e-grocery market
“We realized that average Indonesian customers don’t need the product to be organic or have high quality. But the product must be delivered as soon as they need them or in fresh condition,”
Nitesh Chellaram
Chandni Chainani and Nitesh Chellaram – who have experience in the e-commerce and groceries space, respectively – were troubled by the inefficiencies of on-demand services in Indonesia.
That drove the duo to launch on-demand service Dropezy in 2019. The company began by offering grocery products, which households in Indonesia usually buy daily.
At the beginning, the team experimented by buying products from supermarkets and delivering these to customers. The next year, they tried directly sourcing products from farmers – none of these models were up to their expectations.
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Now, Dropezy plans to develop what it calls “dark stores,” a network of micro-fulfillment hubs across Jakarta that allows the company to deliver products to customers in 20 minutes. The concept is similar to cloud kitchens in the food delivery sector, where customers’ orders will be fulfilled by the nearest stores.
Aims to make every dark store profitable
Compared to the small warehouses or distribution hubs that other e-grocery platforms or supply chain players use, dark stores will be smaller in size. This allows them to be placed near neighborhood areas.
Chellaram wants these dark stores to be profitable. He admitted that this idea was inspired by coffee chain Kopi Kenangan, which also insisted on making each of its outlets profitable.
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e-grocery market
