Kerala start-up Errando launches WhatsApp API-powered delivery service

Kochi: Errando, a Kerala-based hyperlocal delivery start-up, has made online purchases simpler and easier. The company has launched a WhatsApp API-powered delivery service. With the facility, customers can now use their WhatsApp to place orders for food, stationary, medicine, grocery, pick and drop or any errand services, the company said in a press release.

A customer can start availing this service by sending a 'Hello' message to 7994834834.

Respective automated reply messages will prompt and guide the customer in placing the order with a couple of messages. Delivery/pickup addresses can be shared easily by either typing the location name or using WhatsApp location search functionality. Customers can make payment using auto-generated payment links and also receive updates of the order in the same chat window.

Shameer Pathayakandi, co-founder of Errando, said that WhatsApp-powered services will help customers avoid multiple app downloads that consume storage space and hamper smartphone performance. Apart from English, services will soon be available in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada.

Errando, which started its services in 2016, currently operates in Kochi, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru and completes 1.5 lakh orders a month. Errando provides a wide range of hyperlocal services encompassing home delivery of commodities from shops or offices, forgotten items from home, purchase of medicines and bill payments to name a few.

Errando had previously raised Rs 1.5 crore in angel funding and is now expanding services to six more cities in South India including Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Mysore, Mangalore and Thrissur. Errando (https://errando.co.in/) also provides full stack order fulfilment services to B2B customers which includes fulfilment, delivery, returns and CoD.