Battling Tough Times: What Is Swiggy's Modus Operandi For The Rest Of 2016! Company targets daily average of 1 lakh orders for Dec, 2016.
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Running a food-tech portal could be a herculean task today! A string of shutdowns, feeble funding—Adding to the chaos Zomato's markdown came as a huge blow to the ailing food-tech sector this year.
Amid industry pessimism, Swiggy co-founder Nandan Reddy tells us what he thinks is the best way to keep calm and run the show, as the food-tech portal sets its eyes on a daily average of 1 lakh orders for Dec, 2016.
The portal today partnered with several international Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) like McDonalds, Burger King, Subway and more; and believes that QSRs are set to become a huge-trend setter in India. Nandan said that at the end of the day a consumer wants quick and seamless access to all the best brands in the food sector, while sitting in front of the computer.
Nandan wishes to see more international QSRs enter India and wishes to partner with several of them in future.
Basic challenges that the company faced
Talking about some of the major challenges the company faced as a food portal, Nadan said that one challenge was to accurately predict how much time it would take for food to be delivered to the consumer and that there are no delays in orders. Secondly, how does one maintain a large delivery fleet and maintain efficiency and how does the portal convince the consumer about the convenience of ordering online.
Battling the food-tech downturn
Swiggy is backed by marquee investors which includes Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and DST Global.
Nandan said that the company decided to focus on fundamentals and decided not to splurge on discounts and decided to expand gradually in a calculated fashion. "Our marketing resources were only spent on customers who would come on board without any discounts," he said.
Nandan said the company doesn't plan to raise new round of funds at the moment.
Talking about battling tough times Nandan asserted that, "We have seen the cycle go up and down. It didn't really affect us because as I said that we have built our business on really strong fundamentals," he added
Downturn, not new!
According to him every sector has seen a cycle of highs and lows, be it e-commerce, taxi aggregators and the downturn in food tech space isn't specifically related to the food-tech space.
How Should a Food-Tech Portal Function Today?
"Any business that strong fundamentals, strong virality, product market fit will be able to survive," he said.
With regards to managing logistics, one of the key factors that determine the working of a portal, Nandan said that biggest factor is managing efficiency. Calculating the number of deliveries a delivery boy can do in a day versus demand is a crucial, he added.
