Swiggy shuts premium grocery delivery unit 'Handpicked'

Handpicked was being piloted in a few zones in Bengaluru.

Prosus-backed food tech giant, Swiggy has shuttered its premium grocery delivery pilot Handpicked, which was functional in certain areas of Bengaluru.

Handpicked has been shut just days after Moneycontrol reported that the SoftBank-backed giant had begun charging users a “platform fee” of Rs 2 per order, irrespective of the cart value, as the company looks to control its costs.

"Handpicked was being piloted in a few zones in Bengaluru and we have had several positive learnings from it," a Swiggy spokesperson told Moneycontrol.

"At Swiggy we're continuously experimenting with new propositions in line with our vision to enable unparalleled convenience to consumers. Handpicked was being piloted in a few zones in Bengaluru and we have had several positive learnings from it," they added.

Handpicked was Swiggy’s attempt at delivering only premium grocery items, such as rarely available soft drinks. The company will continue to sell some of the products previously available on Handpicked but through Instamart, its quick commerce division, and Insanely Good, where Swiggy delivers fresh fruits, and vegetables, among others, by 7 am, if ordered the previous night.

While Swiggy has shut divisions like Handpicked and meat delivery as they did not yield desired results and also to reduce the company’s overall costs, it is also toying with newer verticals like Swiggy Maxx, its e-commerce-like platform.

“While we continue to be fully committed to exploring new business opportunities, we have also taken a harder look at some of our existing new verticals…we haven’t hit product-market fit here (meat delivery) despite our iterations…We will continue to stay invested in all other new verticals,” Sriharsha Majety had told employees in an email that informed the wider company about the company's layoffs. Swiggy laid off 380 employees in January.

These developments also come at a time when Swiggy is seeing some rejig at the top level. The company’s Instamart head, Karthik Gurumurthy, has stepped away from daily operations to take a sabbatical. In his absence, Swiggy’s co-founder, Phani Kishan, will lead the team. Even Dale Vaz, the company’s chief technology officer (CTO), will be parting ways with the company.