A new package delivery service called Fetchr NOW is bringing new opportunities to Dubai residents.
The company has
rolled out the new service app in Dubai and plans to expand it to places like
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in the near future, an Aug. 29 press release said.
Essentially, Fetchr NOW is a delivery service, and for less than $11,
customers can get packages delivered anywhere in the city or the service can “fetch” nearly anything that a customer wants that’s available on the local
market.
“We’re almost like your personal butler.” Fetchr co-founder
Joy Ajlouny told the Gulf News Journal last week. “The best way to describe us
is Taskrabbit meets Uber.”
“What we beat everybody on is time.” Ajlouny said, explaining
why the company doesn’t have to compete with a host of other courier
services. Using GPS and existing fleets, Fetchr can guarantee that
there will be someone in the field able to drive to the customer’s location
within a certain time frame, Ajlouny said.
Ajlouny worked in Silicon Valley before starting Fetchr with co-founder Idriss Al-Rifai. Her prior company, an e-commerce platform
called Bonfaire, was acquired, and Ajlouny realize that although the American
market was, as she put it, oversaturated with e-commerce, there were big
opportunities in emerging markets.
“This is where the growth is for e-commerce,” Ajlouny
said, explaining that in the Middle East, package delivery is difficult.
Ajlouny described a system where package recipients often have to spend a lot
of time on the phone with delivery drivers.
Package delivery is inherently challenging in the Middle East. Unlike in America, Ajlouny said, GCC countries don’t typically
have the same established infrastructure that makes it easy for, say, an
American UPS driver to get to a particular house.
“There’s no mailman; there are no mailboxes.” Ajlouny
said.
Many retailers offer free shipping in the Middle
East to try to promote digital shopping, but e-commerce is hampered by the
inability to easily get a package where it needs to go,
Ajlouny
said.
That’s where Fetchr comes in,
Ajlouny
said.
“We see ourselves as e-commerce enablers.” Ajlouny said,
noting that with the new service, no conversation needed. Drivers
simply look up exactly where the customer is located by GPS instead of asking
for landmarks and painfully establishing a location verbally.
Ajlouny used the example of food.
“A lot of people want a burger,” Ajlouny said, “But what
about when restaurants don’t deliver in your neighborhood?”
Also, she said, it’s all about saving time in a world where
directions are really a big deal.
Locals can use Fecthr NOW to both send and receive packages,
making it a game-changer for anyone who wants to set up their own enterprise
services or get an order from an online retailer, or just get quick and easy
take-out food.
