Swiggy Instamart’s variable pricing from same location sparks concerns, company responds
Both Pranav and his wife had ordered from the same location, but while one of them found themselves with a discounted rate in their cart, the other did not.
On May 18, a Swiggy Instamart user took to X to post about the difference in price that he and his wife faced ordering from Swiggy despite ordering from the same delivery location. This put a stop on the general internet hubbub and got people to stop and reevaluate their dependancy on food-delivery apps like these. Are we being overcharged? A question that prevails over many others, now, two days after the post.
X user Pranav B @Prnv_B posted at 11:46AM on May 18, “Looks like @Swiggy Instamart has variable pricing. This is me and my wife ordering from the same location in Bangalore.
Look at the price of the Lavash. Why?” He had then attached two screenshots, one from a supposed Android device that priced the Lavash at Rs 80 from the original Rs 129 and another from an iOS device that priced the Lavash at it’s original, Rs 129, with no discounted amount off. This sparked an online debate on the likelihood of this happened, with many speculating coupons and discounts being applied differentially but Swiggy has not responded on the matter with anything further than it’s initial reply to the tweet.
The official X handle of Swiggy replied, “Hi Pranav, we’d like to check this and know why there is a difference. Can we please have the complete screenshots and registered details via DM?”
As of now, the post has made 214.3k impressions and has garnered 109 replies. While Swiggy is yet to give an update, users have taken to the platform to come up with their own reasoning.
An X user, Udayan Walvekar @udayan_w replied with “One has a coupon code and the other cart doesn’t,” explaining that a coupon code must have been offered to the Android user keeping in mind multiple factors like ‘new user, casual user, hibernating user,’ etc.
The original poster, Pranav, replied to this claim with “No coupon code was applied.” However, it is not always required for discount coupons to be manually applied as they are sometimes offered by the service itself. In case of an automatic discount, the user may not have applied it to the cart but the discount has still been applied. In Pranav’s case, the slashed of original price of Rs. 129 suggests this must be the case, with their being no such discount applied on the other phone.
Another user, harshith.eth @harshith_eth, speculated that the differential factor may be the different operating systems, that is, iOS and Android with an iOS device being overcharged for— well, according to users online, for being an iOS device. To this, X user Maneesh Mohnot @winsplit replied with a sarcastic comment. “I always order using my Nokia 3310 and on top of giving me everything free, they send me extra cash too.” There is also another explanation for this, with a user explaining that iOS and Android has different apps and that each can sometimes fetch a different store at equal proximity to your location depending on stock availability at that store, they adjust the price.
This is in line with another perspective by Abhinay Jain @AbhinayJain6, “I think it is inventory based discount. Maybe they just had one last in stock with discounted price and the next onwards in stock was on full price. It happens.”
Roshan @roshanonline also replied humorously. “Obviously if you buy avacado… you’re rich ;)”
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