With the lockdown due to coronavirus having been in place for over a month, home delivery of supplies for many in urban India has gone from being an option to a necessity. The likes of Zomato and Swiggy have gone beyond their role of food aggregator apps to delivering essential groceries since April.
Now, Zomato may be eyeing an entry to another novel field: Home delivery of liquor. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Zomato, industry body International Spirits and Wines Association of India (ISWAI) and others are currently lobbying with the government for making legal provisions for home delivery of alcohol to homes in India.
Reuters reported Zomato had expressed interest in home delivery of liquor in a business proposal made to ISWAI in mid-April. Reuters reported that Mohit Gupta, Zomato CEO for food delivery, wrote to ISWAI “We believe that a technology-enabled home delivery-based solution can promote responsible consumption of alcohol." In the proposal, Zomato states it would target "areas that are relatively less affected by COVID-19".
ISWAI has been pushing for allowing home delivery of liquor. “The challenge is to ensure revenue from alcohol continues to be available... It is imperative they (states) reduce the load on the retail counter ... by encouraging home delivery," ISWAI executive chairman Amrit Kiran Singh told Reuters. Singh said ISWAI had also contacted Swiggy.
The news of Zomato eyeing an entry into home delivery of liquor comes as the Chhattisgarh and Punjab governments announced they would commence home delivery of liquor. Liquor stores in most states reopened earlier this week after being closed for over 40 days. However, unruly crowds, lathi-charges and scuffles were reported from a number of places, highlighting the difficulty in maintaining social distancing when using the classical retail sales method.
Quoting a research group’s analysis, Reuters estimated India’s market for alcoholic beverages was worth almost $27.2 billion in 2018.
