MANILA, Philippines — DART, a Manila-based quick-commerce provider, plans to tap the underserved online grocery market to grow its presence in the country as it banks on its 15-minute guarantee of instant grocery delivery service.
With its 110 million people and an annual grocery spend of above $50 billion, the Philippines represents one of the most attractive markets in Southeast Asia for quick delivery service companies.
According to the e-Conomy study by Google, Bain & Co. and Temasek, the penetration level is only at two percent compared to 25 percent in the non-grocery space.
“Delivering grocery goods to customers in 15 minutes represents a great opportunity,” said DART CEO and co-founder Harm-Julian Schumacher. “Our model allows gratification of instant needs and cravings while simultaneously saving time and money enabling us to create tremendous value for our customers.”
Founded in early 2022, DART offers a wide assortment of goods, covering a range of popular snacks, drinks, fresh produce, dry and frozen goods as well as local partnership brands.
DART COO Tommy Campos said the startup is now serving the cities of Makati and Mandaluyong.
“We have tested many orders in the last months to better understand our customers and operations and fine tuning our offering. We have seen that 99 percent of our orders are getting delivered within 15 minutes and are now confident to scale our business to more customers,” he said.
He added that DART also plans to broaden its market coverage by expanding to other cities as well within the year.
The two co-founders running DART come with a deep background in the q-commerce and on-demand delivery industry as well as venture building across several continents. Schumacher is the former deputy general manager of Germany of Gorillas, Europe’s largest q-commerce player, and have previously worked with Bain & Co., Rocket Internet and TruVenturo. His co-founder and COO Campos have worked with Uber and Postmates.
In order to provide its customers a wide array of products at affordable prices, DART recently entered into an operational and supply partnership with Robinsons Supermarket.
“This partnership with Robinsons is providing an extreme value to our business – from the access to a large assortment, advantageous prices as well as leveraging Robinsons existing supply chain infrastructure,” Schumacher added.
Robina Gokongwei-Pe, president and CEO of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., which operates Robinsons Supermarket, said q-commerce provides a unique opportunity to address needs of consumers that are complementary to its traditional supermarket offering.
“We are excited to team up with DART and together push forward the digital transformation of the grocery industry,” Gokongwei-Pe said.