EzFood Delivery

Meanwhile, a relatively new entrant into the food delivery service market is none other than EzFood Delivery which actually began with the co-founders themselves carrying out the deliveries and receiving orders via Whatsapp and social media.

Andy Hon and Desmond Fam started doing food deliveries back in 2016 as a way to test the market and see if there was demand for such services.

During the nine months of driving their own cars and delivering orders to clients, Hon and Fam had accumulated close to 500 customers. Suffice to say, regardless of the smaller population compared to other bigger cities nationwide, the co-founders felt that this ‘raw’ market was worth venturing into in Kuching.

Fam pointed out that they also decided to go into this online business as most people have smartphones these days, indicating that the growing digital economy is already starting to change the way Kuching people live.

“This market has grown very fast since our Whatsapp-social media testing days. We used to take one day to have 20 orders and after that, it took only eight ours and not long after that, four hours.

“Even now, in 30 minutes, we can easily reach 20 orders. This shows that the demand is growing on a daily basis,” Fam said.

It was not long before the EzFood Delivery mobile app was launched in August 2017 with a wide variety of affordable offerings for consumers here in Kuching.

“Most of the merchants who have joined our apps are mostly based in the Jalan Song area. Since the launch of our app, we make sure to truly collaborate with our merchants.

“Previously, when we were testing using just the Whatsapp service to collect orders for delivery, when customers placed orders, there were a few problems we encountered,” Hon revealed.

These included not knowing whether the merchants were actually open on that day, whether the food was still available, and the current prices for the products.

After the EzFood Delivery app was launched, it was decided that proper collaboration with merchants had to be established if they wanted to join the food delivery service provider.

“This means that, for merchants who want to join EzFood Delivery, there are terms and conditions (T&Cs) they will need to agree to. This also means that for those who do not agree with the T&Cs set out by EzFood Delivery, they will not partner with these merchants as it is quite troublesome.”

EzFood Delivery is currently looking for more merchants in the Satok and Pending area to cater to its growing customer base which is made up mostly of office people and youngsters.

“The market in Kuching is still considered large and we have probably only penetrated about one per cent of the market here.

“This is based on the number of downloads for our app and registered users. We currently have downloads of more than 16,000 but compared to the market depth, we are still quite far behind.”

Hon noted that in Kuching, it is a bit slower in terms of adopting new trends, compared to other cities.

“After a Google search, you find that in other places like KL, and countries such as China, Australia, the food delivery service market is already flooded and even considered matured there.

“However, in Kuching just two years ago, there was not much happening with the food delivery service market here.”

According to Fam, EzFood Delivery is still working on the new system but once the new system is developed, the plan is to split its services to three divisions: Kuching, Matang and Petra Jaya, and Kota Samarahan.

In this way, EzFood Delivery will be able to partner up with merchants in these separate divisions and also allow consumers staying there to be able to order food from restaurants within their areas.

“If you see on the app, most of the merchants are mostly in Kuching, so if you order in Kota Samarahan, it’s actually not very convenient for us because if we deliver to these areas which are further out, we have to come back on our own costs.

“The distance from Kuching to Samarahan is quite long so rarely, we can achieve our target which is below one hour. That’s why we decided to split into divisions, split up everything,” Hon explained.

On how their food delivery service compares to other competitors here, Fam said that the biggest difference is that EzFood Delivery is a mobile-based app, compared to others which use websites or Facebook pages to receive orders.

“And the other thing is, we mainly offer food and beverages from low-to-mid range priced restaurants,” he added.

Hon revealed compared EzFood Delivery to other food delivery apps on a national level such as Food Panda, observing that these other apps are on a higher-priced range in terms of the food and restaurants available.

“This market has grown very fast since our Whatsappsocial media testing days. We used to take one day to have 20 orders and after that, it took only eight ours and not long after that, four hours.” Andy Hon and Desmond Fam, founders

Instead of offering menus condered to be on a more luxurious level and from which customers will likely order once a week, EzFood Delivery focuses on the types of food that customers can order on a daily basis. Merchants able to generate more orders when joining app

EzFood Delivery has been able to help merchants which joined the app to generate more orders, and thus income, especially during off peak hours.

Hon stressed that with the EzFood Delivery app, merchants are able to access more customers in other areas instead of being just limited to those who visit their physical outlets.

“During non- peak hours such as 9am to 11am or 2pm to 4pm, people do not usually visit food establishments,” he said.

“However, for office workers, they tend to have high tea and will still want to order food. We can help to deliver to these customers.

“This food delivery app actual ly helps merchants to sustain and expand their businesses.”

He noted that to hire their own delivery staff would be cost consuming for merchants, especially smaller businesses, given the maintenance of the vehicles. Restaurants would even need to consider whether the amount of deliveries in a month is sufficient to cover the cost of having a rider. Hoping to encourage startup culture in Kuching

The aim to encourage the startup culture here and to retain talent in Kuching are some of the reasons which have driven Hon and Fam to make EzFood Delivery successful.

As a Sarawak star tup business, both believe that by beating the odds with their food delivery service app, it will prove to fellow Sarawakians that it is possible be successful in their own hometown.

“The reason why we ventured into this startup and aim to make it a success here is to prove to our peers and fellow Sarawakians that even in Kuching, you can be successful,” Hon enthused. He hopes that locals can retain their talent here so as to further develop Kuching.

“People always tend to say that our population here is small, the market is small. However, when everyone sees this market as small, it also means that there’s nobody exploring new markets here.

“What we encountered to date is that competition here is not that intense. The environment is not that competitive because everyone tends to be on a slow- paced mode here.”

Despite the lack of support in the startup environment here, Andy stressed that it is all about how much you want to succeed with a business venture.

“There’s no excuse about not getting what you want in the startup world, it’s all about how much you want to succeed.

“Like with us, we didn’t know it, but we really needed help in this area and eventually we managed to get the IT expertise needed. It’s important to stay positive and motivated.”

Fam al so noted from experience that every startup must endure some difficulties in the beginning but that it is all about finding the right people to collaborate with.

“As such, we wish that Kuching people will remain in the city so as to encourage and grow the startup culture here.”