Online flowers and gift shop Netflorist has added groceries to its portfolio in a bid to tap into the growing demand for food deliveries because of the three-week lockdown.
This may help the company cope with the loss of sales revenue from its core flower delivery business, which is not deemed essential during the lockdown, which is aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.
NetFlorist’s slight strategic adjustment is just one example of how small businesses cut off from their customers are rethinking their business models to keep cash flowing after the government issued a stay-at-home order that restricts economic activity to food, energy and medical industries.
NetFlorist said in response to questions that the company investigated delivering fresh produce to customers three years ago because “we understood that we had a lot of the assets required to provide essentials”.
However, “the idea started building” up on the week of March 16 “when we saw Covid-19 crisis events around the world and the need that this service might fulfil should the country need extra delivery capacity”, it said.
NetFlorist said it delivers in Pretoria, Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
One of the biggest online flower- and gift-delivery platforms, it will also capitalise on slower online deliveries from major grocery retailers, which are facing an unprecedented demand for online shopping from consumers wary of leaving their homes.
Other companies are also ramping up the grocery delivery services. Start-up Yuppiechef, an online retailer of pots and pans, said on Wednesday it will start delivering food after receiving a permit under the rules of the National Disaster, which was declared last week.
Shoprite’s outlet Checkers, which is in the middle of taking on Woolworths in the upmarket consumer category, only delivers from eight stores as the platform was still in a testing phase when the stay-at-home order was issued. But the company is now expanding its delivery services through its Checkers Food Services business, which usually only delivers to large caterers and bulk buyers.
But many consumers have struggled to order groceries and are told the next delivery slot from a retailer is in the middle of April when lockdown is scheduled to end.
Pick n Pay has provided a pre-order service in which customers can order online and collect their packed groceries at the store, allowing shoppers to keep their visit to a store and interactions with other shoppers brief.
Clicks is also urging customers to pre-order medicines or submit a script through its app so that they can arrive at store and collect medicines without having to wait in line and order at the pharmacy. Clicks also offers medicine deliveries.
Woolworths has said it is doing its best to keep up with growing demand for delivered groceries, but as it increases capacity, more people order online. In some areas, there is no wait for delivery and in others there is a two-week wait.
David Torr, CEO of UCook, which provides prepacked meal kits, said it has seen a “large uptake in our service over the past two weeks which we are incredibly grateful for. We normally deliver broadly across SA, but because of the logistical difficulties presented by the lockdown, we are only able to service Cape Town, Johannesburg and their immediate surrounds for the time being.”
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