Super Baniya Shift: 11 PM to 4 AM

With Nightcall.in becoming popular,they have expanded their list of items to include chips and cup noodles.

While the brains behind this delivery service keep their identities under wraps,another group has started FlyByKnight.in,perhaps to replicate the success of Nightcall.in. However,the operations of FlyByKnight.in will be confined to the suburban areas,between Bandra and Andheri. Set up by writer Sanjiv Nair and former Google solutions consultant Neha Jain,FlyByKnight goes a step ahead by stocking up on various items one might require during graveyard hours — sanitary napkins and contraceptives included. “Our target audience isn’t just the people who party,” says Jain,taking a break from working on the website before it goes live next week. “There are a lot of people who work in film and television industries and even BPOs. They don’t have time to concentrate on the basics until they get home late at night,” he adds.

MADOrders.com is yet another service,specifically designed for night owls,but with a difference. For hungry souls,they deliver food items such as pav bhaji,grilled sandwiches and even green tea tiramisu between 9 pm and 7 am daily. Similarly,Titbit.com offers to deliver food from restaurants that deliver for free,or place orders at establishments that don’t offer the service. A recent addition to online delivery service is LocalBaniya.com. The service,which went live on May 10,delivers over 400 items — from groceries to cleaning supplies. Again,the idea for this came from personal experience. “My parents and I are always out on work and have no time to do grocery shopping,” says 27-year-old Karan Mehrotra,one of the partners with LocalBaniya.com. “There is a genuine need for supplies online and people aren’t hesitant to turn to e-commerce shop sites,” says he.

These services,mostly started by young professionals,are increasingly appealing to the net-savvy customers who do not mind shelling out extra money for home service. NightCall and FlybyKnight charge customers a flat amount of Rs 50 on each order,whereas LocalBaniya insists on a minimum spending of Rs 500. Apart from Facebook pages and Twitter handles,they are also employing other ways to draw attention. FlyByKnight.in has a masked vigilante in black socks and short underpants as its mascot,whereas LocalBaniya.com has a pot-bellied mustachioed man. He dons different avatars including ‘SuperBaniya’ who aims to fight inflation by offering goods like onions,sugar and rice at prices lower than the market rate.

However,what drives these ventures is business opportunity. For Titbit.com and DeliveryChef.in,the idea was to bring to Mumbai an experience much like the New York City-based Seamless.com. “Slowly everything in India,from movie tickets to food,is available online,” says Aditi Talreja,one of the founders of DeliveryChef.in which has special accounts for corporate organisations working overtime. “Ordering online is both convenient and cost-effective. And that’s helping our business too,” says she.