KARACHI:
The internet and social media seem to be at an all-time high in Pakistan, and the launch of food portals — offering new and convenient avenues of ordering food online in busy, bustling cities — are just another sign. Young entrepreneurs are taking the initiative and setting up their own websites, with the aim to provide easy access to food and beverages to people from their favourite restaurants in a more efficient way.
One such food portal is the newly launched www.click4ameal.pk, created by 20-year-old Fahad Nassr. Frustrated with waiting on the phone to place an order time and again, Nassr and his friends came up with the idea to develop a food portal which would give customers the luxury to place their orders online and receive it at their doorsteps without any hassle.
“Placing an order on our website takes only five minutes,” said Nassr, who also manages an online business development firm. “It’s convenient and saves time. You don’t have to wait on the phone or get in long queues to order,” he states.
The customers simply have to sign in with an email address, select the desired food from the list of restaurants and verify their delivery address — with no extra charges to place the order. Once an order is placed, Nassr and his friends get in touch with the restaurants though emails, text messages, or the phone and see them through.
The portal also aims to offer a wide range of restaurants and cafes not only from affluent areas but also roadside eateries. “The idea is to cover every area, and bring food places closer to people, in the easiest and most accessible way,” said 21-year-old Alishay Adnan, the marketing officer for the website.
In just a few days, click4ameal had around 6,000 hits and over 89 orders. It will offer a new restaurant every day till August 15, with the aim to cover 200 restaurants across the city in the near future. Eateries range from Pompei to Salman Pani Puri, with many others on their way soon. The food portal will also offer a section for reviews, blogs and recipes to promote discussion and gather feedback.
Samiya Ansari is a satisfied customer, who believes the website is efficient and effective. “Food is honestly a click away. I prefer online delivery because I hate the hassle of calling as either the phone is busy or they make you wait.”
Another such website, which allows people to place their orders online is www.urbanite.pk. Chief operating officer Zaigham Hidayatullah tells The Express Tribune that his website is a community portal, offering delivery of a wide range of goods, such as DVDs, books, flowers and more. However, it is food and beverages that are ordered the most.
“Food is big in Pakistan and we are happy with some healthy competition,” he states, referring to click4ameal. Urbanite lists 30 restaurants that offer food from scrumptious tikkahs to frozen yoghurt. Launched in May, the website has received over 2,000 orders. Currently, his website also displays Ramazan deals from different eateries across the city which he says are immensely popular at night time. For those restaurants that do not deliver, Urbanite charges Rs100 for their own riders to bring the food to your doorstep.
While click4ameal is paid Rs40 for every order placed at a specific restaurant, Urbanite has settled for a flat rate with restaurants that are on their website. The website is currently offering over 150 free tickets to a pre-screening of The Dark Knight Rises for a noon show on Sunday, August 13, to anyone who places an order of over Rs1,000 on their website by midnight on Saturday, August 12 — something they hope will generate more hits.
Additionally, for professionals caught up in busy work lives, these portals come as a blessing. Working for an event management company on Shahrah-e-Faisal, Faraz Shah says he finds the website extremely convenient. “With a busy schedule, I hardly have time to look up phone numbers and call up restaurants. With such websites, life is easy as food comes to your office conveniently, without calling or going someplace.”
His colleague Samreen further adds, “We get saved from the embarrassment of calling up restaurants, and making the operator understand for hours what our order is. Now we can do it silently without letting the whole world know what we are ordering.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2012.
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Great Idea and Gr8 Job! Have some confusions in my mind regarding that business but would like to discuss with them. Nice once again
This is a good idea because click4ameal.pk is delivering hardees in DHA/Clifton, i am very satisfied with them as long as they give us good customer services and timely orders which they already are doing.
there are a ton of similar websites. there is nothing special about this one. it only appears that the website owner paid for this article to be plugged here. Anyways, I reckon that most customers prefer placing order over phone because that is easier than booting up a computer and making sure that Internet is working and then placing an order that may end up in some black hole. adoption of such services by our people is not very smooth.
