Page 28 - IB August 2021

Business

PIVOTING POST FIJI ing the Post Express online
store. The company has
strengthened its warehousing
By Samantha Magick and storage capabilities, en-
abled payments via debit cards
What do you do when the global pandemic shuts borders and through a strategic partnership
cuts international mail services; services that were previously with Bank South Pacific (BSP)
your bread and butter? If you are Post Fiji, you diversify your and leveraged the EMS (Express
offerings and look to digital options. Mail Service) network.
Post Fiji Chief Executive Officer, Dr Anirudha Bansod says Dr Bansod says challenges
COVID-19 saw revenue from international postage decline “to remain, for example, the lack
the tune of almost 82%.” As a “commercial arm of the Fiji of a national payment switch,
government” Dr Bansod said they could not rely on grants, but that the Fiji government,
but he had to find a way to keep employees—some who had Post Fiji CEO Dr Anirudha Bansod Reserve Bank of Fiji and other
been with the company for 20 or 30 years—in their jobs. partners are working to address this. “That will be a game
One major pivot was product diversification. Prior to COVID, changer,” he asserts.
stationary—particularly school supplies—was a major product Post Fiji is taking a phased approach to its online services.
line in Post Fiji’s shops. However with school closures and the Phase One is to see all existing postal service available online.
inherent seasonality of such items, Dr Bansod could see that The second phase is to support micro, small and medium sized
the shelves were empty, or product was just not moving. enterprises (MSMEs) to use its ecommerce.
His solution was to start stocking groceries in these stores. “There are so many talented women and men out there
The company’s footprint—58 stores across Fiji—was its biggest developing such beautiful products. The products are ex-
comparative advantage. But moving into different product traordinarily good… they come up with a lot of innovative and
lines was a big learning curve Dr Bansod says. creative products, and they try to sell the product at much
“I was very honest with our suppliers,” he admits. “[We had cheaper prices. The reason being because they do not under-
to] open our heart, saying that, look, we are very new into stand the value of … their product or services.”
the business of groceries. And it’s time for us to learn. We can Dr Bansod has a PhD in Marketing, and he sees a role for
offer you our shelf space, but you have to tell us what product supporting businesses to enhance marketing, packaging and
sells, what products don’t sell and how the regulated/nonreg- pricing to improve their profitability, “so they can sell their
ulated items work, how the expiry date has to be monitored, product to the international community, so they are not only
so all operating procedures. You have to guide us and teach locked up into the local domestic market.”
us, and it’s a win-win situation between you and us.”
Dr Bansod says the strategy has worked, as they have not Competitive advantage: The man-made GPS
sought to compete directly with the big urban supermarkets, Post Fiji has also launched a home delivery parcel service,
but rather develop a mini-market concept which concentrates which gives customers the option of door-to-door delivery. Dr
on basic items. He has also kept pricing competitive. Bansod says this has proved popular as people try to isolate
“We purposefully kept our prices at the lower [end]. We did at home as much as possible during the second wave of the
receive some of the questions from the private entities; why pandemic in Fiji.
are you are selling so cheap, but our objective was very clear. The EMS delivery service has also seen substantial growth
It’s not to maximise profit, it is to sustain our business with a as small businesses that have sprung up with the collapse
reasonable margin so that we can keep on giving the salaries of tourism, seek to fulfil orders. Dr Bansod believes this is
for people and run the operations.” a much more reliable option than unproven and unlicensed
delivery services where he says, small businesses are taking a
“Eating our pie” huge risk for the sake of $2 or $3 in savings.
Dr Bansod also made what he calls a challenging decision, He says Post Fiji’s other competitive edge is experience
which was to terminate Post Fiji’s contracts to facilitate in delivering to customers in a market where there are no
Vodafone and MPaisa money transfer services. He states the postcodes, area demarcations are often unclear, and streets
numbers were clear as they had their own money order prod- are often not numbered sequentially. Dr Bansod says while
uct but had a competitor “sitting in our house and eating our he has seen some supermarkets struggle to find residential
own pie.” addresses as they move to home delivery services, Post Fiji’s
Post Fiji has subsequently rebranded its own product from drivers’ “manmade GPS is so strong… our drivers are extraor-
FlashCard to Post Money Order. The product is an important dinarily great in finding each and every place. You just give
part of the business at a time when both international and them the address and they know that each and every location
domestic remittances have been so important. so thoroughly.”

Ecommerce: a game changer editor@islandsbusiness.com
Post Fiji is also strengthening its online offerings, relaunch-

28 Islands Business, August 2021