Fast fresh food delivery eases Covid-19 troubles

At 3 p.m, Quynh Anh, a resident of District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, surfed the internet as she thought about dinner. She had never shopped online before, and was not sure how it would work out.

Eventually she placed an order through the online shopping platform Lazada.

Much to her surprise, the goods were delivered to her home in two hours. Fresh vegetables, frozen pork of assured quality, some ready-to-cook dishes such as spicy pickled chicken feet, she said, as she checked the carefully packed items.

"I have never tried shopping online before. It is very convenient. No feeling of waiting. Just order, turn to working from home and get the food delivered to the door".

More and more consumers like Quynh Anh are finding online shopping safe and convenient to meet their needs, especially when they have to limit going out during the social distancing campaign launched to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading.

Amidst the booming in online shopping, some e-commerce players have intensified focus on fresh food items with a fast delivery commitment. Lazada, for instance, has launched it as a new category with a two-hour delivery service.

By strengthening cooperation with businesses and optimizing our logistics resources, we can bring fresh and clean foods like fruits, vegetables and fish to customers' homes quickly, within two hours, to ensure safety for shopping at home, said James Dong, General Director of Lazada, Southeast Asia's leading e-commerce platform.

Lazada has launched a new service category with delivery within two hours by cooperating with businesses and optimizing its logistics resources, catering to new online shopping demands.

In the initial stage of the new initiative, the company provides nearly 200 fresh food items, including fresh, imported meat from MEATDeli and Mega Viet Phat, as well as fresh vegetables; other Vietnamese agricultural products from Hiep Nong and Foodmap; and pasteurized milk from Lothamilk.

The program is being implemented in Ho Chi Minh City and it will expand to Hanoi and other provinces in the near future, Dong said.

Mai Thanh Thai, co-founder of Foodmap, said that cooperation with companies like Lazada helps the company's agricultural products reach more and more consumers.

Stimulating online consumption

Dong said that apart from consumers' convenience and safety, Lazada’s e-commerce platform also aims to support partners in digital transformation and businesses on its e-commerce platform.

The company is introducing a stimulus package that targets traditional, small and medium enterprises. Running until the end of May, the package aims to reach 45,000 local SMEs.

The stimulus package will provide SMEs with a fast-track lane that shortens the time to set up their stores online and upload listings. This will enable the SMEs to quickly diversify their revenue streams and offset the decline in their offline sales.

New sellers will receive free support and a training course at Lazada Academy. In addition, partners can access more marketing activities to increase traffic like fast promotion campaigns (Flash Sale and livestream sales).

A training course at Lazada Academy.

"Local SMEs are the lifeblood of a country’s economy and essential to people’s livelihoods, and many are now suffering from the economic effects of the coronavirus outbreak. With this stimulus package, we hope to provide an online lifeline to small businesses. We want to protect the community, sustain jobs and businesses, and strengthen the Vietnamese economy," Dong said.

He added that Lazada expects to attract tens of thousands of SMEs to join their platform, especially for essential items like fresh food with safety certification like GlobalGAP and VietGAP.