1. Startups

Challenges and Experiences During the "Online Grocery" Business Pivot during a Pandemic

Learn from Co-founder & COO Dropezy Nitesh Chellaram in the #TuesdayStartup session

One of the drastic changes that we have seen during the pandemic is the heavy consumer demand for daily necessities delivery services (Grocery). And the trend is still ongoing today.

For Co-founders and COO Dropezy Nitesh Chellaram, this is a valuable opportunity to improve its services as well as learn interesting trends based on changes in consumer behavior in Indonesia.

What were the experiences and how did Dropezy go through the challenges? For more details, see the summary of the #TuesdayStartup session with Dropezy below.

Business adjustments during the pandemic

Dropezy is one of the startups who made business adjustments when the Covid-19 outbreak first occurred. Initially, Dropezy used the model marketplace to serve needs Grocery. However, it was difficult to operate considering that the supermarket was closed at the time.

His party then made business adjustments to pivot to model stock-up inventory where Dropezy stock products grocery. According to him, this model is appropriate if you look at the shopping behavior of some Indonesian people who like to shop for fresh food needs on a daily basis, not monthly.

"Initially we met the needs of consumers by sending a team to process orders at the supermarket. Then we changed to inventory where anyone can order in small quantities. It becomes value added that it tries to offer compared to other similar players.

"There was indeed a challenge at that time because if the message to principal, there is minimum quantity (MoQ). Our position was not great at that time. But we were finally able to overcome the issue because the community started shifting ke online and people started using Dropezy," he said.

Learn new things from pivot

From this business adjustment, Nitesh admitted that he encountered a number of experiences that became meaningful lessons in building a business online groceries. Remember Dropezy changes its service model, there are new things they need to understand.

In order to supply item inventory, it automatically requires warehouse/inventory the big one. In addition, his party must also understand how to supply items because each item has a different shelf life. Not to mention, his party must ensure that the items in stock are not damaged until the time is right to replenish the inventory.

It also has to ensure that the price of the products they install will not be much different from the price on the market. "All these things helped us to get to where Dropezy is today," he added.

It didn't stop there, said Nitesh, the pandemic situation pushed Dropezy to be able to improve the consumer shopping experience. One of them is developing personalized experience analytics-based that helps consumers to order items by involving other product recommendations.

Customer satisfaction

When he decided to establish Dropezy, Nitesh admitted that he did not do much market research. They immediately plunged into developing the business online groceries armed with personal experiences that he felt when shopping for daily necessities.

Without underestimating the importance of market research, he believes that personal experience can help him to solve problems in the industry online grocery. "From here, we start to learn about consumer behavior Grocery in Indonesia," he said.

For example, regarding customer satisfaction. He considered this aspect not only limited to the quality of the product, but the service as a whole. Therefore, it prefers to handle orders individually end to end, starting from ordering, picking up, to delivery of goods to consumers.

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"We also saw fulfillment as the most important aspect for consumers online grocery. If you order ten items, but don't receive them all, you will be disappointed and will complain. That's why we're trying to handle this end-to-end because we know what it's like to order, wait, and receive an item that doesn't fit."

Competition and collaboration

Market competition will never be separated in a business. Nitesh assesses that this competition actually helps him to evaluate the business they are running, both the strategy and the target they are after. Moreover, Indonesia is a market Grocery the fourth largest in Southeast Asia so that just one or two players is not enough to serve the demand online grocery. 

On the other hand, he also highlighted the importance player collaboration online groceries with farmers who have had difficulty getting access to markets. Another challenge is that farmers are also unable to compete with middlemen, making it difficult to market their crops.

"This collaboration is important to us because of this the kind of community that we want to build in the future. We want to help farmers to gain market access by marketing products at quality prices, and most importantly access to access guaranteed buyers."

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