The Death (and reinvention) of loyalty in India’s online shopping

The food delivery wars were supposed to be over. Everyone assumed that Swiggy and Zomato had graduated to the shinier world of quick commerce, burning billions on 10-minute grocery delivery while their original business settled into what looked like a comfortable duopoly.

But buried in their latest earnings reports lies evidence that the battle never really ended. It just shifted to a different arena, one so commonplace that almost nobody noticed. While investors obsessed over dark store economics and delivery times, Swiggy and Zomato have been quietly undermining each other through their loyalty programmes, slashing prices and trimming benefits until the very concept of customer loyalty has become meaningless.

What started as premium memberships designed to lock in customers has spiralled into something absurd. Swiggy One launched at Rs 899 annually in 2021, Zomato Gold countered this by offering three months for Rs 149, and today Swiggy then started selling the programme for Rs 30 for six months. Now, Zomato is selling Gold for Re1. Each cut triggers another, each reduction demands a response, until both companies find themselves trapped in what one food delivery executive calls “a classic prisoner's dilemma” where the only way to compete is to keep destroying value.