Jamaica’s E-commerce National Delivery Solution (ENDS) launched upgraded software on August 11, 2021 re-registered old and added new applicants resulting in over 471 businesses being registered and 341 getting approval, the company reported on September 8.

Businesses now include restaurants, vendors, supermarkets, cafés, beverage providers, cooking gas companies, pharmacies, health-care providers, newspaper companies and gas stations.

The ENDS is a registration portal for compliant businesses to operate during the curfew hours. The aim is to provide business continuity and to allow Jamaicans access to essential goods while they observe the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA), which was implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

ENDS is a collaboration between the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ).

In a PSOJ press release, project manager of ENDS Amashika Lorne indicated that since the implementation of no-movement days, it has been observed that more customers are willing to order online and allow the supermarkets to restock after the in-person rush.

Large supermarket chains now listed on the ENDS site include Hi-Lo Food Stores, Progressive Food Limited, Loshusan Supermarket, John R Wong Limited, Fresh Foods Limited, Brooklyn Supermarket, Lee’s Food Fair Limited, Super Valu Fresh Foods and Shopper’s Fair Limited. Project manager of ENDS Lorne said, “as of Monday, August 30, 2021, we had 71 supermarket locations registered on the platform and 53 of them vetted by the local municipalities and approved in time for the 2nd set of no-movement days.

“If I were to compare this figure to the last number of supermarkets registered on the old system, we had only 12 supermarket locations registered”.

The manager stated, “We do a lot of social listening as we continuously work to improve the project for all stakeholders involved. Based on my discussions with some of these supermarket chains, they have seen an increase in number of days being patronised with online orders.”

She said that all stakeholders were doing their best to make the ordering/querying/delivery process as seamless as possible, noting also that the society is starting to embrace e-commerce and making online payments.

General manager of Hi-Lo Food Stores, Catherine Kennedy, was quoted in an ENDs release as saying, that the stores “receive orders via WhatsApp every day; however, there is a noticeable increase in the number of orders whenever there is a lockdown period or when we see a spike in the COVID-19 cases being reported.”

She said that when she compared the volume of orders over the first two no-movement day periods, it was observed that over 180 orders were processed for the weekend of August 22-24, 2021 with an average basket size valued at approximately J$10,000.”

Hi-Lo Food Stores, a subsidiary of the GraceKennedy Group, was a part of the ENDS programme from inception when it expanded to Kingston & St Andrew on April 7, 2021.

Lorne stated that with the emergence of ENDS, more companies have started to see the benefits of building out an e-commerce storefront.

“Two very important questions that I urged prospective companies when signing up to ask themselves are: one, how will I take payments online? and two, how will I deliver my products safely?” said Lorne.

With regards to getting payments electronically during curfew hours and on no-movement-days, these two companies are at different stages.

Bruce Loshusan, director of Loshusan Supermarket, shared that they started to develop their e-commerce platform about three years prior to Jamaica recording its first COVID-19 case in March 2020 and this investment has proven to be worthwhile.

Loshusan Supermarket has been experiencing an increase in the frequency of orders on their website and new customers using the online platform.

“ENDS has also been extremely useful in allowing us to receive the deliveries and restock the shelves on no-movement days,” Loshusan said.

Hi-Lo disclosed that their busiest store during the curfew hours or on no-movement days was Liguanea, and said that they are in the final stages of refining their e-commerce platform. However, they currently receive the orders via Whatsapp and e-mail then allow for payments to be made digitally via a credit or debit card.