Foodpanda to launch in-store grocery pickups Monday

Just like food pickup from restaurants, Foodpanda's grocery delivery arm Pandamart is going to launch its in-person store pickup service in Bangladesh on Monday.  

Initially, customers can pick their grocery and daily needs up from Pandamart's Gulshan-2, Dhaka dark store and if the service fits the market, all the one and half dozen Pandamart dark stores would open to the shoppers on the go, Zubair BA Siddiky, co-founder and managing director of foodpanda Bangladesh, told TBS Friday evening. 

"Right now 3-5% of our food orders are picked by the customers from restaurants when they pass by", he said, adding that it would be more appealing to see the store and products before picking. 

"Many of the busy urban people started to depend on online orders for their daily needs and I am excited to let them see how our dark stores work, how we maintain quality," he said. 

"Pickup orders help save the delivery charge alongside availing some discount deals," he added. 

Pandamart customers can also order from many supermarket chains online that are being delivered by the Foodpanda's gig army for home delivery. 

Foodpanda, owned by German firm Delivery Hero, will launch the grocery pickup service in Pakistan also, reports Tech in Asia. 

The feature was launched in March in Singapore and is currently available in one Pandamart store in the city-state. Selected items are available in all Malaysian stores, while in Hong Kong after first launching there in April, customers now can get their groceries in the city in as fast as five minutes. Orders can be picked up in 15 minutes by customers in Singapore and Malaysia.

Foodpanda conducts business in Thailand, Taiwan, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

In Bangladesh, starting in 2013 Foodpanda started to grow fast in 2017-18 and during the pandemic the country saw a boom in food delivery before slowing down a bit amid the high inflation nowadays brought by the Ukraine war. 

Foodpanda is serving around two-thirds of the online food orders thanks to its nationwide service coverage.