Mediaboss Marketing

Food delivery app Swiggy is in the early stages of launching a new social commerce vertical named Swiggy Bazaar.

According to the company's job postings on LinkedIn and GetWork, the SoftBank-backed unicorn is looking to set up a vertical that will focus on community group buying for groceries, including fresh supplies, with the possibility of adding more categories in future.

Swiggy has been conducting a combination of external as well as internal hiring including for several technology roles - to build the vertical.

The Bengaluru-based startup, which is in talks to raise funds from Invesco and others at a $10 billion valuation, is ramping up its non-food delivery verticals - such as hyperlocal grocery and essentials delivery service Instamart - which contribute almost 25% to its total revenue.

The company did not immediately respond to ET's queries seeking comment. News portal Entrackr was the first to report the development.

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Social commerce platform DealShare uses the community group buying model and Meesho, which is also backed by SoftBank, ventured into group buying for groceries earlier this year through Farmiso.

ET reported last month that Meesho, which raised $570 million led by Fidelity and B Capital, plans to use some of the new capital to scale up its grocery business.

DealShare, which recently raised $144 million from New York-based investment firm Tiger Global, is also in talks to raise $150-$200 million as competition intensifies in the space.

This is one of the three models typically used by social commerce platforms, along with the reseller model which Meesho pioneered and live commerce, by Trell.

Earlier this year, Walmart-owned Flipkart also ventured into social commerce through Shopsy, which claims to have amassed over 250,000 sellers since launch a little over three months ago. Shopsy is not available for groceries as of now.

A handful of social commerce startups like Meesho, DealShare, Otipy, and CityMall have attracted investors this year, especially those focussed on fresh groceries and packaged goods.

According to an analysis by market research firm RedSeer, the group buying market has been pegged at $50 million as of 2020 in India.

In a community buying group, a local influencer or community leader works with the platform and usually receives commissions for each order. These local influencers are well entrenched in their communities and trusted by those in the neighbourhood, which helps garner more customers for the platform.

Local influencers are responsible for ordering and delivering the orders in their locality. Social commerce companies incentivise them through monetary benefits, as these influencers help them tap into tier 2 cities and beyond.

According to Swiggy's post on LinkedIn, the manager's role will include experimenting with community-based marketing initiatives across social channels, including building and leading a team of community leaders.

Being a social commerce business, Bazaar will experiment with novel community-based marketing strategies, that you will help conceptualise and execute, according to the job posting.

Read more:
Swiggy to test social commerce for group buying of groceries - Economic Times