Swiggy launches POP, to focus on single-serve meals, quick ordering

Swiggy announced the launch of its latest offering - Swiggy POP - single-serve meals that save time. 

There was a time when a cab in 15 minutes was considered quick. Today, this same time period is considered too long. Same with food delivery.

In today’s fast-paced world, people seek an ordering-in experience at affordable prices and zero delivery cost, and Swiggy has the answer in the form of POP. Swiggy on Wednesday announced the launch of Swiggy POP across Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. 

Why Swiggy POP?

Ensuring quick single-serve meals within 30 to 35 minutes, Swiggy tested the beta version of the app at Koramangala, in Bengaluru last year. Under POP, Swiggy offers consumers curated menus of single-serve meals that range between Rs 99 and Rs 200 from popular restaurants. 

Anuj Rathi, VP Product, Swiggy, says POP was conceptualised keeping in mind the need of time-pressed working professionals who do not have access to a kitchen, and are looking for a hassle-free and fool-proof fix for their daily meals. 

How does it work? 

Anuj explains that when people are on the move and do not have the time, it becomes difficult to choose from a large detailed menu. “The point about ordering in from different restaurants is primarily for families and friends. POP is primarily for working professionals who are on the move,” he says. 

The restaurants part of Swiggy POP have an idea of the items that fall under the POP menu, and insights on the basic order size and quantity. Thus, they are prepared to make the meals and orders quicker. “They can keep the ingredients ready, making delivery time shorter,” explains Anuj.  

What are the offerings?

The daily changing Swiggy POP menu is based on key insights on customer demand, trends and preference, and curated from a selection of over 20,000 items in collaboration with restaurant partners. This includes items like Indian thalis, bowl meals, Biryanis, Burgers and Asian combos.  

With a variety of national and local favourites on the platform, Swiggy has already tied up with likes of Hotel Sarvana Bhavan (Chennai), Paradise Biriyani (Hyderabad), Rolls Mania (Pune), Dum Matka (Mumbai), Pista House (Hyderabad) and A2B Veg (Chennai) as well as national chains Subway, Rajdhani, Burger King and Taco Bell, among others. 

Kapil Grover, Chief Marketing Officer - Burger King India said, “Consumers today want to place orders from their favourite brands in as less time as possible. POP is a great initiative led by Swiggy to serve this need and Burger King has seen great traction by offering pre-set curated meals to our guests." 

The foodtech market 

Foodtech startups were built on the foundation that roti, kapda aur makaan could never go out of demand, but over time, many faced an early death. By 2016, several food startups - TinyOwl, Dazo, Spoonjoy, Eatlo, and EatOnGo - were out of the fray; this chill continued to the beginning of last year, with EatFresh and Yumist shutting shop. Only the big two – Swiggy and Zomato – survived successfully.

Deepinder Goyal, Co-founder and CEO, Zomato, earlier told YourStory that issues like changing rules, number of licenses required, high real-estate costs, and problems with training and retaining staff are issues that have traditionally plagued the food industry.

The business of restaurants 

The restaurant business involves high investments in space and equipment. Operating expenses are also high, with raw material contracts and staff — for every minute these aren’t utilised, they lose value and hit margins. The only way to make money is to ensure a growing number of orders —that’s what Swiggy brings in.

Today, apart from the restaurant chains and bigger players, Swiggy also works with small restaurant owners, who form a big part of the unorganised restaurant business. For many small restaurants, Swiggy is the primary route through which orders flow in. Restaurant owners claim they started out by paying six to seven percent margins. Margins have increased to 10 percent, then to 15 and are now 20 percent. 

Zomato, on the other hand, recently crossed the three million deliveries a month mark. This is in just two years since launching the meal delivery service. It has 25,000 restaurants on its platform in India, including 7,500 that are exclusively available only on Zomato.

What POP does is give Swiggy an edge. It provides the Bengaluru-based food delivery startup the option of providing meals quicker now. The team has already established itself as a strong food delivery player, with ensuring quicker delivery time, Swiggy is now catering to a slightly more different audience.