Over the past decade, Bangladesh's economy has experienced remarkable growth, surging by over 6 per cent each year. A decade ago, the country's GDP was a mere $90 billion, but last year, it surpassed $460 billion, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
This impressive growth can be attributed to several factors, including export-oriented industrialization, improved infrastructure, digital transformation of businesses and a thriving consumer market.
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At the forefront of this economic transformation, foodpanda stands as a key contributor to Bangladesh's digital revolution, which not only revolutionized the food and grocery delivery market but also played a vital role in building a comprehensive digital ecosystem that links restaurants and SMEs with the consumer and thousands of youths with flexible earning opportunities.
Through collaborative efforts with merchants and riders, foodpanda caters to the needs of countless customers on a daily basis, uplifting communities, and enhancing the lives of consumers, merchants, and riders alike.
Empowering restaurants, SMEs and female entrepreneurs
Besides digitally transforming thousands of restaurants, foodpanda is aiding small businesses to reach their customers conveniently. Few female entrepreneurs of small businesses even have recently received grants from iDEA (The Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy) for startups.
For example, the platform caters to 8,000 homechefs; of which, 70 per cent are women. These home chefs earn over BDT 180 million annually. Moreover, the company's 80 per cent of restaurants are small businesses.
Thus, this shows how the delivery platform is helping small businesses to grow and empowering women while working towards achieving the prime minister’s vision of a “Smart Bangladesh”.Creating flexible income opportunity for youths
One of the core elements of food delivery platforms is its riders, playing a crucial role in delivering food and groceries to the valued customers diligently. In the last 10 years, foodpanda has been consistently committed to providing comprehensive support to the riders, including a flexible means of earning a livelihood, and various benefits such as insurance, training programs, and loans. For example, recently, foodpanda collaborated with Shikho, an online learning platform, to provide development courses to the riders and brought the initiative of 'Rider Tips' through which the company collected almost BDT 2.5 million tips for riders.
Creating a positive impact on the environment
Most riders use bicycles to deliver food and essential goods, reducing fuel emissions and decreasing the consumption of natural resources. foodpanda also encourages customers not to use single-use plastic cutleries, hence, working towards reducing the consumption of plastics. For example, the platform has enabled nearly 95 per cent of customers to say no to single-use cutlery when placing orders, and 88 per cent of their riders use low to zero-emission modes of transportation to deliver goods.
The platform has changed consumers’ attitude toward purchasing groceries online with convenience. Next time you order through any food delivery platform, you will know that you are indirectly empowering women, positively impacting the environment, and helping youths.
