The COVID-19 pandemic has severely hit many countries around the world; shops have been closed up, people are indoors, and all economic activities are at a halt. In Sri Lanka, the agriculture sector is considered our most thriving economic activity and yet is suffering heavily from the lockdown as farmers have no way of selling their produce to their consumers.
The New Reality
March 16, 2020 onwards Sri Lanka went into an indefinite lockdown: businesses across the board faced an uncertain future. In these trying times meeting the basic necessities of the populace in lockdown was an urgent matter. In this context, FortunaCreatives developed and distributed an e-flyer for our client Govipola who was mainly a B2B trading platform for agricultural produce. The flyer was the first time Govipola was venturing into a B2C model due to the current need of the nation. Our team proposed the idea to test if the market was ready and willing to shop online for fresh produce.
Prior to the lockdown, many citizens in Sri Lanka were not as open to shopping online for grocery items. What started out as a simple flyer being across social media platforms and messaging threads soon turned into an operational, community-serving business. Govifoods soon became popular amongst the public and this prompted our client, Govipola, to commission a dynamic e-commerce platform with a state-of-the-art CMS.
Image – Where it all began: The initial flyer that served as the first domino.
Using Govipola’s vast network of farmers, our team was able to develop a solution that would allow individuals stuck at home to order vegetables and fruits to be delivered to their doorstep. While team Govipola worked on sourcing the freshest produce from the farmers’ in Dambulla, our team worked tirelessly on conceptualizing and developing the Govifoods website with a fully functional payment gateway powered by Fortunaglobal’s (our sister company) client, Cargills Bank. In 96 hours, the website was ready to launch. Recently, the Govifoods team partnered up with ABS Couriers to expand their delivery network for a hassle-free and fast service.
With challenges such as all teams working from home, FortunaCreatives ensured optimal delivery times and constant quality assurance to make sure Govifoods portal was ready ahead of schedule. Our agile processes, constant communication, and usage of apps like Whatsapp, Jira, Zoom, and Slack saw our team power through 96 hours of hard work and dedication to launching the website.
Image – The FortunaCreatives team behind the development of Govifoods.lk
Instant traction
Within a week, Govifoods started receiving over 100 orders a day. The website became the main touchpoint for consumers with analytics showing over 10,000 unique visitors a day. With increased social media usage during the pandemic, Govifoods also leveraged on social media platforms and has over 100,000 average post reach in a short span of time. Due to the increased demand, Govipola expanded its supply chain to include more farmers bridging the gap between demand and supply in a safe and hygienic manner during the COVID-19 crisis.
“We saw a great deal of orders rise from when the site went live. Our customers feel that the website is easy to use and allows quick payment for their orders too!” – Shehan Fu from the Govipola team.
Post-launch of the Govifoods website, the Govipola team oversaw over 4000 orders and counting. Our teams continue to collaborate and expand the website and its services to serve the nation’s needs during the pandemic.
Image: Govifoods continues to expand its produce offerings and delivery areas
