Amazon starts competing with Zomato, Swiggy in a few parts of Bengaluru
Amazon India on Thursday said it really is launching its food delivery operations in select elements of Bengaluru, a move which will start to see the e-commerce giant compete against major players like Zomato and Swiggy in the country.
The announcement by Amazon India - which includes been testing the service for a couple months - comes at a time when Zomato and Swiggy have announced laying off over 1,600 employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Customers have already been telling us for quite a while that they would like to order prepared meals on Amazon furthermore to shopping for all other essentials,” an Amazon India spokesperson said.
Amazon Food has been launched in select Bengaluru localities - Mahadevapura, Marathalli, Whitefield and Bellandur covering over 100 restaurants. These include outlets like Box8, Chai point, Chaayos, Faasos, Mad Over Donuts and also restaurants from hotel chains like Radisson and Marriott (Shao, Melange and M Cafe amongst others).
The orders can be put through the Amazon iphone app itself however the option will currently be obvious only to customers who are in localities of certain pin codes.
Amazon’s entry in the meals delivery space is actually a major challenge to Zomato and Swiggy that are the only two major software in the meals delivery market in the united states, especially after Zomato acquired the Indian arm of Uber Eats..
The nationwide lockdown (which started March 25) and resulting impact on business of restaurants has forced Zomato and Swiggy to pare down their staff to the minimum.
In a blogpost the other day, Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal announced that the business was letting set off 13 % of the task force.
Swiggy too let go 1,100 employees, saying COVID-19 pandemic had severely impacted its core food delivery business and cloud kitchen businesses as well.
