Let’s hear how Priscilla Muhiu, Glovo’s vice president of marketing for Africa, interprets the takeaway platform industry.
This article is from WeChat public account “Non-Creative Innovation” (ID: Future-Hub) .
Takeaway platforms are a great opportunity for mobile Internet regardless of the regional market. Since 2015, North America, China, India, and Southeast Asia have experienced rapid industry development and fierce competition among players. In Africa, the takeaway platform is also a track that must be mentioned in the field of mobile Internet entrepreneurship. Especially in East Africa, the popularity of mobile payment and two-wheel motorcycle travel in Kenya has provided the necessary basic conditions for communication and transportation for takeaway platforms.
The active takeaway platforms in Kenya today are Uber Eats, Jumia Food, and Glovo we talked to today. Glovo, founded in Spain in 2015, began to enter the Moroccan market in 2018, and then expanded rapidly in Kenya, Egypt, Ivory Coast and other countries, becoming a very influential company on this track. In December 2019, it received a round E financing of US $ 167 million. The total financing amount is currently US $ 513 million, which is a veritable unicorn.
Priscilla Muhiu, an old friend of non-Cheng innovation, is the vice president of marketing in Africa of Glovo. He has been the head of marketing in many African star Internet companies such as OLX and Sendy. He has very great experience in the African mobile Internet market and consumers. Deep understanding. Today, let’s hear how she interprets the takeaway platform industry, its development history and future opportunities in East Africa.
Fei Cheng Innovation: Briefly introduce yourself?
Priscilla: My name is Priscilla. I work in marketing and I mainly focus on technology. I have worked for several companies in the technology sector over the past 10 years. I started in the advertising industry. After graduating from college, I joined an advertising company, worked there for 5 years, and then the first Internet company I entered was OLX. OLX is an online classified information platform where I have worked for 6 years. OLX later sold its business in Kenya to Jiji, and now the Jiji team is operating. After that I went to Sendy, a B2B platform that provides logistics and transportation solutions, and I worked there for 10 months. I joined Glovo last year and it’s been 11 months now. Glovo is a local lifestyle platform that provides takeaway and errand services for C-end consumers.
I openedIt started as OLX’s marketing manager in Kenya, and a few years later I was promoted to lead marketing in sub-Saharan Africa. My team and I are mainly working to expand OLX to Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana. So my job responsibility is to figure out how to increase brand influence in different markets, which is very important for product development.
Non-process innovation: Given that you have a lot of experience in the field of logistics delivery, can you share with us more about the history of this industry in Kenya or East Africa?
Priscilla: In Kenya, Sendy was the earliest logistics delivery company. In 2016, they launched the first intra-city flash delivery platform. In the beginning, consumers and businesses were their target groups, but in the past few years they have decided to focus on corporate customers. From what I’ve seen, this area is growing fast, because Kenyan consumers are getting busier, and in Kenya, almost everyone who works has a side job and is very busy. Moreover, we get married early and have children, and our lives are even busier. So we need such services so that we don’t have to be distracted by these trivial things. Paying 100 shillings (equivalent to 7 yuan) can make people bring food to their homes, which can save a lot of time. Especially the development of Uber Eats and Jumia Food in the past two years, they have a good educational role in the market, and people have gradually become accustomed to this model.
Non-Cheng innovation: In China, riders take electric cars for delivery. What’s going on here? Is it mainly motorcycle?
Priscilla: Now we mainly use motorcycles, but I think there are other possibilities. We have heavy traffic here, so motorcycles are more convenient. But if we have a longer-life electric car, we don’t need to charge it often, I think it is also feasible. Someone once wanted to cooperate with us to provide an electric car, but it needs to be charged for 20 kilometers. So we need electric cars with better endurance. In addition to frequent traffic congestion, the Kenyan address system is not perfect. Sometimes it is a big problem to contact users. It takes a lot of time to find the right address.
Non-process innovation: How big is the market for online takeaways?
Priscilla: I think it should be classified. In the capital, Nairobi, we have a middle-class population of 500,000. If they place orders once a week, for example, the average price of each order is 1,000 shillings (equivalent to 70 yuan), it is about 5 billion shillings. This only discusses the consumption of middle-class food delivery. So the overall potential is great and more market education is needed.
In addition, judging from the development of the retail industry, you will find that in Kenya, if you go to a large supermarket, you have to pay for it.The fare is also troublesome. Few people really like shopping in big supermarkets, but when you go to other countries, such as Europe, there is a small supermarket in each block. In the case of convenience stores, the demand for outbound services is very strong.
Non-Cheng Innovation: Can you see how the Glovo APP works together?
Priscilla: There are two Glovo apps, one for riders and one for consumers. Glovo’s positioning is to become a super app, everything you want is here. We have different categories, including ordering, supermarket, drinks, flash delivery, mother and baby and so on.
There is a category for maternal and infant products because there is a great demand in this area. For example, consumers often run out of diapers in the middle of the night and need emergency products. We also have shops with a variety of shops to choose from, beauty salons, Massai markets (handicraft markets). Let’s take a look at what each category looks like.
