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Mother’s Day is one of the busiest dates for commerce. Whether in the flower growing sector, shops or restaurants, everyone wants to thank their moms with a special detail. However, in the midst of the quarantine there were not many options beyond asking for an address.(Rappi collapse on mothers day due to over-ordering)
And this, precisely, was what happened to hundreds of thousands of Colombians who ordered through ‘delivery’ platforms and experienced delays of up to 4 hours or, even worse, their food never came.
There are different factors that influenced it to be one of the most bitter mother’s days for Colombians, at least as far as food is concerned. Endless rows in restaurants, order saturation and delayed deliveries, and technical glitches in apps led to a less than pleasant user experience.Whether by Rappi, Uber Eats, iFood or Domicilios.com, none were saved from the
delays, order delays and problems with increased demand.
(‘We want to gain strength in big cities’: iFood)
Increase out of expectations
“It was an unprecedented day, we did not imagine it. It was a record day on our platform, although not in the way we would have liked. We were not prepared for such a high increase in order volume, ”said Camilo Sarasti, director of iFood in Colombia.
As Sarasti explains, the increase in sales was 150 percent in relation to another Sunday -days with the highest volume of deliveries-, which partially exceeded the forecast they had for this important date. “We expected an increase due to the situation, but not 150 percent. We are preparing for a 30 or 40 percent increase, ”he added.
Likewise, Felipe Ossa, executive director of Domicilios, com, said that Mother’s Day “was an atypical day in the history of our industry.” He explains that they had a never-before-seen demand for this celebration, “In the case of Domicilios.com, we had an increase in orders of 250 percent compared to the highest Sunday of all of 2020. As much as we activated our entire operation, not even our most aggressive projection of demand pointed to what was the reality. “
In the case of Domicilios.com, we had an increase in orders of 250 percent compared to the highest Sunday in all of 2020
Well above the 55 percent that had been budgeted for this date: “on Sunday, May 10, we set up connection hours for residents according to our most aggressive order forecast. We are preparing for an increase of around 55 percent, which is the maximum estimate we have had in demand variation. The increase went beyond what was expected in the sector. “
On the other hand, some restaurants were also saturated with large quantities of simultaneous orders and this led to congested delivery people waiting in long lines to collect the order and take it to its destination.
Similar situation to that experienced by users who used Uber Eats.
The platform confirmed to EL TIEMPO a 100 percent increase in demand compared to a normal Sunday. And close to 150 percent when compared to the daily average for the platform in this quarantine.
In this sense, they assure that, although they were clear that Mother’s Day is one of the most important dates for families in Colombia and through technology and algorithms they had a proactive forecast of demand, “there were many variables that we did not know . We had challenges both in restaurants, delivery partners and we as an application, “they say.
According to Uber Eats, the app worked correctly throughout the day, however, the increase in orders was higher than predicted and this caused that at certain times of the day “we did not have enough delivery partners for all orders”, despite the fact that, compared to a normal Sunday, there was a 40 percent more in the delivery fleet.
Now what we are doing is thinking about Father’s Day and, if everything continues as it is now, being prepared to be able to provide the best service to all our users.
In this sense, Sarasti agrees that measures were taken from the platforms, but that they were not sufficient. “Now what we are doing is thinking about Father’s Day and, if everything continues as it is now, being prepared to be able to provide the best service to all our users.“
Canceled orders
Among the complaints that were most repeated by users were problems in collections and orders canceled after many hours. The social networks were filled with comments that showed waiting times of more than 5 hours in the orders and some that never came.
Against this, both Uber Eats and iFood discussed some cancellation issues.
“Those who have had a problem can enter the” Orders “section, select the” Help “option in the corresponding order. There they will find detailed instructions depending on the problem,” they comment from Uber Eats.
For his part, Rappi presented a statement apologizing to its users. “The celebration of Mother’s Day, together with the quarantine, produced a demand three times higher than normal and this situation did not allow us to respond with the agility that we would have liked. The team has worked to solve the situations that arose.”
In this sense, some users said through social networks that after the cancellation of their orders on this platform, they were charging them for the value of the address, however, according to users, at night they returned the money through Rappi Pay.
Although as reported by iFood, Domicilios.com and Uber eats never closed operation, the challenge of such high order concurrency exceeded the expectation and capacity of restaurant kitchens, and also the operational capacity, which caused many some orders to be canceled due to problems in their preparation.
From Domicilios.com point out that only transactions are made for confirmed orders with online payment. “If a user paid online and their order was canceled, the amount to their card will be automatically canceled. The time of cancellation of the purchase depends on each bank.”
However, they explain that if this term is exceeded and the return does not yet appear on the account statement, or if any other situation arises with the order, “the user can contact us at [email protected] and at We will contact you within 48-72 hours. To speed up the response, we ask you to please include: name and surname, email registered on our platform, and contact number. “
A Sunday of learning
This difficult Sunday for home platforms was also a learning space for this unprecedented moment in the country. “The current situation has generated new behaviors for consumers that open opportunities for us and create new challenges for us,” said Ossa.
The current situation has generated new consumer behaviors that open up opportunities and create new challenges for us
And he added that “this Mother’s Day leaves us very important learnings about what the” new normal “may be and we are taking corrective actions.”
“We have to be much more prepared to deliver orders faster to our users. This Sunday it was as if we had advanced the business by almost two years, “said Sarasti. Who also said that this was an opportunity to arrive prepared for the future.
From Uber Eats they affirm that “we are facing a situation never seen before and this means that we are not always going to achieve everything as we hope, however they will be opportunities to learn and improve. This last Mother’s Day leaves us with some important lessons in handling special dates”.
TECHNOSPHERE DRAFTING@TecnosferaET
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