Impressed by huge success in India, a technology entrepreneur has launched an app for online grocery shopping in Pakistan.
The GrocerApp offers about 10,000 grocery items and includes categories like staples, fresh foodstuff, dairy, household consumables, baby items, and toiletries.
Initially, the start-up will do business in Lahore and expand to five major cities of the country – Karachi, twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and Faisalabad – by December end.
Average 50-60 percent income spending on groceries by the majority of the households in Pakistan makes it all too attractive for an entrepreneur to venture into the online market. Moreover, Grocery shops are located in every nook and corner of Pakistan.
In a hand-out, GrocerApp Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Saeed said that online shopping apps make life easier for those job-holders who have little time for shopping.
Ahmed Saeed said Bigbasket and Grofer were getting 50,000 online grocery orders a day since their launch a year back or so. They have grown 10-fold, he added.
The app for Android has been downloaded 500 times so far since its launch three months ago while it was launched for iPhone last week.
Saeed said, “We are getting some 30 to 35 orders daily in Lahore, and each order has an average value of Rs1,200 to Rs1,500.”
The online shopping mart makes free of charge delivery for orders above Rs500 each. Otherwise, it charges Rs. 60, he said.
He said, “We have delivery schedules so one can have it at the time of his/her choice and convenience. Otherwise, it takes on average two to three hours to deliver an order from the time of its booking.”
“We have invested Rs. 5 million for the development of Grocerapp, operating logistics and supply chain management – to ensure timely delivery and an operational warehouse,” Ahmed said.
“We have started procuring the most ordered items for our warehouses like shampoos, soaps, and other fast-moving consumer goods, while we purchase perishable items on the way to delivery. We are targeting to have 100% inventory of the products on offer in the next one-year time,” he said.
