Israeli delivery logistics company Bringg released a new, free service this week aimed at helping small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) quickly launch and scale delivery operations.
The service, called BringgNow, was scheduled for release later this year but Bringg accelerated development to aid businesses facing rapidly increasing demand for delivery options amid the global coronavirus pandemic. These include grocers, convenience stores, and restaurants.
Founded in 2013, Bringg’s advanced delivery management platform allows companies to run complex delivery and dispatch operations in real-time from first- to last-mile, and is typically geared toward enterprises.Clients include Walmart, Panera Bread, and Coca-Cola to name a few.
Bringg was looking to offer its delivery management solutions to smaller companies and the global public health crisis sped up the process.
“In just a few weeks, efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have forced businesses across sectors and industries to engage digital services on a previously unseen scale and accelerated timeline,” the company said in a statement announcing BringgNow. “However, only a few large chains and delivery services currently have the technology and infrastructure to manage and scale their delivery services this rapidly, providing exceptional delivery experiences with offerings such as contactless delivery. BringgNow will provide smaller businesses the ability to start, scale, and manage delivery operations to ensure a delivery experience comparable to that of leading food and retail businesses.”
SMBs are “typically more vulnerable to this type of rapid market shift,” says Bringg CEO Guy Bloch in an email to NoCamels. “We give them an easy to use, free SaaS [software-as-a-service] solution that provides them the ability to ensure reliable service to customers in need, even when demand is high.”
The service is “a ready out-of-the-box with no onboarding necessary and the solution itself is free,” Bloch explains, but there are the normal delivery charges from third-party fleets if the business chooses to fulfill orders with them.”
Additional features include “order and dispatch management, branded customer delivery tracking and the ability to offer contactless deliveries and to repurpose in-house staff to do [those] deliveries – potentially saving workers’ jobs,” Bloch says.
BringgNow is free out of a sense of community and solidarity in the face of unprecedented uncertainty, the company’s CEO has indicated.
“No person or business can single-handedly solve the crisis the world is facing with COVID-19, but if we work together as a community we can make an impact and solve the issues that we collectively face,” Bloch said in the company statement. “Now more than ever, both businesses and people need to focus on supporting one another in order to succeed together.”
In a blog post on Thursday, he wrote that as a company, the decision was made to “help our communities by addressing local businesses.”
“While our solution for delivery management is geared toward enterprises, we saw that COVID-19 has changed the market dynamic, leaving even smaller shops desperate to grow their delivery services,” Bloch said.
“So, while we had planned to release an SMB solution later this year, we decided the time to release was right now, and that we owed our expertise to every shop big and small,” he went on.
The decision to offer the service for free was easy, he pointed out. “This is one less expense that businesses need to accumulate in today’s health and economic crisis.”
BringgNow is currently available in the US and Israel, and the company plans to expand the offering over the coming weeks.
This is how it works: A merchant would register on the BringgNow landing page and verify details, after which they will be granted access to the BringgNow dashboard where orders can be created manually or with a CSV file. The merchant would then indicate if the business has its own drivers or select a desired third-party fleet (an option that will become available in Israel soon, Bringg says.) The BringgNow platform also provides access to a support team.
In addition, BringgNow has a drivers’ app that automatically pushes all of the orders that need to be completed. It allows drivers to call the customer, communicate with the dispatcher, and see additional information where necessary, the company explains.
Bringg runs its corporate headquarters and an R&D center in Tel Aviv with field headquarters in Chicago and offices in New York.
Original Source: http://nocamels.com/2020/03/bringg-free-delivery-logistics-small-businesses-pandemic/