Yassir, an Algeria-headquartered super app that offers on-demand food and grocery delivery services, has introduced Yassir Express, a 30-minute delivery service, in South Africa, alongside several dedicated dark stores.
Founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Noureddine Tayebi, Yassir has a presence in five countries across North Africa, including Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and parts of French-speaking Africa.
The last mile delivery platform was recently awarded $150 million in Series B funding by investors, to fuel its expansion drive into new international markets, beginning with SA as the next milestone in its fast-growing network.
Yassir Express offers a one-stop shop for thousands of products, including nappies and pharmacy items, pet food, fresh fruit and vegetables, and meat – all delivered to customers’ doorsteps in 30 minutes or less, says the company.
Available from the iOS and Android stores, the mobile app launches with several “dark stores” to serve users across the northern regions of Johannesburg and Centurion.
Instead of relying on traditional retail stores − which often sell out of products and are subject to time delays, the company has established dark stores that are not open to the public.
These allow Yassir staff to quickly assemble shopping baskets and dispatch them to any location within a large radius when an order is received.
A dark store can be defined as a retail distribution centre or outlet that caters exclusively to online shopping, according to Peerless Assigns.
While the company is initially focused on Gauteng, it plans to expand its services across the Gauteng province and nationwide over the coming months, with cities such as Cape Town and Durban on the horizon.
Yassir South Africa GM Timothy Kiluba notes that speed, variety and affordability have been central to Yassir’s meteoric rise in other African markets, with over eight million users across the continent.
“Yassir Express is specifically designed for convenience, with a user-friendly and intuitive app that makes grocery shopping easier than ever,” he says.
“Our business model is also unique in that we rely exclusively on dark stores and last-mile delivery. This ensures our prices remain highly-competitive and, most importantly, that we can offer faster and more reliable delivery times with a target of less than 30 minutes from purchase to arrival. Our dark store model means we can avoid inflating any product costs on our platform, making shopping more affordable.”
When Tayebi established Yassir, the initial idea was to build a super app that included services people − in the French-speaking Maghreb region consisting of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia − catering to consumers who had little or no access to banking services and convenient e-commerce services.
The company has now expanded to 45 cities across six countries, providing a variety of products and services via a single mobile interface.
Rather than being limited to retail times, shoppers can place their orders from as early as 6am to 10pm on Yassir Express, and there are no limits on the number of items ordered or basket sizes, it says. The delivery fee is R35.
“Given the high demand for on-demand delivery within South Africa, our goal is to expand rapidly over the next 12 months as users discover the benefits of our platform,” notes Kiluba.
“Our Gauteng launch is just the first step in our plans for the local market, and we look forward to making many more exciting announcements about further investments and growth into other regions soon.”
Yassir Express SA delivery locations are listed here.
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