Flipkart To Compete With Zomato And Swiggy With Its ‘Eat-In By Minutes’: Launch Date, Features, And More

Flipkart is all set to enter India’s growing food-delivery market with a brand new service, Eat-in by Minutes. The Walmart-backed e-commerce giant is rolling out the service in Bengaluru and is expected to go public by the end of this month. 

As per a report by TechCrunch, the trial is currently being conducted at Flipkart’s headquarters in Bengaluru for employees only. The site features restaurants that are part of the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), as well as those that have directly signed up with Flipkart.

The company is also working on another delivery system via its logistics arm, Ekart. These will be riders who will order food on their own, instead of the Food Team for Flipkart Minutes. It has been reported that T-shirts imprinted with the Eat-in by Minutes logo have been spotted by delivery boys in Bengaluru. 

According to Sagar Daryani, president of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), Flipkart has announced that Eat-in by Minutes will go live by the end of October and expand to five to six cities by the end of this year.

READ | “Pizza Chahiye,” Domino’s Pizza Seller Inside Train Leaves Passenger Stunned

This move would provide an additional platform for customers to place food orders and may give Zomato and Swiggy competition. While Zomato and Swiggy charge restaurants 20 to 25 per cent commission, Flipkart has put a base commission of about 10 per cent, Sagar Daryani told the outlet. 

Despite the low commission rate, the brand-new food delivery service may face strong competition from Rapido’s Ownly, which works on a zero-commission basis with restaurants. On the other hand, Swiggy’s budget service, Toing, is also expected to pose a challenge for Flipkart.

Flipkart is not the first deep-pocketed company to try breaking into India’s food-delivery market. Previously, in 2020, Amazon launched a food-ordering service in Bengaluru, but it shut the service down two years later. Google’s Areo app, which offered food ordering alongside other services, also failed to gain traction. Uber also left the market in 2020, selling its Uber Eats business in India to Zomato.

READ | “This Is So Thoughtful:” Woman Praises Zomato After Receiving Unexpected Call