Swiggy Genie halts pick-up, delivery services in 3 cities

Swiggy has temporarily shut the operations of its pick-up and drop-off service Swiggy Genie in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru due to shortage of gig workers.

“Due to operational stress in your city we are temporarily unavailable. We will be back soon,” the service app said.

When contacted, Swiggy said in a statement: “Swiggy Genie is temporarily unavailable in 3 out of the 68 cities. The cricketing and festive season has resulted in a surge in demand for servicing the requirements for both the food marketplace and Instamart, requiring us to prioritise these deliveries accordingly. We hope to resume Swiggy Genie in the impacted cities soon”.

According to a report, food and grocery delivery companies have been unable to increase payouts to their riders, amid spiraling fuel prices and overall inflation in the economy.

The fast-paced growth of quick commerce also has led to the shortage of gig workers in metro cities.

According to RedSeer, the market penetration of quick commerce was estimated at $ 0.3 billion in

CY2021 and is expected to grow 10-15x in the next 5 years, that is $5 billion by

2025.

Around 20 million households are addressable by quick commerce with an estimated addressable market size of $50 billion in 2020. Quick commerce is defined as delivery of consumables within a span of 45 minutes with a nominal delivery charge.

“Quick Commerce is emerging as one of the fastest growing e-commerce models serving the need for faster delivery among convenience seeking customers,” said Mukesh Kumar, engagement manager at RedSeer.

SWIGGY SAID the cricketing and festive season has resulted in a surge in demand for servicing the requirements for both the food marketplace and Instamart, requiring us to prioritise deliveries accordingly.