GREAT SERVICE!I ordered pani puri at the peak tym just before iftari and in minutes it was at my doorstep,keep it up click4ameal
I think their initiative should be applauded as well but www.click4ameal.com is a US based company that only sells the online ordering software to other companies. It is not a food portal. I think you should check it out.
Secondly, I think the "idea" refers to developing a Food Portal in Pakistan because im sure we are all aware that the concept of Online ordering ect already exsists all around the globe. And I dont its any of our concern knowing how much money these businesses are making. And the article does say 89 orders "In just a few days". It doesnt really apply that, that is the total market potential for online customers. If you must know, there are over 20 Million internet users in Pakistan so i dont think we lack a market, we lack initiative. These young entrepreneurs have taken that initiative and to say that that these ideas are in their infancy is utterly disrespectful. How do we expect growth in our country when the so called "educated" people of Pakistan are so pessimistic.
Surely, Pakistan struggles with electricity problems but like u mentioned so does India. Despite that, India has "Justeat.in" ( Online Food Delivery Service) operating successfully with over 2500 restaurants and has many many many clients. So I dont think Pakistan lacks potential. Sadly, it just lacks optimism and encouragement.
Good Luck to both the companies. Wishing you great success in the future. Great initiative.
Website design should be improved. Great idea. Get a ".com" as well.
there are many great things being practised abroad, no one said they are pioneers, but to introduce this service in Pakistan ,even despite all the electricity and other issues is commendable, please people give credit when it is due.
not a bad idea but everyone should be onboard including the restaurant's sethh as Karachi is not new york .it indeed has become part of there culture to order online. the phone delivery is really not the problem with big branded restaurants in Karachi but for medium or small size it is indeed the problem. but best of luck and full marks for trying something.
but we first NEED electricity for it to work?? anybody?
" Frustrated with waiting on the phone to place an order time and again, Nassr and his friends came up with the idea to develop a food portal which would give customers the luxury to place their orders online and receive it at their doorsteps without any hassle."
First of all click4ameal is a proven business model in USA Infact if you simply put www.click4ameal.com it will take you to the US website. SO to claim that Nasser and his friends thought of this idea is disingenuous. However there is no harm in transferring successful business practices from US to Pakistan, so their initiative is to be applauded.
Finally the notion "The internet and social media seem to be at an all-time high in Pakistan, and the launch of food portals — offering new and convenient avenues of ordering food online in busy, bustling cities — are just another sign." is not supported by the type of transaction volumes quoted in the article. 89 orders in a month would have earned these boys Rs. 3600. So at most one can say that these ideas are in their infancy - not that they are at an all time high. Part of the challenge with e-commerce in countries like India and Pakistan is lack of widespread access to internet. Pakistan has the additional problem is high degree of load shedding during which obviously internet would not be available.
Still good luck to the entrepreneurs.
Written as though ordering online is some ground-breaking invention. It has been practised for years and years abroad. And I don't find ordering via the phone difficult at all. The delivery time is the REAL problem
Progressive !!
“Placing an order on our website takes only five minutes,” said Nassr, who also manages an online business development firm. “It’s convenient and saves time. You don’t have to wait on the phone or get in long queues to order,” he states. Wow, what a time saving tip indeed @ huhhh
Loving these services. have used both but enjoyed using clcik4ameal as much easier and got salman delivered:) even added it on BBM
Great plan. Now all we need is an internet connection and ELECTRICITY
Reminds of the first and last time I ordered pizza for delivery. Order at 7pm was delivered after 10pm. Wonder how long it will take now that its been "computerized".
That's another story behind it in that on going to PTCL service to get my bill fixed, the PTCL customer service agent said it will take longer to fix my bill "because now its been computerized".
thanks for the information. i have checked websites, both good. will use them for delivery