Nauman Sikandar Mirza is heading one of Pakistan’s largest e-commerce platforms foodpanda, which has witnessed a 100 per cent growth in the share of retail sales revenue.
“It’s a collaborative effort; whereby, we continue to see market shifts in online business. From 2015 to 2018 e-commerce increased its share of retail sales revenue consistently from 14.4 per cent in 2015 to 18 per cent in 2018 and then to over 30 per cent by 2021,” he said.
People are moving away from brick and mortar retail to e-commerce because it saves them a lot of time. To reach a wider audience, businesses list their stores on e-commerce websites to provide their services to a larger group of people.
“Along with our chain of dark stores, i.e., Pandamart, we also have a list of shops available on our app such as Bonanza Satrangi, MeatOne and Slice of Life, where the customers can place orders for the items they need and get them delivered at their doorsteps in real-time.
As an innovator and entrepreneur who literally started from scratch, Nauman Sikandar Mirza is a great role model for the new entrepreneurs and startups, especially who are aspiring for success in the digital space.
Here are the excerpts from the conversation Nauman Sikandar Mirza had with BOL News.
How you come up with the name foodpanda, which becomes a household brand?
After obtaining my MBA from Lancaster University, I worked for a while in the restaurant business and realised that while there are thousands of restaurants here and literally millions of foodies, there was no platform to connect the two to each other.
Since I have always been inclined towards entrepreneurship and risk taking, I decided to enter this field, starting in 2011 from my father’s living room with Food Connection Pakistan, an online food review platform. It was hard work, which required continuous innovation for business growth. A year-and-half later foodpanda, a foreign-based food delivery company, started operations in Pakistan. At this time we were ready to expand ourselves and so we rebranded ourselves from Food Connection Pakistan to EatOye, an indigenous online food ordering platform.
Then in 2015, EatOye merged with foodpanda, and then foodpanda Pakistan was acquired by Delivery Hero of Germany in December 2016.
We have been pioneers of integrating technology and e-commerce into the food industry of Pakistan. My dream has always been to do something different; something innovative and futuristic. And to build a great company from scratch, which will provide an amazing experience to whom it touches, customers, restaurants, budding entrepreneurs such as our home chefs, business partners, vendors and suppliers, and our own team.
What benefits are you offering to the foodpanda riders?
Our riders are our biggest assets, as they are the face of the company and the main point of interaction for our customers. They are mostly hard working young men and women who are either working full time or a part-timer, depending on their needs.
A lot of them are students, as well who are working on a part-time basis, while they complete their education. They are selected after rigorous investigation about their past, which includes their criminal record, if any. As foodpanda riders they have total flexibility to work when they like and for as many hours a day as they like. Effectively, this means those with low-income have this great opportunity to supplement their income with additional earnings in their spare time, and those who were jobless have now started earning.
Further, they are at liberty to work for anyone else when they are not riding for us; even for any other food delivery service, if they wish to.
Knowing who our riders are, we provide them training, including rider safety training, for instance, in partnership with the traffic police, awareness sessions, grooming, IT skills, health insurance, discount on fuel through our arrangement with entities such as the Pakistan State Oil (PSO), bonuses based on their performance and a lot more other benefits, including setting up camps for the Covid-19 vaccination.
We have also supported our riders during the pandemic by providing paid time off, basic safety training and protective equipment, etc.
You can also appreciate that with more than 50,000 riders now registered with us across Pakistan, we are making a significant contribution to the reduction in unemployment in the country, especially among the youth.
What was the inspiration behind HomeChefs and
how the vertical has evolved over time?
To alleviate the adverse economic fallout of the Covid-19 crisis, we launched a dynamic social empowerment initiative that Pakistan was in dire need of. HomeChefs is the initiative that has brought financial empowerment to thousands of home-based cooks in all parts of the country. Also, globally this vertical was unheard off and it has been launched in Pakistan for the first time by foodpanda.
HomeChefs are essentially people operating out of their home kitchens who sell food through online platforms. Foodpanda currently have 5,000+ registered HomeChefs who have been taken onboard after stringent routine checks for food hygiene, quality, safety, packaging, etc.
The company’s aim is to increase the HomeChefs base in the next two years and take it up to 100,000 registered HomeChefs.
Currently, 60 per cent of foodpanda’s HomeChefs are women and 40 per cent are men, and for more than 40 per cent of these people, foodpanda is the only source of income. Through this vertical, foodpanda has empowered thousands of women financially, as they are earning, while working from home through their home chefs portfolio.
Also important to mention that HomeChefs have the flexibility to work in the hours that suit them and also as many hours as they wish. This enables women home chefs, especially to attend to their other responsibilities and then give time to their home chef earning work when they can.
What do you advice to new entrepreneurs for success?
To all young people out there with dreams, I would first emphasise that there is absolutely no alternative way to achieve success than through sheer hard work. Understand and accept this clearly. Whoever you can think of who has reached the top in his or her field has reached their through hard work.
Don’t decide your future direction with making money as your priority. You need to do in life what you are most passionate about and this may well be a totally new entrepreneurial idea you have. So pursue your idea or your dream with passion and pursue it obsessively. Work hard to pursue it and do not count the hours or get distracted by other things in life. Do all this and tomorrow you too will achieve success.
