A truly contactless delivery company
Svuum, a Greek startup whose onomatopoeic name is the noise made as a motor vehicle speeds up, since May 2019 has focused on becoming a super-advanced courier company. Although it was founded last year, it was the start of the pandemic that saw the company become really active in the courier sector, enjoying a major increase in orders.
“Over the last few weeks of the lockdown the volume of orders we have been taking has quadrupled. At the moment we have a rate of two new cooperation deals per week, with e-shops taking a large volume of daily orders,” says the company’s chief executive, Pantelis Georgiadis.
“We are the first courier enterprise to give customers the chance to call drivers directly for communication and clarifications regarding their orders, a service that saves consumers time from waiting at call centers,” he explains.
As soon as a customer makes their online order, a driver goes to fetch it. Afterward, Svuum sends the consumer a text message with the estimated time of delivery and the option of tracking their order in real time on the map.
“Our service is currently supplied only in Attica and we have storage space in the center of Athens, from which the commodities consumers order via e-shops leave every day,” adds Georgiadis.
Svuum is not a conventional courier company: “Many enterprises require the customer’s signature as proof of delivery. At Svuum, this procedure has become automatic, and the delivery experience is truly contactless: Once a consumer has completed their purchase online, they are informed about the delivery procedure and receive a six-digit number on their cellphone associated with their purchase. When the driver delivers the product – always maintaining a safe distance – the only thing the recipient has to do is tell them the six-digit number to collect it,” the startup’s CEO tells Kathimerini.
Svuum’s clients are retail commerce groups with a strong presence in e-commerce. Its plans include the expansion of its services to more Greek cities within next year, while it is also locked in negotiations with investment funds to secure financing.
