Swiggy launches Maxx to offer e-commerce-like experience in an hour

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Food delivery platform Swiggy is toying with yet another vertical to continue on its expansion path. The company has now launched Maxx through which it will deliver stationary and craft items, baby and kid care essentials, and pet products, among several others.

The pilot currently delivers only to certain regions of Bengaluru, and Swiggy is understood to expand to other regions and categories based on the results it yields from the current foray.

Maxx is the latest category to be added to Swiggy’s bouquet of offerings, after Insanely Good, Minis and Handpicked. With Maxx, Swiggy aims to be present in the spot which falls above the quick-commerce space but below e-commerce. Meaning, Maxx’s stock-keeping units (SKUs) will be at least two times more than Instamart’s 5,000, but much lower than around a million products that Amazon and Flipkart sell.

To try and avoid any overlap between Instamart, Swiggy’s quick-commerce arm, and Maxx, the latter will not deliver daily essentials like fresh vegetables, other grocery items, and products that are of immediate need, but instead offer a wider range of SKUs, across several other categories, giving customers more options to choose from.

It is understood that most categories on Maxx will be home and family-centric and will be delivered in an hour’s time, much quicker than next-day deliveries that e-commerce websites offer but slightly slower than quick-commerce orders. Maxx is currently presented as another tab on Swiggy’s app, alongside Genie and others.

“Customers trust Swiggy for the speed and unparalleled convenience we have brought across categories such as food delivery and quick commerce. Maxx aims to be the destination for a wide variety of home and family shopping needs, delivered in one hour. We are currently running a pilot program in Bengaluru. Stay tuned for more updates,” said a Swiggy spokesperson.

Maxx’s introduction comes at a time when Swiggy’s rivals, like Blinkit, Zepto, and Dunzo have been adding products like lipsticks, iPhones, books, and others to diversify their offerings and increase customer retention.

The need to diversify was also likely because Swiggy’s core business was not growing as fast as estimated. Sriharsha Majety, CEO and co-founder, Swiggy had earlier told employees that the growth rate for the food delivery business — for Swiggy and its peers — has slowed versus its own projections. Majety however said the company would continue to explore new business opportunities if they demonstrate the right product-market fit.