#StartupsVsCovid19: Swiggy Goes Beyond Restaurants To Expand Grocery Delivery

To meet the high demand in the market for staples and essential grocery items amid the ongoing lockdown, Bengaluru-based food delivery major Swiggy has expanded grocery delivery to most of the cities where it has operations for food delivery.

To procure products, Swiggy has partnered with retail grocery stores across the country. In Delhi NCR, the company is delivering grocery items from supermarket stores such as Vishal Mega Mart.

As of now, the company is only allowing the delivery of 12 Kg of products per order to prevent hoarding of essentials like groceries. Swiggy has also partnered with FMCG player Marico to deliver the Saffola range of products.

Will Swiggy Ace Grocery Delivery?

Swiggy is already delivering essentials and other daily-use items through Swiggy Stores and Swiggy Go. Swiggy Stores, launched in February 2019, gives the user an option to go through the menu of a listed store and buy according to the need.

On the other hand, users via Swiggy Go can order products from any store by listing the store name and the products they want. The company had launched Swiggy Go, in September last year, after acquiring hyperlocal delivery startup Supr Daily.

While Swiggy Stores and Swiggy Go are limited to select cities such as Bengaluru and Gurugram, the recently launched grocery delivery service is now available in many parts of the country. Moreover, the expansion of grocery delivery service to these cities will also help the company to consolidate its position in the burgeoning segment.

As of now, Bengaluru-based BigBasket and Gurugram-based Grofers are the leading grocery delivery platforms in India. While ecommerce players such as Flipkart and Amazon are currently strengthening their position, some companies like Shopclues are now making an entry in this segment.

Additionally, Swiggy’s food delivery rival Zomato has launched Zomato Market service to deliver essential items amid lockdown. Besides solving the delivery woes, the entry of Swiggy and Zomato in the grocery delivery segment will also provide employment opportunities to the employees as the number of food orders have dropped significantly.

Further, the timing of Swiggy expanding into the grocery delivery coincides with the recent fundraising. The $43 Mn funding from Tencent, Ark Impact Investments, Korea Investment Partners, and MACM India Growth Fund will help the company to have an edge over new players in the grocery delivery segment.

Other startups which recently have forayed in the grocery delivery segment include social commerce player Meesho and UPI payments player BharatPe. Also, B2B grocery delivery platform Ninjacart has also started to deliver groceries to societies and apartment communities.