The Starting Point: Roundtable with Gokada & Easyshop Easycook
On September 29, in partnership with Easyshop Easycook, we had the opportunity to host a roundtable discussion about home delivery opportunities with local businesses in the food sector in Lagos.
Easyshop Easycook is one of the most successful startups in Nigeria and the owner, Saudat Salami, is recognized as “The Mother of Nigerian E-commerce.” It is an online e-commerce platform for your daily groceries. They pride in sourcing some of the highest quality in-house products at affordable prices.
Due to COVID-19, the event was limited to a select group and was attended in-person and online by partners such as Apple Cart NG, Manamour Confectioners, Mile 12 Market Online, Fresh To Dommot, LimLim Foods, Food Safety Practices, One Basket, Nennys Foods, Omoloja Services, Omaleke Foods and Catering, Nicnax Foods and Enterprise.
The event focused on the challenges that grocery startups face in Nigeria and the opportunities for innovation in the delivery logistics space. The participants discussed the pain points, shared feedback on service provided by various delivery logistics companies, and exchanged learnings.
The major challenges that groceries have and continue to face in their business include sourcing and storage of quality products and ensuring the food products remain fresh and healthy until they reach the end-customer. Now, more than ever, reliable and timely home delivery can’t be ignored by grocery companies. The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed customer behavior and strengthened the case for fresh food delivery at home.
Although our participants did acknowledge this huge opportunity, they were disgruntled by their previous experiences with delivery companies. They highlighted the following pain points:
- the larger average size of grocery deliveries — bigger size means bigger boxes needed to carry
- delivery of freshness — how to ensure products are delivered timely and fresh to customers
- curbing product loss/damage, product theft, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
This event addressed the major concerns and we had a positive response on the steps we need to take next to move forward together.
The grocery startups also realized that it is not a good idea for them to have their own logistic setups for two reasons:
- It is not cost-effective, especially at the startup level
- It diverts them from their core business focus, which is ensuring access to quality and diverse grocery items
After a short tour through the Gokada airbase guided by our team, we had the opportunity to share our journey, our vision, and the detailed services that we offer, which we believe can help solve a few of the challenges the grocery companies face. After a detailed Q&A and feedback session, we also talked about GShop, our on-demand food delivery platform that is coming soon, and the various opportunities for collaboration. The participants left the event with more confidence and clarity on what Gokada can offer, and we at Gokada left the event with a better understanding of challenges and what we can achieve as a unit.
The event ended with a unique desire in all of us — to collaborate not only to achieve positive logistical changes for businesses, but also to bring those positive changes to the whole of society in Lagos. Gokada and the grocery startups must join hands in order to widen our scale and deepen our impact. We can together experiment, learn, innovate, and advocate as a collaborative community.
