Coronavirus: Swiggy expands groceries and daily essentials delivery services to 125 cities

Food delivery unicorn Swiggy on Monday expanded its delivery of groceries and household essential services to over 125 cities across India amid the lockdown-led by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Swiggy, the service is being fulfilled through neighbourhood stores and distribution centres of large brands. The feature will be available on the Swiggy app under the 'Grocery' tab.

Swiggy has partnered with several national brands and retailers such as HUL, P&G, Godrej, Dabur, Marico, Vishal Mega Mart, Adani Wilmers, Cipla, and many other city-specific stores, to supply branded essential products and food items.

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According to the foodtech startup, through the ‘Grocery’ category, consumers can directly view available stores in their locality, add items to their cart for payment, and opt for 'No-contact' delivery on prepaid orders.

Commenting on the new initiative, Swiggy COO Vivek Sunder said, “While the grocery and essentials category has always been a part of our long-term strategy of delivering hyperlocal convenience, we have enabled faster ramp up for the benefit of our consumers. Extending our hyperlocal delivery offering will unlock a new dimension of convenience and safety for our consumers, as well as earnings for our delivery partners, during these extraordinary times.”

Along with this, Swiggy has even revamped its offering ‘Swiggy Go’ by launching a hyperlocal delivery service ‘Genie’ in over 15 cities. The Swiggy Genie feature includes pickup and drop-off service to send packages across the city or purchase essentials from a particular store. However, the service is limited to delivering essentials, including over-the-counter medicines to consumers during the lockdown period.

Through Grocery and Genie, Swiggy aims to address the pain-points of not just the consumers, but also retailers and delivery partners for whom the upgraded services will act as a channel to drive additional revenue.

To fight the coronavirus pandemic, Swiggy is also constantly educating its restaurant and delivery partners on WHO's best hygiene practices and has introduced a 'no-contact' delivery feature to help both customers and delivery partners maintain a safe distance.