One of South Africa’s leading e-commerce platforms, LOOT, has responded to a call for essentials-only-sales during the current lockdown period with a nifty e-commerce solution.
Loot.co.za has launched the Essentials Shop, which will deliver essential items to customers across South Africa.
According to LOOT, the Essentials Shop is stocked with pantry staples such as non-alcoholic beverages, household cleaning materials, personal care items, baby and toddler essentials, stationery and other basic necessities. The e-commerce retailer will also stock protective equipment such as face masks and gloves.
The retailer highlighted that all of its delivery partners are practising contactless delivery and strict hygiene and sanitary practices as recommended by the WHO. LOOT is also ensuring that all staff and partners who are helping during this time are following strict hygiene protocol.
This comes at a time when some retailers are battling to maintain order and social distancing in their stores to avoid exposure to COVID-19 by shoppers.
LOOT’s systems are able to differentiate between essential and non-essential goods. This means that if a customer wants to purchase non-essential items during this period, they would still be able to place the order but delivery will only take place after lockdown.
Customers who try to purchase a combination of essential and non-essential goods during the lockdown period will receive a prompt at checkout to warn them that an order with non-essential goods cannot be shipped /delivered at present. From there, customers will be encouraged to remove the non-essential items and place a separate order once they have completed their shopping in the Essentials Shop.
The retailer indicated that as the government expands the list of essential items, they will let any previous order deemed non-essential out of the warehouse.
The usual LOOT delivery threshold still applies and all orders over R350 will receive free delivery.