Innovative Irish delivery business is just what the doctor ordered
Just popping to the shops is not easy if you’re in quarantine. But long before the Covid-19 virus emerged as a global threat, Irish grocery shopping delivery app Buymie recognised that many people find grocery shopping either a chore or a bore.
Older people, people with mobility issues, parents with young children and those simply pressed for time often struggle to get to the supermarket. It is why founder Devan Hughes developed the company’s mobile app, which allows people to order their groceries and have them delivered to their door in as little as one hour.
The app allows users to choose their supermarket of choice and then scroll through app ‘aisles’ to select all their groceries, finding everything they usually buy and more.
The platform then connects to its team of shoppers who will go to the store for you. Its shoppers are trained to pick the freshest and ripest produce and how to look after such items as frozen goods or delicate ones such as eggs.
The app takes note of your preferences and logs them for next time too. Once users have placed an order, the app sends them notifications on all their shopper actions, and lets them know when the shopper is on their way to their door.
The easy to use mobile app is available for Apple and Android devices and, in Ireland, provides convenient, on-demand grocery shopping in partner stores such as Tesco and Lidl.
In the current climate, with children off school, and people staying home and practising social distancing, the company has seen a surge in use. Yet its dynamic capacity model ensures it only takes in the number of orders that it can handle at any one time, to ensure a smooth service for all those who book.
Many supermarkets have introduced special times for older people to do their grocery shopping in person, in recognition of the elevated risk that seniors have of contracting the coronavirus.
The company, which has introduced a contactless delivery method, reduces this risk even further, ensuring people don’t have to make journeys to the store at all if they don’t want to.
Buymie received its first investment from Enterprise Ireland, the innovation agency, when CEO and Co-Founder Devan Hughes was the company’s first and only grocery delivery person. Since then Enterprise Ireland has supported the business and today they employ over 15 full time operational and software development professionals, and work with hundreds of personal grocery shoppers, serving customers all over Leinster.
In the meantime, those who are heeding the Irish government’s advice to stay home and ‘cocoon’ are already seeing the advantages of having someone else do your shopping for you, and drop it right to your door.
