Delivery services are becoming all the rage in Nairobi and what’s not to love about having groceries, food, wine and even medicine right to your doorstep?
This is something that D&D (Done and Dusted) is quickly embracing as part of their charm to entice their customers so as they can avoid the hassle of city traffic, the stress of having to shop and the convenience of your shopping being brought right to your house.
I managed to catch up with D&D to know more about why they started their business, their region of operation and why you should hire them for your next grocery run.
What is D&D? What exactly do you guys do and how long have you been doing it?
D&D stands for Done and Dusted. We are a task outsourcing business; that basically means if there’s something you need done but can’t or do not want to do it, just give us a call.
At the moment, we do shopping and delivery for customers. We deal with small and medium size packages like foodstuffs and groceries, drinks, documents, laundry, medicines, surprise gifts etc. We shop and deliver anywhere within Nairobi County, but have so far served the residents of Donholm, Embakasi, Umoja, Buruburu, Nairobi CBD and their environs. We aim to save people’s time, provide high quality and affordable service, by connecting them to our motorbike riders and on-foot staff.
We officially started operations on 26th July 2017 and so we’re a little over a month old.
How was it setting up your own business? Was it hard to get capital to start?
When the three of us came together to start D&D, all we had was our ambition, some savings and support from friends and family. We have pivoted our plans along the way as different challenges have arisen but it’s a great learning experience.
Our main focus has been market research, listening to the customers and mentors, streamlining our processes and establishing trust. We decided to start small and get better as we go along and raise more funds but the response has been very positive and it seems it’ll surpass what we anticipated. But that’s a good problem to have. We’re grateful for all the support we’ve received so far.
What is your main target audience?
Households, office workers, small businesses especially retail stores, students in hostels and anyone else who is in need of a helping hand. That is why most of our operations are in residential areas and around the CBD.
Describe a typical day at D&D. Do you have busy days and if so, what are they like?
Our day starts at 7am and ends at 8pm on weekdays, 8am to 9pm on weekends. The flow of orders varies. Most come in the afternoon and evening hours and on weekends. There are days when we’ve had little to no orders, especially around the election season when Nairobi was almost a ghost town.
Our customer base is growing and hopefully this forthcoming election season will be business as usual.
What challenges have you faced so far?
The bureaucracy of government and financial institutions. It can be quite draining and confusing.
We have also had to forego some ventures and focus on the priorities because of limited funds. It is also not easy to create a reliable and effective team but we believe we’ve sorted that out with this current team.
One of the biggest challenges though, has been putting ourselves out there. We’re new and it takes time to build a customer base. We plan to keep advertising ourselves as effectively as possible.
Where do you see D&D in the next five years?
By 2022 we should have expanded the array of services we provide. Who knows? We can even get into plumbing, cleaning, courier services etc. We also dream of expanding our markets and reach more areas in and out of Kenya.
Do not be surprised when you hear of D&D Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kigali, Kampala, Johannesburg and so on.
We are also keen on reducing unemployment by connecting young people to tasks that they can easily complete and earn an income. Hopefully by 2022 we will have recruited over a million service providers.
What are your rates for delivery and shopping?
DELIVERY
0-1km> Ksh.60
Each additional km> Ksh.60
Decimal figures are rounded off to the nearest km.
SHOPPING
10% of the basket price for any shopping above Ksh.500
At least half payment via M-Pesa Till Number 923456 before delivery or shopping(including basket price). The balance can be paid by cash afterwards.
