Thousands of businesses across companies are forced to shut down, work with reduced operations or announce partial closures due to the Coronavirus outbreak in Pakistan and worldwide. One sector that has seen exceptional growth during these tough times is online grocery delivery services in Lahore. We have witnessed the adoption of the online grocery market, which was once projected to take five years, seen in the last few months of the lockdown.
In Pakistan, InsoCity Application is the leading player in online grocery shopping for the past few years, but since the demand went on sky due to coronavirus, third party grocery delivery service also got a chance to shine. The leading of these services in Pakistan is the Insocity App. InsoCity App has partnered with nearly every grocery delivery Store and all chains across Pakistan. Insocity provides an online grocery delivery service in Lahore that charges a fee to connect local grocery stores and shoppers.
The personal ‘shoppers’ acquire the selected items from different local grocery stores and deliver them to the customer’s door within the agreed time window. Customers pay a delivery fee based on the size of orders and how fast they want the grocery to be delivered and a 5% service fee plus a tip for the driver. The shoppers make money depend on a somewhat complex algorithm, including distance from the store, how many items were ordered typically, and the order’s weight.
InsoCity App demand in the last few weeks has been the highest in its history. The application downloads were also up by ~218% month-over-month in March 2020. The industry has over 500,000 independent contractors who go to the stores to pick orders and deliver the items to customers across the country. The industry says it plans to hire additional 250,000 workers over the next few months to save up with the surging demand.
Order Grocery items, medicines, fast food with real-time delivery services. With InsoCity, users can hire best electrician, plumber, ac repairer, locksmith services just only single click. More than 500 + workers are registered for providing different kinds of services. One of the best function of the application is that it is real time and offer unique modes of ordering.
Users can order using 3 unique features:
Voice Order
Write Order on the page and proceed.
Write order on the App and proceed.
Shop from InsoCity App. Click here
The companies like Al-Fatah, established in about 2010 and Insocity fresh launched in 2019, already provide grocery delivery services. Today, the company can deliver groceries from 25,000 stores across 5,500 cities in Pakistan. One would wonder if InsoCity will soon look to go public or attain a competitor to consolidate its market share. The company’s initial surge in volumes has not come without. InsoCity App organized a strike at the end of March, asking higher wages and safeties if they were supposed to risk themselves at grocery stores during a global pandemic.
Following the same, InsoCity App facilitated its staff with sick pay, safety kits and medical care, and the introduction of contactless delivery so that shoppers and consumers no longer had to interact face-to-face and coordinate with grocery stores to allow the shoppers to enter from separate entrances.
Today InsoCity App can provide same-day grocery delivery to 90% of Pakistan households, and it continues to add more to keep up with the growth that the industry sees. We believe that InsoCity biggest competition comes fresh, but as the logistics capabilities continue to be developed, grocery chains may want to do this by themselves. These companies had come up when people were doubtful to walk to grocery stores and allowed the risk of being exposed to COVID-19, but the big question that prevails after this is: will the demand for grocery delivery transport?
The COVID-19 pandemic has revolved out to be a painful advertisement of the necessity of shopping online. People might feel the need to use it today because of the enhanced safety it provides; however, this might not help retain clients in the long term when customers choose to go to physical stores for shopping.
Companies will need to provide a great experience that will be a real challenge focusing on balancing demand and satisfying customers, thereby helping these companies retain their customers in a post-covid-19 scenario. We think of buying groceries online in Lahore as essential due to the virus attack, wherein people are forced to sit at home.
However, when things get back to normal and the pandemic eases out, people could also get back to their normal routine mortar shopping. We believe this sudden focus on online grocery has been set up to change client behavior well after the pandemic subsides, accelerating the industry’s penetration in the Pakistan but not with the same pace we see currently.