Muscat: The demand for home delivery services has increased in the current situations, according to the officials of the home delivery companies and platforms.
They said that the 'Shop from Your Home' initiative launched by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in cooperation with the Al-Rafd Fund and the Public Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development "Riyada", has supported making these services available as well as their promotion.
The 'Shopping from Your Home' initiative is aimed at making the use of electronic applications for shopping from stores, restaurants, and cafes popular. It also came as an opportunity to introduce Omani companies of delivery of orders of various types and many of their other services which could be available at homes through their electronic applications. The ministry has urged citizens to use these applications and platforms.
Muhammad bin Mansour al Husaini, a founding partner in the "Bahhar" platform, said: The online platform "Bahhar" offers all kinds of fish for remote bidding locally and internationally and their selling. It provides services in the various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman. It serves the fisheries sector in the area of their electronic marketing. The platform is aimed at providing its services to all the segments which enter the field of fish marketing, starting from the fisherman and then the fish transport, whether to the markets, shops, companies or the individual consumers or the bulk consumer locally and internationally.
Al-Husaini added: The demand for our services which we provide through the platform is huge. The number of visits to the platform reached more than 4,500. It is increasing on a daily basis. Similarly, the number of subscribers is also large.
The platform initially started marketing the products to the central wholesale market. Later its services were made available for the individual consumers for shop from home. This platform links wholesale markets with each other, such as the wholesale market in Barka and other markets on the beaches and 25 landing areas along the beaches of the Sultanate. Also, there is a chain linking fisherman and transport, companies, and markets.
It helps the fisherman to exhibit his products on the platform. From him, a carrier takes and exhibits his products in the market, to companies or some of them internationally. The final consumers can learn about the original source of the fish. The facility to track the fish is available on the platform. This platform was launched in partnership with the Oman Technology Fund and a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Dr. Matlooba Bint Ayoub Al-Zadjali, Executive Director of the International Centre for Specialized Cardiovascular Diseases, said: The center provides, in addition to other services, home visits service for cardiovascular patients, blood pressure patients, diabetics with varicose veins, and diabetics who have wounds. We have a well-prepared team consisting of a doctor and a nurse who arrive at the patient's home and carry out all the procedures and do treatments needed by the patient. With this service the patient does not need to come to the centre, instead we reach the patient. We also offer a wound dressing service at homes of the wounded person. We also take samples from homes for lab tests of a patient, such as blood tests. We analyze these samples are the centre and give the results. We also give the medical prescription to the patient through social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
Dr. Matlooba Al-Zadjali added: There is a demand for our services of home visits, particularly in the current situation. This is because the patient prefers staying at his or home and avail all services, including medical services. The center takes safety measures in all its visits, as doctors and nurses also take health precautions when serving their patients at home.
Ayoub bin Saleh Al-Shuaili, a founding partner in the "Mandoob" company, said that the demand of consumers for home delivery services has increased significantly. The number of workers in the company has also increased under the part-time work system. It has led to nearly three thousand Omani youth working in a delivery network under a participatory system.
Al-Shuaili said: The company's employees take all preventive measures to ensure the safety of both consumers and workers, as the company communicates with many institutions that provide and deliver basic commodities and services required by citizens at their doorsteps in various governorates of the Sultanate. He said that the "Shop from Your Home" initiative which was launched the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in cooperation with Al-Rafd Fund and the Public Authority for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises "Riyada", has supported them in providing their services and promoting them.
Maryam Bint Yahya Al-Jilaniya, the owner of the "Fast Car Wash" company, said that her company specialized in washing and polishing cars upon request. The company currently has three vehicles equipped with all tools required for cleaning and polishing services in any place as demanded by the customer. Keeping in view the current popularity of service and goods delivery companies her company was launching an electronic application through which we would provide our services on a large scale.
Al-Jilania hopes to reach out to all the consumers who want to clean their cars at their homes. She thanked all the institutions which supported the project.
Zaher bin Hamad bin Saif Al-Busaidi, the owner of Prime Business Solutions, said: The Omani company is owner and developer of many administrative and cloud accounting systems. It provides the best opportunity for all business leaders in different fields to manage their business easily from anywhere in the world through any electronic smart device. The company provides cloud-based systems that run on the Internet to manage organizations easily.
On the current demand for electronic services, Al Busaidi said that the desire of the people to subscribe cloud accounting systems has increased much fold recently, as everyone has become aware of the importance of the company having modern systems which enable it to work at any time without the need to be available at a workplace. We are seeing a daily increase in demand for electronic services and trying to provide them fast and at the best price.
On the company's plans for expansion, Al-Busaidi said: The company is expanding day by day. It has so far covered many areas. We will work towards completing them all. In addition to this, we are working in more than one country.
Tahnoun bin Bashir al Harthy, founder of Kunooz for Occupational Safety, lauded the initiative launched by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in cooperation with the Public Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises-Riyada, Al-Rafad Fund. He said: Shop From Your Home initiative provided us lots of incentives to develop the company and expand it through its work in various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman. We want to improve our work and provide all our services to various groups of society in the near future. He pointed out that the company specialized in distributing all occupational safety tools, including masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and surface sanitizers.
He added, "Before the Coronavirus crisis, we were providing our services only in government and private organizations. But after the crisis and to limit the spread of the Coronavirus, we have now been delivering our services to various segments of society. We are currently working on a strategy and would implement it after the crisis is over so that we continue to provide our services in an innovative and advanced way and create new job opportunities."
Al-Harthy said: "There is a huge demand. We receive calls continuously for home delivery. The company has five employees and soon it would have a larger number of national manpower."
Tahnoun al Harthy said, "There are instructions given by the company to workers of home delivery. They must adhere to these requirements as wanted by government organisations to mitigate the impact of the outbreak of the Coronavirus. He said that the delivery activity has increased as number of hours to meet the demands has also gone up."
Saad bin Nasir Al-Alawi, an employee in the electronic application of providing cooking gas, said: We, through the application, work in the field of delivering cooking gas to homes and restaurants. We take precautions to ensure the safety of all parties, whether delivery person or customers, using all necessary sanitization tools, and leave a safe distance between them.
After the authorities have taken steps to implement precautionary measures to get rid of the spread of the Coronavirus, the demand to use the service has increased. The website is providing its services currently in Muscat governorate and expected to expand outside in the near future soon after the Corona crisis.
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