Swiggy offers premium grocery delivery with new vertical, Handpicked

Food and grocery delivery company Swiggy is piloting the delivery of premium groceries under its new business vertical, Handpicked, according to reports. Unlike its quick commerce grocery delivery model Instamart, Handpicked will only deliver orders the next day.

In response to detailed queries sent by YourStory, a Swiggy spokesperson said,  “Swiggy Handpicked, an invite-only offering from Swiggy, helps customers discover and purchase groceries, ranging from global favourites to regional and local delights that are not easily accessible. Handpicked is currently under pilot with select users. Stay tuned for more updates."

The Economic Times was the first to report the development. The report said that the service is in pilot mode in Bengaluru and is available to users through invite-only. 

Handpicked lists out premium products including specific variants of brands available only in the overseas markets, such as Coca Cola’s Cherry Cola. It also lists premium local offerings such as Kombucha made by local brands, apart from ready-to-cook meats, spreads, and region-specific food, said the report. 

This is one of the diversification measures being adopted by Swiggy. In May, 2022, Swiggy started piloting its storefront for Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands under the Minis vertical. Local businesses and D2C brands can set up their own store front on the Swiggy app under Minis at zero commission.

Swiggy also acquired dining and restaurant tech platform Dineout in May, 2022, tying in offers for its Swiggy One member customers for eating out at partner restaurants. 

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According to Swiggy investor Prosus, the company’s food delivery arm grew by 40% in the six-month period of January to July, in terms of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). GMV refers to the total value of goods sold by an ecommerce platform over a specific period of time.

The  food delivery arm recorded GMV of $1.3 billion during the period, while its quick commerce vertical Instamart grew to $257 million during the same period. 

Close competitor and publicly listed entity Zomato also forayed into the quick commerce segment in 2022 with the acquisition of Blinkit. It is now leveraging Blinkit to try out delivery of partner D2C brands.