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There’s a lot to be said when a business is able to adapt to its changing environment. Take for example GERALD.ph, a “small startup” which experienced a major growth in customer traffic when the pandemic began in March 2020 while others didn’t have a choice but to close shop.
GERALD.ph is a healthy food and gourmet grocery delivery, online deli, and gluten-free food delivery in Metro Manila and around the Philippines. It’s a French and European online specialty store in 2015, catering to a select clientele.
“When the pandemic started, we had to make two major decisions,” says Gerald Egasse, GERALD.ph’s Managing Director, who has been in the food industry for over 20 years. “The first was to only accept cashless payments to ensure a no-contact policy and the second, to encourage our staff to continue working, was to provide housing for them near our office”.
During the hard lockdown, GERALD.ph had to limit its area of service to Makati and BGC but even then, they still received around 200 individual orders per day. They had to eventually put a limit on daily orders as with a skeletal workforce, “we didn’t want to collapse and likewise disappoint our customers.”
With its inventory practically consisting of basic essentials, GERALD.ph had everything locals needed in a world suddenly thrown into chaos. Access to the supermarket was not easy and Gerald’s decision to keep business running was literally a lifesaver for most.
Admittedly, GERALD.ph was doing just fine until the pandemic started and it really picked up and had tremendous growth. The store not only able to maintain its strong expat market but gain new following with locals.
What made GERALD.ph’s products attractive to its regular customers was that it specialized in frozen food, which is somewhat frowned upon by other Filipinos who still prefer “fresh” ingredients they can actually touch and smell. But Gerald says that with their products, the image of frozen food in the Philippines has been changing for the better especially since GERALD.ph and its staff take every precaution to ensure that their customers get their products still frozen and on time.
The company has a dedicated cold storage that keeps its temperature at -20 degrees Celsius, which is recommended for frozen food. When an order is placed, the items are then delivered either by a truck or a rider with insulated storage to maintain the same temperature. Minimum order is set at P2,000 and if you order before 3PM, you will get the products the following day for a fee of P90. Orders of P5,000 and up get free delivery. Orders placed before 12noon can get their products before 5PM the same day for an express delivery fee of P250.
What’s New?
GERALD.ph has an interactive website that gives consumers a wide array of products categorized by section (like in a supermarket): Bakery, Butcher Shop, Seafood, Fruits & Vegetables, Cheese & Dairy, Wine Shop; and, by food type (like in a health food store): Gluten-Free, Healthy Food Swaps, Organic & Vegan, Keto & Diabetic Friendly, Supplements, and World Cuisines. The best thing about the website though is that every product page features an encyclopedic wealth of information, including product description, health benefits, cooking instructions, ingredients, place of origin, recipe suggestion, and nutrition facts.
To further increase consumer trust, GERALD.ph has come up with two barometers of quality: product reviews and trust labels. Everyone who has registered an account with GERALD.ph, whether they have purchased a product or have tasted some from friends or as gifts, can submit their product review and rating online. GERALD.ph also makes it easier for consumers to immediately spot the best products through three quality seals. Healthy Food for the healthiest options with no additives, Proudly Pinoy for the highest-quality locally-sourced choices, and Authentic French for products imported from France or made with French ingredients.
Now to adapt to this increasing traffic, GERALD.ph will re-launch a sleeker website that will have all the information on its products. Customers will be able to create user accounts to keep track of their purchases and a rewards system will soon be in place. Storage and recipe suggestions will continue to be featured while customers will get to make ratings and comments as well. The new website design should be able to help customers identify if they’re shopping frozen, fresh, or dry goods.
GERALD.ph has more in store as they are looking to import a new range of products including an exciting line of specialty pasta, meat and fish substitutes based on mushroom, breaded scallops, burgers, etc. by the last quarter of this year. GERALD.ph has also partnered with coco producers for its own line of ice creams in choco, coffee, vanilla, and green tea flavors that are plant-based, vegan, and lactose-free.
The shop also partnered with restaurants and bakeries for their ready-to-eat meals to allow them to stay in business yet still reach customers who prefer to stay home; but, instead of going to the restaurant, they can have their meals under the GERALD.ph brand and its seal of quality.
GERALD.ph plans to increase its cold storage to an even bigger warehouse to allow the team greater ease and efficiency in picking and organizing as well as dispatching and trucking. In its next phase, the specialty grocery intends to have a chiller to store positive-temperature inventory like salads and fresh veggies. “Arugula, for instance, won’t do well in −20°C,” he said.
“We want to bring value to the brand without being out of range of peoples’ means,” he concluded.
