Bengaluru: You can order food on Flipkart from August 15
What's the story
Walmart-owned Flipkart is gearing up to launch its food delivery service in Bengaluru, possibly around August 15. The company has already started onboarding restaurants across the city, according to several restaurant partners speaking to Moneycontrol. This will mark Flipkart's entry into a market dominated by Zomato and Swiggy for years.
Pricing strategy
Competitive commission rate to onboard restaurants
Flipkart is offering a commission rate of around 10% to onboard restaurants. This is much lower than the 16-30% charged by existing platforms.
The move is part of Flipkart's strategy to position itself as a cost-effective alternative for restaurants, without completely eliminating commissions.
The company will first pilot the service before rolling it out nationwide.
Operational model
Building on ONDC framework
Unlike traditional food delivery platforms, Flipkart is building its offering on the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
This allows the company to leverage an open network instead of creating a closed marketplace from scratch.
Ashish Vijayvergiya, former chief of staff to CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, is leading this new initiative at Flipkart.
Testing phase
Phased rollout for food delivery service
Krishnamurthy had previously confirmed that the company would enter food delivery "over the coming weeks" in a phased manner.
He said Flipkart would first test the product with a limited set of users, gather customer feedback, and refine it before scaling.
This strategy is similar to what they did with Flipkart Minutes.
Service availability
Availability and merchant onboarding
Flipkart's food delivery services will be available on its main app as well as a dedicated standalone food delivery app.
The company has already started signing up merchants and conducting operational readiness exercises ahead of the planned rollout.
The initial launch will be limited to Bengaluru before expanding to other cities.