Swiggy transforms Minis into a link-in-bio platform
Indian food delivery and quick commerce startup Swiggy is venturing into the world of link-building to expand its customer base. Swiggy Minis, originally designed as a Shopify alternative for small businesses to create their own online stores, is now transitioning into a link-in-bio service similar to Linktree. Minis will now also cater to service providers such as nutritionists and fitness trainers.
When contacted for a comment, Swiggy mentioned that it has revamped Minis' homepage to focus on repeat purchases.
As a SaaS platform, the main goal of Minis is to enable sellers to quickly create operational websites. Swiggy stated that they have noticed significant traction coming from sellers' social media pages, prompting the decision to prioritize this channel for discovery," a Swiggy spokesperson told TechCrunch.
However, low usage may have been an issue. In an email newsletter sent to sellers, the company revealed that only 5%-10% of customers were directly accessing merchants' store pages through Swiggy Minis.
Swiggy Minis will now serve as a landing page where sellers can direct their target customers from their social media pages. The company also announced that they will soon integrate with Google Calendar to provide a booking module for service providers.
In 2022, Swiggy launched Minis as an experiment to offer a no-code Shopify alternative for small sellers. It allowed merchants to create sites, upload catalogs, and manage orders, shipping, and transactions without commission fees. The platform also featured a discoverable marketplace within the Swiggy app for users to find these stores. With this update, the startup is removing the discovery layer on Minis, but customers can still access their saved or past orders.
Sellers using Minis can create pages with multiple social links and themes, all while maintaining the no-commission policy. The company is expanding its service to include digital offerings from various service providers and is introducing Google Reviews as a rating system.
Swiggy has informed sellers about the removal of the discovery layer for shops. While merchants who relied on Swiggy Minis for customer reach will need to find alternative promotion methods, the company claims that Minis still offers better conversion rates and the ability to retain repeat customers.
Other link-in-bio services, like Linktree, offer both appointment booking and storefronts. Swiggy, which is planning for an IPO in India, has focused on expanding its quick commerce platform Instamart. It competes with rivals such as Zomato and Zepto in the quick commerce space.
While BlinkIt and Zepto collaborate with brands for selling products and promotions, they lack a SaaS product for small sellers and creators.