Cyberfood Overcomes $185k Theft, Expands Services
To avoid person-toperson contact, the staff used mobile money wallets and internet transfers, which often did not reach the company’s bank accounts for several days, limiting their daily cash budgets.
After staff allegedly stole $185,000 from Cyberfood Fiji, the owner of the wellknown online food order and delivery business considered shutting down.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the company faced a surge in demand as customers required over the counter medication and groceries delivered to their homes.
To avoid person-to-person contact, the staff used mobile money wallets and internet transfers, which often did not reach the company’s bank accounts for several days, limiting their daily cash budgets.
Some staff members advised customers to pay for delivery into their personal accounts rather than the company’s account, resulting in the loss of $185,000 in cash flow.
The owner, Majid Shazad, felt defeated and was ready to close down the business.
However, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development provided timely assistance, and with their support, Mr Shazad launched the company’s newly developed website with an internet payment gateway from Westpac Banking Corporation.
He also launched a new mobile app for Android and IOS users, but encountered setbacks with an India-based company that kept increasing their payment demand without fixing errors given by the new mobile app.
Mr Shazad’s website development team started learning mobile application development, and they managed to develop an in-house multi-vendor mobile application.
Today, Cyberfood Fiji is expanding its services to the Northern Division after growing from one delivery vehicle and three partner restaurants to two delivery vehicles, one motorbike, and nine contract-based private car deliveries. They now have 126 partner vendors and restaurants and over 8000 registered customers.
The business is looking into delivering items from local grocery shops, pharmacies, vegetable market vendors, and handmade local products, as well as supporting micro, small, and medium enterprises that do not have the resources to invest in e-commerce platforms.