ZAINAB Al NASSRI -
Have you ever had the urge to shop but didn’t have the time? Have you ever relied on a friend to grab an order for you but got disappointed? Are you one of those online shoppers who got stuck when it comes to delivery?
Now “mandob” will figure it out all for you. This young company has designed its services to delivering goods to your place with a nominal rate of interest.
Six ambitious youth hatched “mandob” as an idea in January 2016. Then, they decided to take their project and participate in the 2nd Omani Youth Forum contest adopted by National Youth Committee (NYC).
They won the second place for their initiative that aims at providing delivery service to people who buy things from different shops and stores in the Sultanate. The small idea turned into a formal firm in September 2016 to face a high demand in market, according to Ayoub al Shuaili, the company head.
“When we first thought of the project, we targeted domestic sellers, social media traders and normal stores. We came to know that many people don’t have time to do the shopping by their own and many don’t have cars to go and grab their goods. We created Instagram account for ‘mandob’ and started making advertisement to promote our service,” Al Shuaili shared.
The six youth were fresh graduates from Sultan Qaboos University when they started, three of them are still job seekers. However, they make good use of their time by investing it in the firm which eventually saw great success turnout.
About the way they work, Ayoub explained, “We receive requests via Whatsapp. Applicants should fill in an online form that has all details about the buyer, contact details, estimated time of delivery, paying method, and place. Within few hours, the buyer will receive response from the company.”
Ayoub added that the service is provided within the Sultanate through cooperative agents’ who deliver over different regions. As the headquarter is currently at SAS mobile Office in Knowledge Oasis, delivery at Muscat takes few hours. While it takes longer for other regions but to a maximum of four days. It all depends on the location of store and receiver.
Ayoub also mentioned that coinciding with the book fair, mandob will undertake buying books and delivering them in a new step forward. All the applicants have to do is select books’ titles from the search bar of the fair, fill the form with details and send it to company.
“We aim at promoting reading and make it easy for people who can’t make it to the fair to get what they want. We also provide gifts delivery service if the buyer intended to send things to someone else,” Ayoub said.
As any fresh project with limited financial capabilities, agents of mandob still use their own vehicles to deliver things to people. They look forward for a bigger company with a big funding and a wider customers’ base.
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