Zomato launches online grocery delivery services

Online food ordering and delivery app Zomato has forayed into the grocery delivery segment under ‘Zomato Market’, offering to deliver and in turn looking to encash on the demand for such services that have opened up now. 

The service will benefit those looking for groceries to be delivered at their doorstep due to the nationwide lockdown in place to counter the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

So far, the Gurugram-headquartered company has launched this service in Kerala, Punjab and Delhi. Shashi Tharoor, a lawmaker from Kerala, confirmed the development via a tweet.

@ZomatoIN starts a platform for online grocery delivery in Kerala in association with SupplyCo. Operations in Kochi, Trivandrum, Kottayam & Thrissur, said Tharoor in his tweet.

Zomato’s foray into the grocery segment comes at a time when online grocers are witnessing high volume growth in orders largely due to the strict enforcement of stay-at-home orders of the authorities to ensure social distancing norms.

At a time when people are a bit apprehensive about ordering cooked food, Zomato’s latest service will surely help in creating a space for itself in the grocery segment. 

In fact, the firm was preparing to add grocery segment on its app for the past few months. The firm was also in advanced talks with online grocery retailers Grofers and BigBasket for a partnership. However, there is no confirmation on this yet.

It's worth noting that Zomato’s rival Swiggy had already been offering groceries through ‘Swiggy Stores’ for over a year.

To explore monetisation opportunity for its reseller network, Meesho had started offering grocery segment with a long term strategy. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development early this week.

Other notable companies who have started grocery delivery include Snapdeal, BharatPe, DealShare, JioMart, NoBroker and ShopClues among others.