Karim Bakhache, Vice President of Strategy at Radyes, sheds light on the company’s fully equipped social commerce platform that enables businesses to sell their products and services directly to customers on social media platforms. Radyes also has a unique dashboard that gives merchants full visibility and flexibility to track the right data and the customers.
Tell us about Radyes and the idea behind its launch?
Radyes was launched in 2020 to support businesses to go online and directly get orders from their customers as opposed to being on a marketplace or an aggregator. Businesses were complaining about the high fees taken by these marketplaces and aggregators.
What does Radyes offer its users and tell us what differentiates it from its competitors?
A simple, fast, and economical way for the businesses to sell smart and anywhere. Anywhere means on-location and for delivery. We want to become a one-stop-shop solution for any business that wants to connect with their customers. The on-location features such as dine-in and pick-up help digitise operations while capturing data from visiting customers and accepting payments.
The delivery features complete the omnichannel presence of the business through a widget on their website, a white label app, website, social media (Instagram, Facebook, etc.) and accepting orders through calls. We also provide important add-ons such as delivery services and marketing services that are meant to help businesses have an end-to-end alternative solution to aggregators and marketplaces. And that’s what differentiates us from competitors.
How does Lyve tie in with Radyes? And what will this collaboration offer?
Radyes and Lyve are collaborating on the delivery services to enable a combined offering to businesses. This is in line with our intention to offer one-stop-solution to businesses as delivery is the core of any online ordering. Our plan is to offer this combined offering to all types of businesses both for on-demand and scheduled deliveries.
What are some of the key features of this social commerce platform?
Omnichannel ordering (dine-in, pick-up and delivery), Dashboard to view and analyse the fully owned customer data, integrations with POS systems and payment gateways, white-label-app that is branded to the business, and marketing services
How has the market reception been so far?
The market reacted very positively to the solution approach. Businesses continue to look for digital solutions to diversify their revenues and not rely fully on marketplaces and aggregators, but also to capture customer data from all channels (on-location and for delivery). And through our collaboration with Lyve, we are offering the complete spectrum of products and services that are required for a business to digitise on-location and delivery operations.
What’s the outlook for the next five years?
We have big ambitions to grow in the next five years. Digitising businesses will continue to be a top priority for all business owners. We want to become the preferred digital partner regionally and then globally. We continue investing in our products to remain competitive and provide the solution that businesses are looking for.
How has the F&B and eCommerce market performance driven your business?
eCommerce and F&B markets have grown substantially in the past years, especially during the pandemic when businesses rushed into digitising part of their operations. This trend has continued post-pandemic as businesses realised the importance of digitising operations and how hurtful marketplaces and aggregators are for their margins. We expect these markets to continue growing but we shouldn’t think that on-location ordering is dead. And that’s why any solution should be inclusive of all potential channels.
What have been the challenges so far?
Businesses are busy handling their own operations, especially in the F&B and grocery sectors. Having your own digital channels requires effort, dedication, patience, and investment. The expectations of businesses are very high when they compare their own direct channels to aggregators and marketplaces that generate a substantial number of orders for businesses on their platforms. We work closely with businesses in overcoming these challenges as they go through the journey of directing more orders into their own channels.
