Bengaluru, Aug. 25 -- Three months ago, Arul Murugan, secretary of the Namakkal Town and Hotel Owners' Association, called a general body meeting. Murugan, who also runs a small restaurant in the Tamil Nadu town, began by presenting his own sales data to the 80-90 fellow restaurant owners who had gathered.

Recounting his presentation to Mint, he said, "I showed them I'm not getting any revenue from online sales. It's just a waste of time, waste of material, and waste of manpower."

Thereafter, Murugan said, others began sharing their experiences, and some were horror stories. One restaurateur did Rs.3,000 in sales in a week and got zero in return. When he did Rs.5,000 in sales, he got just Rs.100 after deductions.







For Namakkal's r...