Swiggy pilots premium grocery business with Handpicked

Premium products, either imported or locally made, are listed on the platform.

These include Coca Cola’s Cherry Cola, which is available in markets like the United States, Kombucha made by local startups in Bengaluru and Methi Khakhra from Gujarat. Spreads and ready-to-cook meat across Italian, German and Mexican cuisine, are also included.

“The idea is to build a ‘Nature’s Basket’ in the cloud,” a source said. “These are products that are extremely hard to find in local stores or on ecommerce channels.”

A spokesperson for Swiggy also confirmed the development to ET.

“Swiggy Handpicked, an invite-only offering from Swiggy, helps customers discover and purchase unique and interesting groceries ranging from global favourites to regional delights and local legends that are not easily accessible. Handpicked is currently under pilot with select users,” it said in a statement.

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Unlike its quick commerce business Instamart, the products listed on Handpicked will only be delivered the next day, and consumers can only access the service through invites.
The team working on ‘Handpicked’ is different from its Instamart team and both businesses operate as separate entities, the source added.

Handpicked is yet another ecommerce business diversification from its core food delivery business, where growth has slowed.

ET was the first to report on May 26 that
Swiggy was developing a marketplace for direct-to-commerce brands called Minis.

Handpicked is yet another addition to the company’s roster of new businesses this year, which includes Minis and online dining out service Dineout.

The company bought Dineout from Times Internet – the digital arm of Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (Times Group) which also publishes this newspaper – for $120 million in an all-stock deal in May.

Dineout, where customers can discover restaurants and get discounts by paying through the app, is a key cog in Swiggy’s loyalty program Swiggy One, which offers free delivery for both food and grocery.

Its other services include meat delivery, and pickup and drop service Genie, which it had to shut down in May this year due to shortage of delivery partners.

The development also comes amid layoffs at Swiggy.

ET reported on December 9 that
the company was planning to fire around 250 people across functions in December. More layoffs are on the cards.

On November 24, investor Prosus said the company’s core food-delivery business clocked order growth and gross merchandise value (GMV) growth of 38% and 40%, respectively, for the first six months of calendar 2022.

Swiggy’s quick-commerce business Instamart saw order and GMV growth of 20 times and 15 times, respectively.

(Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi)