The outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020 brought an unprecedented change to the retail industry. Brick-and-mortar shops around the world had to close down. Customers who were forced to stay at home could only embraced e-commerce for their shopping needs. This shift exposed the shortcomings of ecommerce, which was not as convenient, fast, or connected to local businesses as it could have been.
However, the pandemic also gave rise to a new type of business: quick commerce. Companies such as Gorillas, Flink, foodpanda, and Getir replicated the traditional food delivery model and started delivering groceries to people's homes within minutes. This made it easy for customers to get groceries without going to the shops, but it did not address the challenges faced by classical retail categories such as fashion, beauty, or lifestyle. As a result, the idea for ARIVE was born — getting fashion, beauty and lifestyle products as fast and convenient as groceries.
We decided to bring quick commerce to the main retail categories and connect local stores with customers. However, we realized that shopping for retail products is different from shopping for grocery products. For example, while the urge to buy food is triggered by the human body's need for sustenance, fashion, beauty, or lifestyle products are not purchased in the same way. The need for speed is not as important. Customers may take their time to choose the right product for them.
