A Safe and Efficient Food Delivery Delivery for Mauritius amid the Covid-19 chaos

MoPanier.com

Yesterday, I wrote an article on MoPanier, a solution which I have built over the weekend which could potentially be used in Mauritius amid the current curfew and crisis. Now that I have finished building and testing the solution, I will describe it in quite more detail in this article.

128. This is the number of current Covid-19 cases in Mauritius at the time of writing. With the country in complete lockdown for many days, and with supermarkets closed down, people have no means of buying food. While many online businesses have taken a great initiative to deliver food to people, several issues have been encountered both by customers and online business owners:

1. Not everyone can pay by card, a good majority of people cannot.
2. The items are sold as “packages” and many people are forced to buy those packs with items they will not need. (Waste of money)
3. Lack of options for Vegeterians and Vegan people, as well as people with specific dietery requirements.
4. Prices tend to be inflated and delivery costs are very high.
5. Limitations of the number of deliveries which can be done per day.
6. And more…

With all those issues, we have two potential solutions:

1. Open the supermarkets again or;
2. Find a solution which will work for the Mauritian market.

The issue with opening supermarkets again and how to deal with it?

Mauritius is a small country with a population of around 1.2 million. The current number of cases in Mauritius is quite alarming if we look at the ratio of positive Covid-19 cases to population size. While every single person needs to stay inside to protect themselves and others from the virus, it is also vital for each and every person to have access to the very basic necessities, such as food to survive.

Opening supermarkets again is absolutely vital but the situation can quickly go awry if everyone rushes to supermarkets at once and this situation could very easily happen.

So, how do we solve the food (and other basic necessities) issue in Mauritius?

Over the weekend I worked on a solution to try and solve this problem. I called it “MoPanier”.

MoPanier is a web-app which allows users to register and purchase their products. However there is a twist (or a few). Here goes:

Customers can Sign In

The website has been built to accommodate every single supermarket of the country by using different algorithmic techniques, combined with some nifty UI/UX design (thank you Google!). The way it works is simple. Any supermarket who wants to sell their products get an account made specifically for them and they can start uploading their product lists and sell their items.

Customers sign up and can select ONLY ONE supermarket to buy products from. This limitation was purposely put in place to ensure customers pick the closest supermarket and to make sure everyone in the country can have access to food. Once a customer selects a supermarket, they can’t change it back.

Choose one Supermarket and forever hold your silence.

Customers can browse for a variety or products and add them to their cart. The catch? A maximum of 25 items per customer with a limit of 3 units per same item. This restriction has been built in algorithmically to ensure that people do not abuse the system and everyone can buy some food. This solution has been though of carefully and optimized for everyone’s best interest. Customers will only be able to order once every 3 days.

Was lazy to put a lot of test products, but you get the idea.

Once a customer selects their items, they can Checkout and complete their order. Here also there is a catch. If you have items in your cart and someone checkout before you, the stock might deplete and you will not be able to continue with your purchase. So you will have to be fast, but don’t worry there will be food for everyone if the solution gets implemented.

How the Cart looks like

Customers have 2 ways of paying. They either pay by MCB Juice or by paying Cash/Card on delivery or collection of their items (I’m gonna touch on collection of items later). The process is simple. Once the Customer completes their Order, they get a Unique Order number (which I tried to keep quite short). This Unique Order number will allow Customers and Supermarkets to track the orders. Customers who pay by MCB Juice will use the Unique Order number when they make the payment. Other who pay by card/cash will make use of the Unique Order number upon delivery or collection of their items.

How the Checkout Page looks like. I will add titles in the live version.

A Successfult Order Generates A Unique Order Reference

Once Customers pay, they can swiftly mark their payment as complete in their dashboard.

Supermarkets have a few options available to them. They can add their items through their dashboard and manage all their orders through that same dashboard. They can see all Open Orders and Completed Orders just like the Clients. Orders are moved to the Completed Orders tab if and only if Customers and Supermarkets confirm the payments and deliveries in their dashboard.

Supermarket Inventory (Looks like logo is broken on top)

Supermarket can add items to their inventory

The Delivery fee is set at a fixed Rs 75. I thought this was fair for everyone. It could be changed if the project actually goes live. Supermarkets who choose to deliver will ned to organize their own transports and ensure proper guidelines are followed when processing deliveries to keep both the Customers and the Delivery people from contracting the virus.

Supermarkets can track their orders as well.

In the case Supermarkets open back to the public, a solution is already built in. Customers can still place their Order on the website and get a time to collect from the supermarket. It is simple, every step is exactly the same, but this time around, the Supermarket sends you and SMS to tell you when to pick up your order. You get an SMS, you go, you pick, you pay, and you go straight back home.

Both Customers and Supermarkets have access to their Current and Past Orders. Reports have been built inside the web-app to make it easier for reconciliation both by Supermarkets and Customers.

MoPanier has been built with a gamification strategy in place. While technology is very advanced and payment can be made online, the reality is that Mauritius is still not ready for this yet and it is important for every single person to be safe and have access to their basic necessities during this tough time. This whole project was built over the course of 3 days including testing. This is nothing new and it’s yet another E-Commerce platform. The only difference is that this is one made for the current situation of Mauritius.

This solution has been designed to not only work for Supermarkets, but can also integrate Pharmacies and small shops from across the country if the need for it arises.

Take care of yourselves and stay safe! Remember that in this current time of crisis to try and stay inside as much as you can. This will not only reduce your risks, but reduces the risk of others as well. :)

Thanks!