At the end of 2021, Logistics firm Sendy launched a fulfillment service for online retailers.
Sendy said that introducing the service was vital because it would see retailers focus their energy on other parts of the business to grow.
Basically, Sendy Fulfilment is an online platform that performs logistics roles or alleviates logistics difficulties from online sellers while also shielding them from high operation costs that are often associated with logistics.
Sendy then developed a Fulfilment Centre, which has many picking locations across Nairobi.
Now, the company has announced that it will be doubling down on Fulfilment to support online merchants with the necessary tools to sell and fulfill directly through digital platforms.
We understand the potential of digital commerce, therefore Sendy will now sharpen its focus and invest resources in building fulfillment and transport services for businesses – Sendy in a statement.
At the same time, Sendy has revealed that it has halted Sendy Supply service, which offers a platform for general retailers to purchase stock at competitive prices from multiple suppliers and manufacturers. This has effectively affected 20% of the firm’s headcount.
The development has also been arrived at so the platform can focus on consolidating efforts around solutions that impact more customers and speak to the current and immediate market challenges.
“Our path forward is to aggressively grow our core business – Sendy Fulfillment through deepening customer value. We believe that this consolidated service offers a massive opportunity in solving challenges that businesses large and small face with warehousing, packaging and last-mile delivery,” says Sendy through a message sent by Founder and CEO Mesh Alloys.
It would appear that the cash coffers for Sendy are drying up, so the firings are timely this time around. Also, we have since established that Sendy has been a fulfillment partner for a lot of e-commerce firms in the country. However, it is not clear how it failed to take advantage of this, but one educated guess is that Sendy was pricey. To this end, some of its partners left for the competition.
It is also worth noting that Sendy was also a fulfilling partner for Sky.Garden. The startup, which was started back in 2017, and raised $4 million is a Series A round, has been experiencing some issues as well. It has since announced that it will close shop by mid-October, meaning its entire set of workers (46 of them) will be forced out. However, this can change if Sky.Garden manages to get an investor before the said date.
The Sky.Garden development can also be linked to Sendy’s sudden change in business strategy. Whether the firm will continue adjusting its operations to the new market realities is something we will have to wait and see.
