“We are simply sharing that knowledge with consumers before they purchase
online so they have no surprises when the item gets delivered to them. They get
to shop with the same transparency as they have when shopping in a normal
retail store”
Khary Robinson, founder and head of
Norbrook Packaging, the parent of company of Mailpac Express commenting to the
Sunday Gleaner on Dealbug
Mailpac, my fave Courier for
shopping online, has decided that just being a Courier isn’t enough. They’ve
now decided to go retail with a website for DealBug selling the most commonly
purchased and Shipped products by their many clients as stated in the article “MailPac
Creates Virtual Store For Shoppers”, published Sunday December 8, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner.
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More interestingly, they may be expanding not by building more outlets
but by making Door-to-door Deliveries cheaper via the use of Drones as argued
in my blog
article entitled “Amazon
plans to launch Amazon PrimeAir, their 30 minute Drone Package Delivery Service
for Amazon Prime users - Playing Catch-up as Mailpac launches DealBug in
Jamaica”,
I’ve been using them to buy virtually all of my gear online on Amazon as
a test of my own advice as proffered in my blog article
entitled “How
to purchase items and subscribe to Magazines online and ship them to Jamaica”
and the Geezam blog entitled “How to ship things to
Jamaica after you’re purchase them online”.
However, in order to do so, I’ve had to contend with the fluctuation of
the price depending on the Weight of the Goods, Customs Duties as well as Mailpac’s prices. Thus although the
items are cheaper abroad, even when compared to prices locally, shipping and
clearing the items once they’ve arrived are my main hassle, as I have to
literally abandon my products awhile until I have enough money to clear them.
DealBug solves this issue; they
offer the items that other members purchase on a regular basis from select
suppliers online at one set price that’s already pre-calculated. This is based
on their 15 years of experience shipping most of Jamaica’s impulsive purchases
online to quote Khary Robinson, founder and head of Norbrook Packaging: “The
reality is that the customs codes are very detailed so after 15 years of
managing over 75 per cent of online purchases coming to Jamaica, we have a
unique understanding of how much an item will cost when it is being imported
into the country”.
Dealbug is hot with 2000 hits
per day – 10% of Mailpac that’s Growing Strong
Yes you read that right; DealBug,
which was launched on Friday November 29th 2013 on Black Friday
after months of advertising as stated in “Mailpac
opens up virtual retail store”, published Friday, November 29, 2013, The Jamaica Observer and “Mail Pac
and Scotiabank simplify Black Friday Shopping”, Published Friday November
29, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner .
As part of Black Friday, Mailpac
had partnered with ScotiaBank to facilitate them getting a Scotia VISA Debit Card
so as to make it easier to shop online as I’d recommended in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to
use Scotia VISA Debit Card Online”. You can either visit their Promotional
Website for ScotiaBank or text the phrase “Black
Friday” to 347-7000 as shown below.
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They are now receiving in excess of some 2000 hits per day according to
the website. However the turnover from all that traffic is a measly 800
purchases per month or a mere 0.13%. This represent only 10% of Mailpac’s business as stated by Khary
Robinson, Founder and Head of Norbrook Packaging, quote: “The unit is still
small but we anticipate that with the unique access it provides to consumers to
shop online, it unit will ultimately become the largest contributor to our
online shopping revenue. The portal accounts for less than 10 per cent of
customers, but is growing”.
Not bad for a company that started out as an acquisition of brother and
sister team Chris and Sara Barrett’s Global Courier by Khary
Robinson owned Mailpac as announced on Wednesday
November 9th 2013 as stated in the article “Mailpac
buys Global Courier Services”, published Wednesday, November 09, 2011, The Jamaica Observer and “MailPac
acquires Global Courier”, Published Wednesday November 9, 2011, The Jamaica Gleaner.
They’ve since been Growing Strong, House Tyrell of Game of Thrones Style with
the arrival of Scotia
VISA Debit Card in August 2011, with an official rollout in September 2011
as stated in “Scotia
Replacing Bank Card With Visa Debit”, Published Sunday September 18, 2011, The Jamaica Gleaner.
This was a voluntary swap-out of the old Scotia Debit Card for these new Scotia VISA Debit Cards
that had the capability to do online shopping, which I eventually did as
chronicled in my Geezam blog article
entitled “ScotiaBank’s
VISA Debit Card – Jamaica’s Online E-Commerce Renaissance”.
Scotia VISA Debit isn’t alone –
CIBC First Caribbean offers VISA Debit for E-Commerce
The only other Bank in Jamaica that offers Prepaid VISA Debit Card is
CIBC FirstCaribbean, who were actually the first Bank in Jamaica to introduce a
Prepaid Debit Card, their CIBC First
Caribbean VISA Debit Card back in November 26th, 2010 as stated in the
article “FirstCaribbean’s
Visa Debit Card & Its Significance For Ecommerce In Jamaica”, published
November 26th, 2010 by Ingrid Riley, SiliconCaribe.
Interestingly even back then Silicon Caribe’s Ingrid Riley had recognized
the potential for the use of the CIBC First
Caribbean VISA Debit Card to do e-commerce as stated in “First
Caribbean Bank’s Visa Debit Card jumps at eCommerce for all in Jamaica”,
published November 30th, 2010 by Ingrid Riley, SiliconCaribe.
CIBC First Caribbean has been a banking innovator but very slow on the
uptake as it relates to utilizing their banking innovations as stated in the
article “CIBC
FirstCaribbean leads way in banking innovations”, published Friday,
September 23, 2011 BY AL EDWARDS, The
Jamaica Observer.
They were the first to introduce Cross-Network Bank Transfers in
September 2012 in partnership with First Global as reported in my blog article
entitled “CIBC
FirstCaribbean Jamaica and First Global introduce Cross-Network Banking - The
Avengers for the idea of a Cashless Society and Banking Anywhere”. I’ll be
following up on this company in a further blog article!
Dealbug’s future may be in the
skies – Drones to deliver Packages coming soon
So what does the future hold for Mailpac?
Before the acquisition in September 2011, they’d done like GraceKennedy and
expanded their business into Ghana in Africa as stated in “Mailpac
expands into Ghana as ShopUSA”, published Wednesday, September 28, 2011, The Jamaica Observer under the brand
name ShopUSA.
In my blog
article entitled “Amazon
plans to launch Amazon PrimeAir, their 30 minute Drone Package Delivery Service
for Amazon Prime users - Playing Catch-up as Mailpac launches DealBug in
Jamaica”, I predicted that Mailpac
might be doing drones, based on intelligence I’d picked up from sources in the
know.
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This in a bid to expand their Courier and Door-to-Door Service in a
competitive environment as stated in “Mailpac
takes aim at bigger share of consumer market”, published Wednesday, November
20, 2013 BY JULIAN RICHARDSON
Assistant Business Co-ordinator, The
Jamaica Observer. Door-to-Door Courier Services are gradually expanding and
Mailpac is facing competition from
other Couriers feeling strong growth due to the introduction of Scotia VISA Debit Cards
and CIBC First
Caribbean VISA Debit Card.
Thus to reduce their Ground Shipping costs, Mailpac might along with DealBug be looking into the idea of
offering Drone base Deliveries islandwide to persons who own smartphones in a
move similar to UPS and FedEx as explained in my blog article
entitled “UPS
and FedEx developing their Own Delivery Drones to compete with Amazon PrimeAir
- Premium Rush Package Delivery Drones herald the coming of Google's Personal
Androids that are Almost Human”.
Drones along with DealBug would
bring same Day door-to-Door Courier services to Jamaicans as Mailpac learns How to Train your Dragon 2 (2014).
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