ADAM Barakat, commercial director of Gustazos Jamaica, went to Heald College in San Francisco where he pursued his degree in business software applications. Barakat’s career in sales for tech and advertising companies allowed him to apply his experiences to be the leader he is today – activating merchants relationships and fostering customer experiences through the best daily deals company in Jamaica – as he describes it.

Barakat observed that the world of e-commerce has changed significantly due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. For Jamaica, in particular, he pointed out that one of Gustazos’s subsidiaries, FanGig, a platform that sold event tickets, experienced significant losses due to the ban on events. On the other hand, their partnership with local restaurants has now begun to see positive returns due to the gradual reopening of the sector, compared to what held at the onset of the pandemic. Additionally, the hotel industry has been steadily recovering from the loss of revenue due to an increase in average daily bookings.

He admitted that while navigating the pandemic was challenging, he and his team turned the challenges into opportunities by starting an ‘Open For Business’ campaign in partnership with their new and existing merchants. This campaign allowed customers access to an online directory of restaurants that were in operation during the lockdown periods. Barakat also noted that the campaign was an e-commerce strategy used to increase sales to volumes they had pre-COVID.

Gustazos is one of the only companies in Jamaica that sells direct hotel bookings through its website and payment portal. Leveraging this advantage, coupled with the need for customers to book at their convenience, the company launched Gustazos Travel, popularly known as G-Travel. G-Travel is an online travel agency that gives customers the autonomy to book hotels, which are subdivided by parish, at any time without being limited to fixed booking windows, minimum number of guests or particular seasons. Barakat explained that the G-Travel website is in the process of being connected to hotel booking systems which will be powered by algorithms and artificial intelligence, allowing customers to view updated prices and booking information in real time, thus facilitating better reservations management and improved customer experience. Barakat notes that a robust back-end system that allows seamless information exchange, from the hotel’s system to the website, is also a critical success factor.

Gustazos’s online strategy has always been to provide the most value for both merchants and customers. With their recently launched G-products line – a catalogue of physical products – Barakat stated that the company had implemented mainly online advertising strategies to increase interest and awareness around the offering. Through their parent company, they leverage digital marketing platforms including email and social media campaigns, which account for significant revenues, and complement these efforts with traditional marketing. G-products uses a drop-shipping model which allows their website to be connected to an ecosystem of manufacturers and distributors to fulfil the customers’ orders. The customer can receive the product at a pickup location. Barakat also noted that while G-products is in its infancy stage, its vision is to evolve into a fully automated marketplace, like Amazon.

As an incentive for using G-Travel, customers qualify for 10 per cent back in Gustazos credits (USD $1:1), based on total amount spent. These credits function as a cryptocurrency across all Gustazos’s brands. In the near future, Gustazos anticipates that retailers and merchants will accept this type of cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

For Barakat, he’s most proud of consistently helping to increase their merchants’ revenue, customer retention rate and customer relationships. He takes pride in Gustazos recognition by Blue Diamond Resorts – Royalton as the Most Outstanding Producer for 2020-2021.