Quiqup, a tech scale-up that offers last-mile logistics services to retailers of all sizes and across all industries, has just announced its first international rollout into Dubai.
Quiqup offers local businesses the opportunity to generate additional revenue by offering same-hour and same-day deliveries to their customers through a range of tailored business services.
At launch, Quiqup has been working with over 125 local trial partners, including Level Shoes, Wojooh, Virgin Megastore, Boggi, Pizza Express, NKD Pizza, and Just Salad in Dubai. The company has witnessed over 70% month-on-month growth in its soft launch and expects further growth in the months to come.
Businesses in Dubai now have the option to offer consumers convenient deliveries via their own websites and apps instead of being locked in to the big e-commerce giants. Quiqup works in the background, enabling its partners to power local deliveries while they stay in full control of their own prices, customers, data, and the movement of their goods.
In May 2017, the company announced a £20mn Series B funding round, led by JOBI Capital, to support its international expansion, strengthen its operations, and build out its products and services through advancements in its proprietary tech. A major milestone in the companys history, this expansion points to a huge appetite from businesses, large and small, for on-demand and same-day delivery, at the touch of button. Quiqups Dubai launch marks the first application of its ambitious expansion strategy outside the UK, with further launches in the UAE and across the GCC planned for the future.
Bassel El Koussa, CEO and co-founder of Quiqup, said: As our first launch internationally, our expansion to Dubai marks a huge step for Quiqup as a company and an important milestone in our long-term ambition. Our mission is to bring on-demand, same-day delivery to the mass market. With consumer expectations evolving at an incredible rate, the on-demand shopping model is quickly becoming the norm in every market. The flexibility behind our tech allow us to bring Quiqups range of services to new locations all over the world and Dubai is a great place for us to apply this strategy and launch our international expansion. The last-mile delivery space offers huge potential to Dubais local retailers, regardless of size or sector, and we look forward to growing our presence in the UAE and other markets in the years to come.
For small businesses, Quiqup levels the playing field with large e-commerce players by providing the infrastructure that helps them expand their offering and reach more customers through store-to-door delivery. For larger businesses, Quiqup can power fast, same-day deliveries from stores or warehouses for its customers by seamlessly integrating its last-mile logistics solutions into their existing e-commerce platform. For both, Quiqup makes this all possible without the major capital investment and the burden of building and managing their own urban logistics fleet.
Quiqup offers two distinct business services to its Dubai partners: Quiqdash (a web app that allows small to medium sized business to instantly order or schedule a delivery), and its API integration service (that incorporates Quiqups delivery service into retailers existing e-commerce channels), allowing customers to seamlessly order directly from the retailer.
Quiqup also offers a number of features tailored to the Dubai market, to provide their customers with a reliable and efficient urban delivery experience. These include Quiqups thoroughly trained delivery agents or Quiqees – accepting cash or card upon delivery, using GPS coordinates as delivery locations for destinations without distinct addresses, and sending tracking links by SMS to customers so they can track their Quiqee in real-time.
To facilitate local operations, Quiqup has been building out its Dubai-based team; conducting comprehensive background checks and extensive training on quality standards, road familiarity, retailer Service Level Agreements and safety for its Quiqees, who are supported by a local team of 17 non-delivery staff, or Quiqsters, based in Al Qouz Logistics Park.
Dani El Zein, general manager for Quiqup Dubai, said: Dubai is a city known for its strong service culture and innovative spirit so it is the perfect location for our first expansion outside the UK and into the international market. Our citys consumers are increasingly time poor and tech savvy, so whether they are buying from an online giant or physical retailer, they expect retailers to offer convenient and affordable delivery services at the touch of a button.
Quiqups presence so far in Dubai has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response. While online retail is quite nascent and adoption of convenient delivery remains relatively low in the UAE compared to Western markets, Quiqups delivery services quickly took off with customers due to pent up demand and has effectively filled a gap in the Dubai same-day delivery market. We see great potential to fulfil the needs of the Dubai retailer and consumer and are excited to be partnering with some fantastic local and international brands in Dubai already. We look forward to working closely with them to help deliver a great experience to their customers.
Since launching in London in 2014, Quiqup has experienced 170% growth year-on-year and delivered over 1,000,000 orders. The company now has a headcount of over 150 employees, and has on-boarded over 2,500 Quiqees since the companys inception.