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Order here, you can choose local Kenyan dishes, there are also normal restaurants. The cafe we are in is also on this list. You can see there are various restaurants. We currently have over 1,000 restaurants on our platform in the capital, Nairobi. Now we choose Java House, order a dish you like, add it to the shopping cart, you can modify or add, such as adding bacon, submit the order. Then prepare to place an order, and the order details will be displayed here. You can also delete, if you want to increase the number, you can choose the + sign, you don’t have to go back and choose again. In terms of payment methods, you can pay by cash or credit card. We also plan to integrate mobile wallets such as m-pesa into our platform. Then choose where to send it out, deliver it now or make an appointment, and finally confirm your order. The rider will go to the restaurant to pick up the food and deliver it to your home. You can also track your order in the app. We promise to deliver in 45 minutes. If it exceeds 45 minutes, we will compensate the delivery cost. Selecting local dishes is the same process.
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In addition, we have a lot of supermarket options to buy fresh and daily necessities. Naivas Supermarket is one of the most popular supermarkets in Kenya. With more than 50 stores, we are working together to display Naivas products on the Glovo platform for consumers to choose from. Basically there is everything you need in the supermarket. You can search for keywords without turning pages. In Naivas’s stores, there are buyers who are dedicated to Glovo orders. When you place an order, these buyers will see the order on the tablet and buy it for you before the rider comes. This can further reduce the delivery time.between.
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In terms of maternity and baby products, because we are married early and a family has an average of five children, the demand for diapers is very high among local consumers. Glovo uses a new model. We have set up special diaper distribution stations. Brands will store some goods at these sites, which is equivalent to a warehouse. Then we list these sites on the app, and the rider can pick up the goods directly from the site. This allows them to face consumers directly, without having to go through multiple links in an intermediate supermarket. When placing an order, the order will prompt the warehouse, and the buyers in the warehouse will buy it. When you place an order, they will be notified and they will prepare the order. Because the restaurant does not require such a long preparation time and does not need to go through a supermarket broker, we can deliver it in less than 30 minutes. At present, we have direct delivery cooperation with Pampers and Huggies.
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In terms of drinks, we have some wine brands settled in, and we also have our own Glovo Party station, but in this part we let our partners help deliver goods.
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We also have a flash delivery function, as long as you enter the pickup location, delivery location, delivery items, whether to send now or make an appointment, the same process, select the payment method and then complete the order Waiting for delivery.
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We also have a variety of stores to buy services. There are Marseille handicraft markets, children’s products, beauty products, skin care products, laundry products, shoes and more, you can buy anything you need. We list these stores on the app, and they can also get more users through the app. In the future, we have more functions coming online.
Non-process innovation: You have worked in this industry for so long, how do you see the future development of this industry? What do you think of the delivery or local life services market in 2020 and the next three years?
Priscilla: I think as we do more and more marketing, educate more users, and let those who have never used such services try our services, the market size will expand in the next two to three years a lot of. Our delivery fee is only 100 shillings, which is equivalent to 1 US dollar, which is very cheap. And the popularity of mobile payments and motorcycle travel has greatly helped us, making our model more easily accepted.
And we are not only focusing on the middle class, we will continue to sink into the market, expand to second-tier cities in Kenya, and expand to other African countries. We currently operate in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco and plan to expand to other markets in the future. Two or three weeks ago we just raised 150 million euros, mainly to expand the technical team, so it can be said that our market will become bigger and bigger. I think it can be five times as high as it is now. Ethiopia is nextNuggets. The same is true of Nigeria. They have a population of 200 million people and have amazing potential.
Non-process innovation: You have done marketing in different countries. Could you share with you how Kenyan users are used to? How well do they accept new products?
Priscilla: Five years ago, the Kenyan TV industry changed a lot. Now if you want to watch TV, you need to buy a specific cable service, so people are watching TV less and less and are turning to the mobile Internet. Things like Youtube and Netflix are very popular. Moreover, the local news channel is now live on Youtube to retain users.
At the same time, as more and more people use the Internet, online marketing will also develop more. Marketing has become more important than ever before, you can track the results, and the cost is not high, and in terms of input-output ratio, online marketing is more efficient. However, offline marketing is equally important. For example, outdoor billboards, offline promotion activities, etc. If you build a good brand awareness offline, it will be much easier online, which is complementary. When you start promoting a new product, you can invest 80% offline, 20% online, and then transition to 60% offline, 40% online, and wait until more and more people feel your brand. You do n’t need to do a lot of offline activities, but focus on online conversion rates.
Non-process innovation: Thank you for sharing. Now more and more Chinese investors and entrepreneurs are starting to pay attention to African entrepreneurial opportunities and hope to learn more about Africa. We can have more exchanges; and your experience in local life platforms and Internet marketing is very rich. Can help more entrepreneurs. We look forward to cooperation!
Priscilla: I look forward to more exchanges and cooperation!
Edit | Du Jun @ 出海
Picture | Visual China
