It appears that food delivery major Swiggy is going through a rough patch, since it has shut down two of its services..
It has halted its pick-and-drop service Genie in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
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Why?
A spokesperson said that the service is “temporarily unavailable in 3 out of the 68 cities”.
The ongoing IPL and festive season has led to a surge in demand for orders fulfilled by both the food marketplace and Instamart.
So it has to prioritise these deliveries and will “resume Genie in the impacted cities soon.”
Another issue is the shortage of delivery executives.
Delivery Worker Shortage
The monthly attrition rate in the food tech and quick commerce industry is 18-20 percent.
In order to fulfil orders amidst an ongoing surge, quick commerce cos have been hiring delivery executives for their 10-minute delivery model with higher payouts.
Thereby it is taking away workers that food apps like Swiggy would employ.
Staffing companies like Teamlease and Quess Corp have reported high demand for delivery executives in the quick commerce space.
Supr Daily Shut
Swiggy is also suspending operations of its subscription-based delivery service, Supr Daily, in five cities since it is not profitable.
It is one among other consumer internet companies that are looking to cut costs in an increasingly challenging environment.
While Genie’s suspension is temporary and due to surge in demand and shortage of delivery workers, Supr Daily is being scaled down for business reasons.
Supr Daily was founded by IIT Bombay graduates Shreyas Nagdawane and Puneet Kumar in 2015 which Swiggy acquired in 2018.
Transition Plan
CEO Phani Kishan said in an internal email that there is no clear path to profitability established.
This has led to a situation where they end up spending a significant amount of time & money in managing the business which took away attention from primary goals.
With this development Supr Daily will no longer be operational in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Kishan said that they have a “detailed transition and closure plan” to help customers as well as brand and vendor partners with the transition.