Flipkart Starts Employee Testing of Its 'Eat In' Food Delivery Service in Bengaluru, Taking Aim at Zomato and Swiggy
Walmart-backed Flipkart has begun testing its food delivery platform Eat In among its own employees in Bengaluru, marking the e-commerce giant's first real step into a market currently dominated by Zomato and Swiggy.
Here's how the rollout is structured. According to sources cited by Moneycontrol, the service is expected to expand to all Flipkart employees in Bengaluru around September 15, before opening up to actual consumers in the city. For now, Eat In will operate within the main Flipkart app itself, though the company may eventually launch a separate standalone app as the business scales, similar to how many competitors have grown their food delivery offerings.
The strategic thinking behind this move traces back to July, when Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy first confirmed the company's food delivery plans. He said Flipkart wanted the platform to compete on more than just price, focusing equally on selection, service quality, reliability and overall customer experience, rather than rushing a broad launch before the product was ready.
The technical backbone matters here too. Eat In is being built in partnership with the Open Network for Digital Commerce, or ONDC, and Flipkart has also been working on a lower commission structure for restaurants, a detail that could matter a lot in a market where restaurant partners have long complained about steep platform fees.
The competitive landscape Flipkart is stepping into is already shifting fast. Rapido's zero-commission food delivery service Ownly recently crossed 50,000 daily orders in Bengaluru, accounting for roughly 10% of the city's estimated daily food delivery volume, while Swiggy's own lower-cost offering, Toing, has been scaling rapidly as well. Employee testing gives Flipkart a controlled environment to iron out its operating model, pricing and logistics before it takes on two deeply entrenched incumbents in one of India's most competitive digital consumer categories.
From marketplace giant to food delivery challenger, Flipkart's quiet employee pilot in Bengaluru could be the opening move in reshaping India's food delivery war.
#StartupNews #Flipkart #EatIn #FoodDelivery #Zomato #Swiggy #IndianStartups
— Sandeep Raiza