Digital Delivery, Kashmir style
Their smartphones have been constantly buzzing ever since they began a new service to deliver food items at a client’s home in the Srinagar city and beyond. Kartfood, the first online food delivery service in Kashmir, has a tie-up with various eateries in the city and customers can order food, from their choice restaurants, from home. On a sunny March morning, Amir, one of the men running the service, was preparing to leave for Baramulla with a delicacy a customer had ordered from the town some fifty kilometers away.
While Amir was busy putting together the order, he asked his business partner Furqan to manage other orders for the day. Though their business is limited to the city only, Amir feels he could extend the service beyond the city limits if it made business sense. A month back, Amir Bashir Dar, 19 and Furqan Qureshi, 21, started the service taking orders on their cellphones, but now as their service has expanded they have put up a website and an Android app on which customers can book orders, which are delivered within forty-five minutes with the city. “We deliver orders within the radius of 10 kms of the Srinagar city and customers have to pay Rs 50 as delivery charges for every order they book. The customers have to shop for food items above Rs 300,” said Furqan Qureshi, one of the co-founders of Kartfood.
Initially, the duo started the service from Kathi Junction, a fast-food outlet, but now they have their own office at Paladium Street, Lal Chowk. Their journey to start Kashmir’s own food delivery service matured during their conversations at the Kathi Junction café at Sahara City Mall Srinagar. “Aamir and I use to sit at Javid Parsa’s café but we never had idea of starting something like this. One day we asked Parsa to start delivering food to people’s doorsteps. But he in turn asked us to start the venture. We took note of this and started thinking about the idea. We thought positively without bothering whether it will work or no,” said Furqan Qureshi.
He said after the 2016 unrest, they shifted to New Delhi and there they saw and read the execution of many online food delivery services. But the tragic death of their common friend brought both of them together and back to Kashmir. “Aamir was pursuing his studies in Delhi and I was running one e-commerce business seller Kartzoo in Kashmir besides doing B.Com. We had one common friend Basit- he died in road accident and we started campaign on social media under name Basit memorial road safety campaign. During the campaigning days, Aamir and I came closer, and then we thought of executing this idea,” Furqan said.
Initially, Kartfood use to deliver food items of only four restaurants within THE radius of 4 Kms but now they have tie-up with 14 leading restaurants of Srinagar which include Kathi Junction, Grills, 14th Avenue, The other side Café, Bangs, Goodfellas, Hukus Bukus, Ground Zero, Books and Bricks, Roasters Pizzeria and Pincer Vegetarian Foods. In next few months they will have 22 food outlets on board.
“We first approached four restaurants and revealed about the idea. They responded positively because they knew at the end of the day their name will be promoted. But later on all other food outlets approached us from there and that was the motivating and morale boasting move for us,” Furqan said. Presently, Kartfood has five delivery boys who are catering to the needs of the foodies across city and by next month 20 more delivery boys will be part of the group. They receive 40 to 50 orders a day. “We hired boys who were working with E-commerce sites in Kashmir because they had experience in delivering the products that was the plus point. First we started with two boys and when orders increased we hired 3 more. We have kept 20 more boys on hold, and by mid of April we will be hiring them as well,” said Furqan.
“First we use to take orders on telephone. But then it started to get crowdy and we started facing difficulties. Then we had some Android Developer friends, we asked them to make one Android App as soon as possible. Within days, we launched our app and response was terrific,” says Aamir Bashir Dar, another co-founder of the Kartfood. Before launching their Android App, they ran the Facebook page under the same name and the response was overwhelming. They used to get lot of suggestions for starting a website and App for the same. Keeping in view the growing response of the customers, they switched to Andorid App and in coming months they will be launching IOS version of their app to further expand their services.
“We are the first android app in the Valley who has got 200 reviews in the first week of launching. When we first uploaded the application we were at 46th number but in one day we topped the list and became first food delivery service in Kashmir. That was the big achievement for us. People were excited about it,” says Furqan. He says that it is easy for customers to book orders on App as the process is simpler and fast.
“Customer can go to Foodkart app and the menu of restaurants will be displayed and customer can click on the order and that will be added in the cart. From cart, they can place the order and one in-voice will be send to customers Email Id which include the entire amount including delivery charges. The customers have to pay money once the order is delivered at their doorstep,” said Aamir. Aamir says, for the first day itself they received more than 40 orders for the day and the number is increasing each day. “We knew food is the need of the people but no one was delivery these items home. We thought of easing the problems of people and started the venture. The orders are now increasing each day and on an average 40 orders are delivered at doorstep from uptown to downtown Srinagar,” says 19 year old Aamir.
Presently, Kartfood is delivering Rolls, Cakes, Pizzas, Shormaa and Tikkas but they are soon introducing Wazanwan into their menu. “We are planning to deliver Wazwan and regarding this we are consulting some good restaurants. If idea materializes, soon people will taste readymade Wazwan at home,” they said.
Besides that they are planning to start Kartfood beverages for summer months. “When we started, we were little skeptical, whether it will run or not, but by the grace of God within one month’s time everything became clear. We are now expanding delivery system based on the need of people and our motive is to involve more and more people into it,” said one of the co-founders.
By the first of May, Kartfood will be delivering Medicines and grocery items. “Food, grocery items and medicines are need of the hours and our next target is to deliver these items. We are also planning to take Vegetables from Mandi and deliver to commercial outlets in the Srinagar city,” said Furqan Qureshi.Besides easing the food delivering service, these two young boys want to generate employment in Kashmir. “For generating more employment we are dividing work into two shifts. From 11- 5 pm, 10 boys will be working and in 5-9 shift another 10. This will help them to earn money and those who want to continue their studies, they can do that and work with us,” they said.
