Rappi bets on more allies and better service for the rest of 2024 | Company | Business

People are increasingly looking to their mobile phones to meet their daily needs, and finding it quickly and easily is key. There, Rappi has found a niche, offering financial, delivery and even travel solutions. As a result, Matías Laks, general manager of Rappi Colombia and Costa Rica, continues to see a huge business opportunity.

In an interview with Portafolio, the manager Updated on its plans in the country and its big bet for this year: improving customer service Provide after-sales service through more technological means.

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Uber exits delivery. How to capture the existing market?

Uber is gone. They had Uber Eats, and this month they announced they were shutting down the marketplace app. On that note, basically we’re going to continue to add allies to the platform. We’re a marketplace, so users want to come into Rappi and find everything.

We are still missing some relevant players in the supermarket market, but, for example, Jumbo has recently entered the platform, which is a major player in Uber. This decision is a good timing for us because he is a major player in it and users can now find him on Rappi.

What other allies would you like to see join this year?

Hopefully all. We have a lot of conversations with a lot of people and new allies are coming to the platform every day. There are some great companies that are not there yet, but we are in conversation with all of them so that they will eventually join our marketplace.

The latest big entrants are pharmaceutical industry leaders Cruz Verde and Jumbo.

How many “rappitendero” do you aim to have in order to cope with this growth?

We have about 70,000 of them. They connect how they want, when they want, they are independent. So as long as we provide good profit suggestions to rappitenders, they will want to connect faster to make big money.

Now, what is the ideal number? It allows us to deliver millions of orders. In some areas, I don’t have as many homes as I should. So we strive to be able to balance that market and have a certain number of homes.

How much are they paid after the labor rights dispute?

We started working on this even before the whole dynamic of labor reform started. We’ve been working on how to improve the value proposition for the people who deliver the orders, who are also users of the company. That’s a very important audience for us.

But here’s the thing to remember. They can connect anytime, anywhere, and however they want. There’s no way for me to tell them, “Hey, connect.” They decide. We work on attraction.

With this in mind, more than two years ago we began to build a slightly more emotional relationship with the rappidenderos through face-to-face workshops, where we not only listened to them but also they collaborated with each other. There we learned about the opportunities we had. In addition, as a result of these workshops, we set up a delivery service ombudsman.

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How does it work?

If I was a rappitandero and had a problem, any type of abuse, I would seek Rappi support, but maybe they didn’t treat me fairly. There I picked up the phone and called a person to discuss the issue. The department is dedicated to protecting delivery drivers for a different audience, including Rappi himself. The Department of Labor was amazed at what we built.

So, it’s not just how much money they make, because that’s the monetary part; there’s also the income they make. There’s also the emotional part.

However, regarding their income, we also calculated it based on the minimum wage in each country. Since their connection time is a few hours, we cannot compare the income of the domiciled workers with the minimum wage, because if I connect for three hours, logically I earn very little money. But if we only connect for less than an hour, a domiciled worker may earn between $12,000 and $14,000 per hour, while the minimum wage per hour is $5,900. Their hourly wage is more than twice the minimum wage.

Let’s remember that in Colombia, and this is a sad figure but it’s a reality, 70% of the population earns less than twice the minimum wage. So the fact that through an app I can manage my time as I want and earn as much as the top 30% of earners, I think that’s great.

What other advantages do they have?

In addition, we also pay for accident insurance. So if the residential staff has an accident while processing the order or 30 minutes later, it is covered. With Sura, we also have basic health insurance. Although it is very basic, we are providing home health care services.

Additionally, everyone is eventually banked because all the income they generate is deposited into a bank account in their name. This makes them eligible for free points, replacement motorcycles, or simple supplies.

What’s coming up for the app?

We had Turbo Supermercado, which was successful and had a very efficient model behind it. Now we are using the same technology for restaurants, the difference is that in this case we cannot have hidden stores, but rather we source them from the same stores that the restaurant already has.

Now, what products fit this model: dishes that can be prepared in five minutes. In fact, even the most exquisite restaurants have dishes that can be prepared in five minutes.

We use the same techniques we learned at Turbo Supermarkets to schedule homes in the area before the order arrives, and we can deliver in 10 or 15 minutes. It’s more complicated because we depend on cooking time. The Coca-Cola I take out of the fridge and give to my family is different than a pizza.

Have you started working yet?

Yes, in fact, we now have over 700 stores operating this way and growing.

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Have you thought about more vertical fields?

We have a lot of secret plans and ideas. We are training a lot of pilots.

Do you plan to expand your coverage?

Today, we reach about 22 million Colombians who can download the app and use Rappi services. However, the Rappi service I use in Bogota is not the same as the one I use in, say, Pasto.

Turbo Farmacias currently has 22 stores. Let’s double that number. We recently opened Turbo stores in Santa Marta, Villavicencio, Monteria, Pereira, Armenia and Manizales. Are they new cities for Rappi? No, but they are new cities served by Turbo Supermarkets.

What we will be doing in a big way is expanding the depth of service in our region.

What challenges do you foresee your segment facing for the rest of the year?

We have a very big challenge: orders that are cancelled or have problems. We have been reducing that significantly. We have greatly improved the problems that occur after orders in recent years. We are increasing the speed of delivery.

However, if I place an order with Rappi and Rappi looks bad, the impact on me is huge. Although we are making fewer and fewer mistakes, the impact of mistakes is the same as it was a long time ago. Therefore, we develop models to continue to minimize the number of mistakes.

How can we develop a technology that can tell the user when this happens: do you want me to send you food in a few minutes or would you prefer points? We don’t have that today. We seek to continue working on improving user services this semester.

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How do you expect this year to end?

We are growing faster and faster than we have ever experienced in our history. To be honest, we haven’t experienced this in the past few years. The challenge is how do we maintain these growth rates?

Paula Galeano Balaguera
Portfolio Reporter