How Domino’s has outclassed its rivals to win over the Indian pizza market

3 min readJul 31, 2020

Domino’s Pizza, an American multinational pizza chain entered India way back in 1995. The company has come a long way since then — with over 1300 stores spanning 280+ cities across the country, they hold a market share of over 70% in India’s pizza market.

To put it in perspective, the pizza market in India is currently valued at $1.52 Billion, and Domino’s Pizza caters to about 70% of that. Now that’s huge!

So what has Domino’s done so different from their competition for all the success? Check this infographic out:

How the word ‘Free’ has worked wonders for Domino’s

“Delivery in 30 minutes or you get it for free”

There are 2 things that come to my mind (Anyone’s mind, for that matter):
1. Pizza delivery in under 30 minutes? Wow!
2. Free Pizza *screaming-in-excitement* if not delivered on time? What could be better than that!

With the uncanny love Indians have for freebies, this model was sure to gather eyeballs and tingle taste-buds.
In either case, it’s a win-win for the customer as well as Domino’s. The customer gets it hot and fresh in under 30 mins (Or free, wow) and the company makes a huge amount of sales in return.

Domino’s superior ordering technology

Another major success factor for Domino’s in India has been it’s easy and sophisticated mobile ordering system.
With mobile and internet penetration booming insanely owing to reducing data costs, more than 560 million Indians have access to the internet today — and a vast majority of them use their smartphones to access the internet.

Domino’s claims to be the first food company to have launched an online and mobile ordering system nationally in India. They were there much before the Swiggys and the Zomatos became popular.

As of early 2020, the Domino’s Pizza mobile application has more than 30 million downloads!

Gaining early access to rural India

It’s not an unknown fact that a major chunk of India’s population lives in rural areas. Domino’s was quick to jump into that market with its low priced pizzas.

By having easy access to pizzas, the rural population have been made to feel a part of global consumer culture and have found a good getaway option from their routine meals.
It’s certainly been an important factor adding to their success.

Who is Domino’s competition and how are they fairing in India?

Domino’s massive success has made it extremely difficult for competition to flourish in the country.

Papa Johns — Another popular American pizza chain that entered India in 2011 had to shut down its 66 stores and wind up their operations from the country in 2017. Studies show that they just couldn’t stand the competition, and eventually had to shut shop.

Pizza Hut — The most fierce rival of Domino’s India, has only about 430 stores in the country, despite its early entry into the Indian market. That’s about 1/3rd that of Domino’s!
Besides, Pizza Hut has always been more popular for dine-in experiences rather than delivery or takeaway. This increases their infrastructure costs — making it more expensive than Domino’s Pizza relatively.

So how successful has Domino’s online ordering actually been?

According to Jubilant Foodworks (The parent company of Domino’s India) — the delivery sales from online orders stood at 17% in 2013. And by 2019, it grew to 75%.
That’s an insanely high number and gives us a clear indication of why Domino’s has been miles ahead of Pizza hut and all its other competitors in the Indian market.

In about 25 years since its entry into the Indian market, Domino’s Pizza has made it to almost all our taste buds, and most of us have loved it.
After all, it’s pizza — and who doesn’t love pizza!