Though they deliver items within the radius of 10 Kms but within months they will be covering whole city and sub-urban localities and after that their target will be other districts of the Kashmir. They are already getting good response from Sopore town of Baramulla and they are hopeful of starting something similar to this there.
While Amir was busy putting together the order, he asked his business partner Furqan to manage other orders for the day. Though their business is limited to the city only, Amir feels he could extend the service beyond the city limits if it made business sense. A month back, Amir Bashir Dar, 19 and Furqan Qureshi, 21, started the service taking orders on their cellphones, but now as their service has expanded they have put up a website and an Android app on which customers can book orders, which are delivered within forty-five minutes with the city. “We deliver orders within the radius of 10 kms of the Srinagar city and customers have to pay Rs 50 as delivery charges for every order they book. The customers have to shop for food items above Rs 300,” said Furqan Qureshi, one of the co-founders of Kartfood.
Initially, the duo started the service from Kathi Junction, a fast-food outlet, but now they have their own office at Paladium Street, Lal Chowk. Their journey to start Kashmir’s own food delivery service matured during their conversations at the Kathi Junction café at Sahara City Mall Srinagar. “Aamir and I use to sit at Javid Parsa’s café but we never had idea of starting something like this. One day we asked Parsa to start delivering food to people’s doorsteps. But he in turn asked us to start the venture. We took note of this and started thinking about the idea. We thought positively without bothering whether it will work or no,” said Furqan Qureshi.
He said after the 2016 unrest, they shifted to New Delhi and there they saw and read the execution of many online food delivery services. But the tragic death of their common friend brought both of them together and back to Kashmir. “Aamir was pursuing his studies in Delhi and I was running one e-commerce business seller Kartzoo in Kashmir besides doing B.Com. We had one common friend Basit- he died in road accident and we started campaign on social media under name Basit memorial road safety campaign. During the campaigning days, Aamir and I came closer, and then we thought of executing this idea,” Furqan said.
Initially, Kartfood use to deliver food items of only four restaurants within THE radius of 4 Kms but now they have tie-up with 14 leading restaurants of Srinagar which include Kathi Junction, Grills, 14th Avenue, The other side Café, Bangs, Goodfellas, Hukus Bukus, Ground Zero, Books and Bricks, Roasters Pizzeria and Pincer Vegetarian Foods. In next few months they will have 22 food outlets on board.
“We first approached four restaurants and revealed about the idea. They responded positively because they knew at the end of the day their name will be promoted. But later on all other food outlets approached us from there and that was the motivating and morale boasting move for us,” Furqan said. Presently, Kartfood has five delivery boys who are catering to the needs of the foodies across city and by next month 20 more delivery boys will be part of the group. They receive 40 to 50 orders a day. “We hired boys who were working with E-commerce sites in Kashmir because they had experience in delivering the products that was the plus point. First we started with two boys and when orders increased we hired 3 more. We have kept 20 more boys on hold, and by mid of April we will be hiring them as well,” said Furqan.
“First we use to take orders on telephone. But then it started to get crowdy and we started facing difficulties. Then we had some Android Developer friends, we asked them to make one Android App as soon as possible. Within days, we launched our app and response was terrific,” says Aamir Bashir Dar, another co-founder of the Kartfood. Before launching their Android App, they ran the Facebook page under the same name and the response was overwhelming. They used to get lot of suggestions for starting a website and App for the same. Keeping in view the growing response of the customers, they switched to Andorid App and in coming months they will be launching IOS version of their app to further expand their services.
“We are the first android app in the Valley who has got 200 reviews in the first week of launching. When we first uploaded the application we were at 46th number but in one day we topped the list and became first food delivery service in Kashmir. That was the big achievement for us. People were excited about it,” says Furqan. He says that it is easy for customers to book orders on App as the process is simpler and fast.
“Customer can go to Foodkart app and the menu of restaurants will be displayed and customer can click on the order and that will be added in the cart. From cart, they can place the order and one in-voice will be send to customers Email Id which include the entire amount including delivery charges. The customers have to pay money once the order is delivered at their doorstep,” said Aamir. Aamir says, for the first day itself they received more than 40 orders for the day and the number is increasing each day. “We knew food is the need of the people but no one was delivery these items home. We thought of easing the problems of people and started the venture. The orders are now increasing each day and on an average 40 orders are delivered at doorstep from uptown to downtown Srinagar,” says 19 year old Aamir.
Presently, Kartfood is delivering Rolls, Cakes, Pizzas, Shormaa and Tikkas but they are soon introducing Wazanwan into their menu. “We are planning to deliver Wazwan and regarding this we are consulting some good restaurants. If idea materializes, soon people will taste readymade Wazwan at home,” they said.
Besides that they are planning to start Kartfood beverages for summer months. “When we started, we were little skeptical, whether it will run or not, but by the grace of God within one month’s time everything became clear. We are now expanding delivery system based on the need of people and our motive is to involve more and more people into it,” said one of the co-founders.
By the first of May, Kartfood will be delivering Medicines and grocery items. “Food, grocery items and medicines are need of the hours and our next target is to deliver these items. We are also planning to take Vegetables from Mandi and deliver to commercial outlets in the Srinagar city,” said Furqan Qureshi.Besides easing the food delivering service, these two young boys want to generate employment in Kashmir. “For generating more employment we are dividing work into two shifts. From 11- 5 pm, 10 boys will be working and in 5-9 shift another 10. This will help them to earn money and those who want to continue their studies, they can do that and work with us,” they said.
Though they deliver items within the radius of 10 Kms but within months they will be covering whole city and sub-urban localities and after that their target will be other districts of the Kashmir. They are already getting good response from Sopore town of Baramulla and they are hopeful of starting something similar to this there.
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