It all started with something simple — groceries

I live near a Swiggy Instamart storeroom (dark store), barely 500 meters away. For months, I was amazed by how fast I received my orders. Even at 9 PM. I'd get a knock at my door in 5–7 minutes.

Fast, efficient, and perfect.

But recently, something changed.

After 8 PM, orders started getting delayed. Items would be packed instantly, often within 2 minutes, but then — silence.

They tried to assign a delivery executive from their end and told me to wait for 30 minutes. Then, the order got cancelled. Most of the time, I ended up cancelling it myself after waiting for over 1.5 hours. No groceries, just frustration.

This wasn't a technical error. This was a human capacity mismatch during peak hours — too many orders, too few delivery partners.

But as a user, I had zero visibility into this. I felt ignored.

What if Swiggy simply showed the current executive availability before I placed the order?

Proposals

Proposed user flow

1
Add a banner on the home screen — "Limited delivery partners available"
2
User clicks "Check availability"
3
Opens a page with real-time tracking / availability screen
4
A panel shows current executive availability and expected delay

What the panel shows

Partner availability High Medium Low
Expected delay "Estimated delivery: 20–25 min"
Trust-building note "We're experiencing high demand. Try again in 10 mins for faster delivery."
Delivery partners availability screen showing a map with delivery partner icons, Low availability badge, and Estimated delivery message: We're experiencing high demand. Try again in 10 mins for faster delivery

UI Suggestion — Delivery partner availability screen with map and real-time status

Swiggy home screen with Limited Delivery Partners Available banner — Slight delays expected due to limited delivery partners in your area — Check availability button

UI Suggestion — Delivery partner availability banner on the home screen

A simple heads-up could prevent frustration, cancellations, and operational waste. Win-win situation.

Swiggy already tracks delivery executive availability in real-time. So showing that to users is technically feasible.

Impact

This small UX improvement could have a big impact:

📉
Reducing cancellations — users make informed decisions before placing orders
💰
Saving costs — fewer failed deliveries means less packing and restocking waste
🎧
Reducing support workload — fewer confused, frustrated users contacting support
🤝
Building long-term trust — honesty at the point of ordering earns loyalty

All that — with one little banner.

It takes 50 good deliveries to build trust. It takes just one silent delay to break it. Give users the visibility they deserve.