Swiggy Looks To Become Hyperlocal Delivery King With Venture Into Medicine & Grocery Deliveries

In line with its plans to venture into hyperlocal medicines and grocery deliveries, Swiggy is now planning to expand its delivery diversification strategy.

An ET report cited two sources as claiming that food delivery company Swiggy is all set to capture a larger share of the delivery pie by extending its services across the entire hyperlocal delivery market. The sources claimed they were familiar with the unfolding of this new business line.

“Swiggy is launching a concierge-like service and will enable buying and delivery of products from any store in the city, including pharmacies, electronics, groceries, and even flower and gift shops. It will also feature a customer-to-customer pick-up and drop service,” a source added.

With this move, Swiggy will throw a direct challenge to Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery platform Dunzo, which is backed by Google and Quikr as part of the latter’s Quikr Easy platform.

Swiggy is expected to pilot its diversified delivery services in October-November across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.

With this move, the company’s delivery volumes are expected to see a sharp increase. At present, Swiggy caters to more than 14 Mn food delivery orders every month.

The company claims to enable reliable, fast, and convenient deliveries from over 35K restaurants, and a delivery fleet of more than 40K partners.

“Swiggy is expecting to grow this business vertical significantly to almost 15-20% of its revenues over the next two years,” one of the sources said.

Swiggy declined to comment on the details or scale of its new business plan. A spokesperson said, “At Swiggy, enabling convenience for our consumers is at the core of how we operate. We’re constantly experimenting with ways in which we can do that better while providing them with a delightful experience.”

New Unicorn Swiggy Expanding Its Product Portfolio

Swiggy, the newest unicorn on the block, has raised $210 Mn in a Series G funding led by existing investor Naspers and new investor DST Global. The round also saw participation from Swiggy’s existing shareholder, Meituan-Dianping, and a new investor, Coatue Management.

Swiggy planned to use the funding to ramp up its supply chain network and expand to new markets while investing in core capabilities that enhance the customer experience and the brand.

The company also planned to double its technology headcount to build solutions for robust operations, deep personalisation, and connected supply chain systems.

Swiggy’s last fundraise was a $100 Mn Series F round, within three months of which it started operations in Kochi, Coimbatore, Nagpur, and Lucknow and also introduced new payment options for both consumers and delivery partners.

From a cloud kitchen to introducing a new supply chain, Swiggy has been aggressively working to hike up its market share in the food delivery segment. Over the last several months, it has launched a slew of new services such as Access, long-distance deliveries, and Capital Assist, to help restaurants serve consumers in new and better ways.

Swiggy Scheduled enables users to plan and order their meals for lunch, dinner, breakfast, or party menus in advance. With this service, users can select from slots of 30 minutes to place orders a minimum of two hours and a maximum of 48 hours in advance. They won’t be charged any delivery and cancellation fees until the order becomes live.

As a result of its continued focus on strengthening its product portfolio, Swiggy posted a record increase of 500% in its revenues in FY17 and saw order volumes nearly double since its previous funding in May 2017. As of now, Swiggy claims its average delivery time of under 35 minutes is an industry benchmark.

According to a study by Netscribes Research, the online food delivery segment in India is expected to expand by 34%-36% between 2015 and 2020. Besides, the country’s hyperlocal market is poised to touch $345 Mn by 2029.

Swiggy, which is already going strong, with the expansion of its offerings to the hyperlocal delivery space, is looking to become a multi-services delivery company and is sure to provide tough competition to others in the space.

 [The development was reported by ET.]