Eliminating Checkout Price Shock on Swiggy with Real-Time Fee Visibility
A Swiggy write-up on why the real order total only appears at checkout, and how to surface it sooner
✳The problem they went after
Swiggy users browse at menu prices, then meet platform fees, delivery charges and packaging costs at checkout. The number jumps and people edit their cart, open a competitor app, or drop the order. It happens at the highest-intent moment in the funnel, so every abandonment wastes acquisition spend and teaches users not to trust the price they see while browsing.
✳What they actually did
The root cause work splits the symptom three ways: fees show up too late, charges vary restaurant to restaurant so budgeting upfront is impossible, and the final-step shock breaks trust. Twelve ideas came out of that, including a true cost sort filter, a trust pricing badge and a budget lock. RICE scoring cut it to three: all-inclusive price tags on restaurant cards, a running total banner during browsing, and a real-time total estimator on the menu page.
✳What you can take from it
Worth stealing
- Twelve ideas mapped back to three named root causes
- RICE scoring narrows twelve options down to three
- All-inclusive price tags on restaurant cards
- Running total banner visible throughout browsing
Read this if
Working on checkout abandonment or price transparency in a marketplace app
The transferable bitOne visible symptom is tied to distinct root causes and the scoring does the cutting. The three winners share a trait worth noticing: none of them adds new information, they only move existing information earlier in the flow. That is why they land as low-to-medium effort while still scoring high on reach and confidence.
✳The submission itself
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