online payment choices. 
5. Boost trust: Post kitchen work media on social, ensuring transparency and customer confidence

Conclusion- How to Start a Cloud Kitchen

Now you get and idea of how to start a cloud kitchen and the ways to market it. Key things to remember is Embracing the cloud kitchen trend. offers advantages over traditional restaurants through niche opportunities, market understanding, and strategic marketing. Utilising platforms like Swiggy and Zomato, coupled with stringent food safety, fosters growth and innovation, shaping a promising future for the food industry.

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