Swiggy begins home delivery of alcohol

Swiggy has enabled home delivery of alcohol through the ‘Wine Shops’ category on its app. The service went live in Ranchi today after obtaining necessary approvals from the Jharkhand government, with other major cities in the state launching within a week.

Meanwhile, the foodtech unicorn is also in advanced stages of discussions with multiple state governments to provide support with online processing and home delivery of alcohol.

Swiggy is partnering with authorized retailers after validating their license and other required documents as outlined by the respective state governments.

This is the new addition by Swiggy whose core business has been down by over 80-90% in the past two months. It’s also experimenting with Blue Apron kind of DIY meal kits and dark store model - Urban Kirana. It also expanded grocery ordering service Swiggy Stores across many cities.

By enabling home delivery of alcohol in a safe and responsible manner, we can generate additional business for retail outlets while solving the problem of overcrowding, thereby promoting social distancing,” said Anuj Rathi, VP - Products, Swiggy.

Swiggy’s rival Zomato has also been planning to enable the delivery of alcoholic beverages and it will start delivering in major cities of Jharkhand by this Friday.

Swiggy will do all mandatory checks, including age verification and user authentication to complete deliveries. Customers can complete their instant age verification by uploading a picture of their valid government ID, followed by a selfie which the platform will use for authentication using an AI-powered system.

All orders will carry a unique OTP which needs to be provided by the customer at the time of delivery. There is also a capping on the order quantity to ensure a customer does not order alcohol above the prescribed limit as per the state law.