Flipkart Expands Food Delivery Trial, Aiming to Challenge Zomato and Swiggy

Walmart-owned Flipkart is preparing to challenge Zomato and Swiggy in India's food-delivery market. Two people familiar with the matter said the Bengaluru-based company has expanded an internal trial from a few hundred employees to upwards of 8,000. Flipkart has deployed a dedicated fleet through Flipkart's logistics arm, Ekart, separate from the riders handling quick-commerce deliveries, in preparation for a public launch.

The employee-only service appears as a separate tab on Flipkart's main shopping app, alongside Minutes quick-commerce services and travel bookings. The service draws on restaurants listed through ONDC, a government-backed network connecting online buyers and sellers across platforms, and restaurants Flipkart signed up directly. Riders wearing jerseys branded "Eat-in by Minutes" have begun fulfilling orders in Bengaluru, where Flipkart is headquartered.

Brokerage firm Bernstein estimates that India's food-delivery market is growing 18% to 20% a year. However, online delivery still accounts for just over 15% of India's broader food-services industry. Bernstein estimates that Eternal-owned Zomato and Swiggy together serve 85 million to 95 million paying customers annually. India, the world's most populous country, has more than a billion internet subscriptions, leaving room for newcomers to expand online food ordering.

Ride-hailing company Rapido, which has challenged Uber and Ola, is expanding Ownly, a food-delivery service that charges restaurants zero commission. Swiggy has launched Toing, a separate app targeting customers seeking cheaper meals. Both moves reflect growing pressure on the industry's pricing model and restaurant commissions. Sagar Daryani, president of the National Restaurant Association of India, argued that restaurants have long needed alternatives to the two dominant platforms. The New Delhi-headquartered association represents over 500,000 restaurants nationwide. Daryani said, "Monopoly is bad, but duopoly is more pathetic," and argued that one platform follows the other's actions.

Zomato and Swiggy built meal-delivery businesses before expanding into quick commerce. Flipkart is taking the reverse approach, using Flipkart's established e-commerce business and growing quick-commerce operations to enter food delivery. Daryani said Flipkart's quick-commerce operations will make food delivery leaner and more efficient.

Daryani, also co-founder and CEO of Wow! Momo Foods, said Flipkart has proposed a base commission of about 10%. Restaurants typically pay Zomato and Swiggy commissions of 20% to 25%, Daryani said. Daryani said advertising, discounts and other promotional expenses can raise restaurants' total costs on established platforms to 40% to 50% of an order's value. Daryani expects Flipkart to keep that total cost closer to 15% to 16%, potentially allowing restaurants to retain more money per order.

However, Bernstein estimates that new entrants operating more efficiently could save customers just ₹20 to ₹30, around 20 to 30 cents, per order. Those savings may not be enough to draw customers away from Zomato and Swiggy. The incumbents could also offer deeper discounts to retain customers. Daryani said Flipkart told restaurants that the company expects to launch the food-delivery service publicly by the end of October. Daryani said Flipkart expects to expand to five or six cities by the end of this year.

Previous attempts by large companies to enter India's food-delivery market have failed. Amazon launched a food-ordering service in Bengaluru in 2020 and closed the service two years later. Google's Areo app, which combined food ordering with other services, failed to gain traction. Uber exited the market in 2020 by selling Uber's India food-delivery business to Zomato.

Flipkart's long-awaited stock-market listing remains uncertain. Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy recently declined to give a timetable for an IPO. Flipkart continues to expand into businesses that could bring customers back to Flipkart's app more frequently. Competition in India's e-commerce market is intensifying. Quick-commerce platforms that began with rapid grocery deliveries now sell the latest iPhones and other discretionary purchases, competing more directly with Flipkart and Amazon. Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment.