As the lockdown eases, paving way for restaurants to open starting June 8, food discovery and delivery platform Zomato will be scaling down grocery delivery business to put the core focus back on its food delivery business. However, unlike some reports, Zomato will not be closing down its grocery business.

Zomato forayed into the grocery segment with Zomato Market amid the lockdown to address the growing need of having essentials delivered to doorsteps of consumers. It also partnered with Grofers and several consumer brands to deliver their products. It was delivering grocery in 185 cities with launches planned in UAE and Lebanon as well.

"We started delivering groceries to offer easy and quick access to essentials in the safest manner possible. Zomato Market will continue to operate and service users who need on-demand delivery of essentials. However, as the country opens up basis Unlock 1.0 relaxations, we are going to spend a large proportion of our time making our food delivery service the safest, and the most loved one in town,” a company spokesperson said.

Ever since it launched grocery delivery, given the surge in demand, all efforts of the company across departments, including delivery executives, were directed towards this segment.

Zomato saw that most households, across tier I & II cities were ordering 1.5 times in a week, with fruits and vegetables, dairy, meats, and snacks and packaged food being the top-selling categories across cities.

However, the company’s focus will now be diverted back to its core business – food delivery -- as it works with restaurants to bring back demand and order volume.

Meanwhile, rival Swiggy continues to grow its grocery and essentials delivery segment ‘Swiggy Stores’, which it has scaled from 125 cities in April to over 300 cities and towns currently. Swiggy is also expanding alcohol delivery, which it first launched in Ranchi, Jharkhand and most recently in West Bengal.