Dropezy and Its Mission Make Daily Shopping Easy With Small and Repeatable Quantities

In the midst of the proliferation of services online groceries present during the pandemic, still has gaps that go unnoticed. One of them is the inconvenience when consumers have to order products with predetermined minimum conditions.

Dropezy playing this opportunity with a focus on delivery in micro quantities, allowing consumers to order from just one product at affordable shipping costs. Quoting from various findings, for example those conducted by BPS, found that shopping transactions for food ingredients increased sharply by up to 51%.

However, as people are advised to avoid crowded public places - such as markets and supermarkets - they are turning to digital platforms. That's why, around 46% BPS respondents admitted to buying basic needs through shopping apps online.

The micro concept was deliberately chosen to suit the shopping preferences of consumers in Indonesia who are fond of the subscription system. Based on the results of Nielsen's research during the pandemic, as many as 71% of Indonesians shop for fresh food on a daily basis.

Nitesh Chellaram and Chandni Chainani decided to take Dropezy seriously with experience from their previous jobs. Nitesh previously led online recruitment startup Talent Search Recruitment helping companies such as Oyo Rooms, Gojek, and Tokopedia in recruiting the best talent. He also helps the family business in the field of FMCG which has been running for decades.

Meanwhile, Chandni is strong in the field of Sales after working for various startups, such as Zomato, Matahari Mall, and Zilingo Indonesia. Combining the strengths of the two, finally Dropezy was initiated at the end of 2019.

To DailySocial, Nitesh said although there are many platforms online but the inconvenience factor is still not optimal because consumers still have to buy daily necessities in smaller quantities. Existing applications currently set a high minimum order limit, not to mention expensive shipping costs.

"In addition, there is no single platform that is able to meet all household needs. Even though when ordering online, but there are goods that are not met, finally consumers have to go to the supermarket to meet these needs. We started Dropezy to fix this problem."

Dropezy business model

The company positioned itself as a platform for daily necessities (daily needs platform), no grocery platform. With this concept, consumers can buy in smaller quantities several times a month. “We believe in the concept of 'Buy small, eat fresh' and 'Top up, don't stock up'. We believe that Indonesians do not like to make bulk purchases at the beginning of the month, but prefer to buy in small quantities every day or on different days.”

He continued, “Also Indonesians prefer to buy fresh and not store in their homes. Indonesians also love to go to the market and buy from their Subscriptions all the time. This is what we are trying to emulate. By making Dropezy a subscription, where they can come and shop every few days in fewer quantities, fresh and only pay a small amount of postage without minimum order. "

The company buys daily products from principal brands, distributors, agents, wholesalers, and B2B partners to resell to Dropezy consumers. As a result, all products purchased from Dropezy come directly from the company's warehouse with its own logistics. “Because the source is direct from the principal, we can make a decent margin.”

All orders will be sent the next day, not applicable minimum order, shipping costs start from Rp. 5 thousand (free if you spend more than Rp. 150 thousand), and there is a new feature, namely repeat orders (recurring) to accommodate consumers can choose items in advance and plan to continue ordering them regularly.

Meanwhile, Dropezy only serves delivery for the Jakarta area. The users are mothers from the millennial generation and recently, since the pandemic, men who are lazy or afraid to shop outside have started to appear.

“Covid-19 has been a blessing in disguise for us. It used to be difficult to convince someone to shop for groceries online, but Covid-19 has done the job for us. And we believe that even when Covid-19 ends, people who are used to shopping online will continue. Behavior has been changed."

With such bright prospects, the company managed to pocket pre-start funding with undisclosed value from Taurus Ventures and Kopi Kenangan Fund. These fresh funds will be used to upgrade the platform, recruit new talent, add new features, set up a micro distribution hub to ensure fast and efficient delivery.

Then, develop private label for more stock holding units (SKUs) and introducing payment methods “paylater" "We will launch the Dropezy application next month (read: April 2021), expand our warehouse & focus on marketing to reach new customers," he concluded.