Swiggy suspends loyalty program Swiggy Super

While Zomato has been maintaining its excitement with reward and loyalty program Gold even in the ongoing lockdown, its arch-rival Swiggy has suspended its only loyalty product ‘Swiggy Super’ for an indefinite period of time.

“We ran out of subscriptions. Back with more soon,” reflects the company’s website when we tried to get a Swiggy Super subscription. Swiggy’s spokesperson has confirmed the development to Entrackr but declined to share more details at the moment.

Swiggy rolled out its subscription program in September 2018 to allow users to avail unlimited free deliveries and dessert or beverage (on select orders). To drive adoption, it kept competitive prices for the subscription plan starting from Rs 79. Later in the second half of 2019, the monthly plan was hiked to Rs 149 whereas quarterly plan prices doubled to Rs 349.

Meanwhile, a Moneycontrol report said that Swiggy suspended the program as of now and there is no timeline of bringing it back.

Entrackr sources emphasised that sudden collapse of volume right after the first phase of lockdown pushed companies like Swiggy to revisit existing strategies and prioritise important avenues that can bring revenue and profitability. “If we look at recent calls taken by the company, it’s responding to the crisis boldly,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity.

Over the past few weeks, Swiggy laid a plan to downsize the cloud kitchen business by 50% and cut jobs of up to 900 employees. It also began a pilot of DIY food kits and started trying out dark stores through UrbanKirana.

“Renewal of subscription plans by users in the current situation is very little.  It’s also difficult for Swiggy to treat customers when restaurant partners aren’t operational. Restaurants won’t like to continue the existing contracts and partnership. Holding off Swiggy Super until the crisis gets over seems like a well-thought step,” added the above-quoted person.

Its rival Zomato, on the other side, had extended Gold membership by four more months across India and 8 other countries. According to Alipay-backed company, around 26,300 Gold users renewed their membership in April.

Besides, Zomato had also launched a fund named ‘Zomato Gold Support Fund’ to help restaurant workers including housekeepers, cooks, and servants. Till mid-April, it had raised over Rs 2 crore for the Gold Support Fund through the contributions of 18500+ individuals.