Shohoz making it easy to stay home
With motivated delivery people, Shohoz Food started its on-demand grocery operations back in February this year with a simple goal: people should be able to get all their necessities instantly -- not just food -- using a super application.
While many senior citizens, asthma patients and work-from-home executives were already getting worried about the looming crisis, Shohoz began a proactive, small-scale experiment in Uttara in mid-February to get various grocery items dropped off at people's doorsteps -- mostly those who are elderly and were not keen on going outdoors, says a press release.
By mid-March, this pilot would help them deploy Grocery and Medicine section in Shohoz Food, which would go on to become an incredibly popular service.
Right before the government announced a closure from March 26 in an effort to flatten the curve amid coronavirus outbreak, people were battered with the realisation that essential groceries may soon become inaccessible. The densely populated cities of Dhaka and Chattogram urgently needed a way to keep people indoors. And on March 22, a team of people decided to scale up their existing operations and make it happen.
In collaboration with over 250 independent pharmacies and grocery shops including Agora -- later to be joined by Meena Click, Shwapno and Unimart -- Shohoz moved from a beta launch of Shohoz Grocery and Medicine section to full-fledged operations within just 3 days.
Insider data from Shohoz showed that orders in the Grocery and Medicine section rose by almost 400 percent within just a week. Of this, 68 percent was contributed by groceries and the rest was due to OTC drugs/medical products.
While there has been a tremendous growth in the on-demand logistics services industry, the safety concern regarding delivery agents is still there.
"In less than 2 weeks, we have helped over 15,000 people stay indoors. Of course, our people are on the streets - that's why we are continuously urging users to use cards/MFS, while we are providing delivery agents with masks, gloves and hand sanitisers. They are instructed to thoroughly wash their hands every hour - in our hubs and in the restaurants or super shops. This is no longer an instruction, however. This is now a responsibility to save themselves and their families," a senior official from Shohoz Food Operations said.
Besides working with restaurants to ensure an end-to-end hygienic delivery, Shohoz is also closely working with more and more consumer goods conglomerates like GSK and Marico, ensuring a seamless supply of products straight to people's homes.
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