The key facts

  • Flipkart is testing food delivery on more than 8,000 employees, couriers via Ekart, under the 'Eat-in by Minutes' brand
  • According to Daryani, Flipkart offered a commission of ~10% versus 20–25% at Zomato and Swiggy
  • A public launch is expected by the end of October, with expansion to 5–6 cities by the end of the year

Flipkart enters the food delivery market

Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce giant owned by Walmart, is preparing to challenge the Zomato and Swiggy duopoly in India's food delivery market. According to TechCrunch, citing two sources familiar with the matter, the company is testing the service internally and has expanded the trial from several hundred employees to more than 8,000. Delivery is handled by a dedicated fleet of couriers through the logistics arm Ekart, separate from quick-commerce couriers. The service appears as a separate tab in the main Flipkart app next to the quick-commerce service Minutes and ride booking. Couriers in jerseys branded 'Eat-in by Minutes' are already delivering orders in Bengaluru, where the company is headquartered.

Restaurants and commissions

The assortment is formed from restaurants connected via ONDC — a government-backed network linking online buyers and sellers across different platforms — as well as restaurants with which Flipkart has signed direct agreements. Sagar Daryani, president of the National Restaurant Association of India (more than 500,000 establishments) and co-founder and CEO of the Wow! Momo Foods chain, said: 'A monopoly is bad, but a duopoly is even worse. What one does, the other repeats.' According to him, Flipkart has offered a base commission of about 10% versus the typical 20–25% at Zomato and Swiggy. Factoring in advertising, discounts and promotional spending, restaurants on existing platforms can spend 40–50% of an order's value; Daryani expects Flipkart to keep total costs closer to 15–16%.

The market and competitors

According to a estimate by the brokerage firm Bernstein, India's food delivery market is growing 18–20% a year, but online delivery accounts for just over 15% of the entire food service industry. Zomato (owned by Eternal) and Swiggy together serve, per Bernstein's estimate, 85–95 million paying customers a year. Flipkart is not the only new player: the ride-hailing service Rapido is expanding Ownly, a food delivery service with no commission for restaurants, while Swiggy launched a separate app, Toing, for cheaper orders. Daryani notes what distinguishes Flipkart from its predecessors: Zomato and Swiggy started with food delivery and expanded into quick-commerce, while Flipkart is going the opposite way, using e-commerce and quick-commerce as a springboard. 'Flipkart's quick-commerce advantage will carry over into food delivery, so it will be leaner and more efficient,' he told TechCrunch.

Predecessors' experience and prospects

The market has already buried the ambitions of major players: Amazon launched food ordering in Bengaluru in 2020 and shut the service down two years later; Google's Areo app failed to gain traction; Uber exited the market in 2020, selling Uber Eats in India to Zomato. Bernstein, however, estimates the potential savings for customers from new players at only 20–30 rupees (about 20–30 cents) per order, which may not be enough to lure users away, and incumbent players could respond with deeper discounts. According to Daryani, Flipkart told restaurants of plans for a public launch by the end of October and expansion to five or six cities by the end of the year. The expansion comes amid uncertainty over Flipkart's long-awaited IPO: CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy recently declined to name a timeline for the listing. Competition in Indian e-commerce is intensifying — quick-commerce platforms that started with grocery delivery are now even selling the newest iPhones, competing directly with Flipkart and Amazon. Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment.