As competition for impatient customers heats up, food delivery apps in India are offering to deliver hot beverages and biryani in less than ten minutes.
As competition among digital platforms for eager consumers heats up, food delivery apps in India are offering to deliver hot beverages and biryani to clients' doorsteps in less than ten minutes.In recent weeks, at least five businesses have revealed or announced plans to provide speedy meal delivery, including Zomato Ltd. and its freshly listed rival Swiggy Ltd.
While Swiggy collaborates with eateries ranging from Starbucks Corp. to McDonald's Corp., Zomato unit Blinkit's meal delivery app Bistro and Zepto Cafe rely on in-house kitchens to quickly prepare and assemble food.
In India, doorstep delivery has been practiced for decades by mom-and-pop shops using runners, but in recent years, there has been a radical change. Startups that offered lightning-fast delivery were made possible by technology, and the wealthy, tech-savvy metropolitan populace that craved quick satisfaction embraced them.
In contrast to similar services that normally take a few hours elsewhere in the world, the consequence was apps like Zepto and Blinkit that deliver eggs to earphones—even iPhones—at a fast pace.
"Compelling Purchasers"
"Users have become more impulsive buyers due to quick commerce," stated Karan Taurani, senior vice president at Elara Securities India Pvt. Rapid food delivery has now been introduced by these companies in an effort to "enhance user experience" and satiate these cravings.
In addition to upending the Indian retail industry, Swiggy and Zomato's explosive success has made them stock market favorites. Zomato's stock has increased 133% this year, while Swiggy's has increased 53% since going public last month.
While some customers are concerned about the quality of food prepared in such a short amount of time, brokerages anticipate a new development route as India's 10-minute frenzy enters the meal delivery market.
A report released by JM Financial on December 18 projects that by March 2029, the online meal delivery business in India will have more than doubled to $15 billion. According to the report, platforms only accounted for 11% of the nation's total food consumption in 2023, compared to 58% in the US and 40% in China.
According to the research, analysts at JM Financial Ltd. under the direction of Swapnil Potdukhe wrote regarding Zomato, "Bistro's within-10 minutes-delivery proposition should help the company better penetrate breakfast and evening snacks meal consumption" in the larger Indian cities.
Aadit Palicha, the creator of Zepto Cafe, said on X on December 11 that the company, which was the first to start 10-minute food drops in 2022, is expanding by 100 cafes every month and receiving 30,000 orders daily.
Now, Magicpin's MagicNOW, Dash by Ola Consumer, Swiggy's Bolt, and Zomato's Bistro will compete with it. BigBasket, which is owned by the Tata Group, announced this week that it is working to complete the service.
People are already using these nippy services. Within two months of its debut, Bolt accounted for 5% of Swiggy's overall food delivery orders, according to an email from Sidharth Bhakoo, Swiggy's chief business officer of the food marketplace. "We anticipate that in the near future, it will account for 10% of all food delivery orders."
The quick meals coincide with India's growing obesity rate and health issues. Due to a lack of strict food safety laws and the growing availability of packaged foods, the nation is one of the biggest consumers of junk food.
"Lost My Mind"
"Cook takes two minutes, and delivery takes eight." I went crazy when a "qcom for food" entrepreneur told me this. Shantanu Deshpande, the founder of Bombay Shaving Company, stated in a LinkedIn post on December 16 that "we are suffering from the biggest epidemic of poor nutrition and unhealthy processed and ultra processed food which is high on palm oil and sugar." "And now this."
The businesses providing these quick dinners guarantee that the quality of the cuisine won't be sacrificed.
In a December 18 email answer, Zomato stated, "At Bistro, we are not microwaving processed frozen food and sending it to our customers." "We create dishes fresh by assembling ingredients that are prepared at a central kitchen when you order from your nearest Bistro kitchen."
In an email, Zepto Cafe's leader, Shashank Shekhar Sharma, stated that food is produced in "controlled environments to maintain quality" and that "high hygiene standards are enforced at every stage—from sourcing to final delivery." He also mentioned regular inspections and thorough training for the employees.
According to Elara's Taurani, it will be difficult to maintain delivery times on India's congested and uneven highways. Another is to scale up with a smaller menu of meals, he said.
However, that doesn't stop service providers like Swiggy from expanding Bolt to more than 400 cities.
During the Dec. 3 earnings call, Rohit Kapoor, the CEO of Swiggy, the food marketplace, stated that Bolt was "a big bet" and that "consumers just love things faster." "We have a lot of hope for not only this product but also the future of food delivery in general," he stated.
It will be difficult to maintain delivery times on India's congested and uneven roadways, according to Elara's Taurani. He said that scaling up with a smaller menu of meals is another.
Service providers like Swiggy, however, are unaffected by this and have extended Bolt to more than 400 cities.
Bolt is "a big bet," according to Rohit Kapoor, the CEO of Swiggy, the food marketplace, who stated on the company's Dec. 3 earnings call that "consumers just love things faster." He declared, "We have a lot of hope for the future of food delivery in general, as well as for this particular offering."
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