Swiggy will soon launch grocery deliveries and essentials which will be delivered within 45 minutes, called Instamart. This comes after the company launched Swiggy Stores, which promises grocery delivery from a selection of stores within two hours.
“We are currently testing Swiggy Instamart to see how it augments our consumer promise of enabling unparalleled convenience by making grocery delivery more instant and delightful,” a Swiggy spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that they want to introduce the convenience grocery category in India. “With the fastest deliveries in the segment (30 – 45 minutes), day and night serviceability (7 am - 12 midnight), a wide assortment across categories such as instant meals, snacks, ice creams, beverages, fruits & vegetables, Instamart will address the unmet grocery needs of the time-pressed, convenience-seeking urban consumer,” a Swiggy spokesperson said.
Instamart is currently available in Gurugram, and according to reports, will soon also start in Bengaluru.
A report in the Economic Times, which first reported the news, said that Swiggy plans to carry out Instamart operations with 2,500 items in its ‘dark stores’, which are available only on the app and not at a physical location.
Swiggy has a host of competitors include Flipkart, Amazon, Dunzo, BigBasket and JioMart. Zomato too had entered the market at the beginning of the lockdown, but has since scaled back.
A source told ET that there are 10 dark stores in Bengaluru. “There are about 10 dark stores of 1,800-2,500 sq ft set up in Bengaluru, covering 85-90% catchment areas within a 5-6 km radius,” the person said.
In April, Entrackr reported Swiggy’s dark store pilots are run under the name ‘Urban Kirana’, and was running a pilot in Bengaluru with six stores in areas such as Indiranagar and Koramangala.
“In February, Swiggy launched a pilot with three dark stores in Bengaluru,” a source told the publication, and this was subsequently increased. Two such stores were also set up in Gurugram, it said.