NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and various restrictions Bahamians are increasingly shopping online according to a local freight forwarder, noting that it plans to push its door-to-door delivery platform.
Just Ship It operations manager Alexis Roberts told Eyewitness News that like most businesses, freight forwarders and courier companies are facing challenges with COVID-19 restrictions.
“It is difficult, especially dealing with lockdowns and curfews,” Roberts said.
“We have had to adapt. We have been challenged just like most businesses to keep staff on-board and have had to deal with reduced hours of operation. Despite it all, bills are still coming in and we have to take care of our employees.
We see that with people not really being able to travel and persons seeking to minimize their risk of exposure more and more persons are choosing to shop online,” said Roberts.
He further noted that in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has been urging customers to utilize the company’s online payment option as it forges ahead with its delivery service.
“With all that is going on it has really forced us to take the initiative and push the delivery platform,” Roberts said.
“We want to encourage customers to use online payment. We plan to push the delivery service going forward so that customers do not have to come out of their homes but can have their packages delivered right to their door.”
With the pandemic forcing most schools to switch to a virtual learning platform, Roberts noted that the company ran a promotion offering a virtual classroom set up as a prize.
“Just Ship It is a community-oriented company,” he said.
“Each year we try to do something during the Back To School period while the customers are up and about purchasing books and bags or whatever they need for back to school. We understood that this year because of the pandemic a lot of persons who would normally travel to shop, couldn’t do so.
“We ran a promotion to that end where our customers could get some kind of benefit while having to stay at home. One of the prizes was a back to school, full classroom set up with a desk, chair, books, pencils, folders, and laptop,” said Roberts.
