Flipkart to take on Zomato and Swiggy with a new food delivery platform; All details

Walmart-owned e-commerce giant is said to enter the food delivery business, setting the stage for a fresh battle with Zomato and Swiggy. In an interview with MoneyControl, Chief Executive Officer, Flipkart Group, Kalyan Krishnamurthy said that Flipkart will soon be launching a food delivery app in the coming weeks.

“Like everything else we do, we will launch food delivery first, test the value proposition with customers, take feedback and continue improving the product until it really appeals to the customer. After that, we'll start scaling it,” he said. Initially, Flipkart will not launch its food delivery service nationwide, but it will start with a limited rollout within a few cities. 

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If the pilot performs well, Flipkart will gradually expand the service to more cities and users, similar to how it started rolling out Flipkart Minutes. “It will be a combination of a separate app plus also you will see it on the Flipkart app,” Krishnamurthy said.

The report also revealed that Flipkart is expected to launch its food delivery service by integrating with the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The company believes it can bring something new and improve the customer experience, rather than simply copying competitors.

Krishnamurthy said the platform is planning to bring a wider selection of restaurants, better service, reliable deliveries, and an overall better experience. Krishnamurthy also indicated that Flipkart's long-term goal is to build a large, nationwide food delivery business.

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The announcement comes at a time when existing players are experimenting with new services and operations to improve. Rapido recently launched a new platform called Ownly that focuses on lower prices for customers and better economics for restaurants. On the other hand, Swiggy also launched Toing for budget-conscious consumers. Whereas Zomato’s Bistro is also dominating the food delivery space.