Founded by Derrick Muturi, Herdy is an online market that is providing unique value to the agribusiness value chain by eliminating middle men and sourcing fresh produce directly from the farmers to the consumers.
Using his skills as a developer, Derrick built the platform after the company that had contracted him to supply rabbit meat collapsed. He turned to Facebook as an alternative channel to sell his produce but it proved to be limiting in terms of the scope of items he could sell and the number of consumers he could reach; thus Herdy was born.
Derrick Muturi
Initially, the reception was slow, something Derrick attributes to using an unconventional marketing strategy. Instead of outsourcing for advertising, he focused on building an albeit small but loyal client base that became Herdy’s ‘brand ambassadors’, fuelling the growth of the company through word of mouth advertising. Being consistent in its promise of fresh, affordable and on time delivery also propelled the growth of the company.
Initially, Herdy was an online meat and fish market, it largely still is, but they have diversified their products from eight items to retailing 138 items on the platform, ranging from fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers, to cereals.
How does Herdy guarantee freshness?
“First, we don’t keep an inventory so nothing is frozen. Instead, we source our groceries from a curated list of suppliers who have farms in Kitale, Naro Moru, Rumuruti, Nyeri and Limuru. We use our projections of orders for the day to inform the quantity of purchases we’ll make that day. Our cold chain network ensures that the products arrive to us fresh and in good condition and that they reach the consumer in that state when we deliver,” says Derrick.
Herdy Homepage
Shopping on Herdy is your typical online retail experience. You login into the platform using either your Facebook or Google account, select your product, add it to cart and proceed to check out. The variety of meats and cuts means that you are not short of options. They do same day delivery for orders made before 2 pm. Those that are received later are delivered the following day. If you’re a new client, then you get free delivery on your first order. Purchases below Ksh. 1,500 incur a standard delivery fee of Ksh. 150 and orders above it get free delivery.
What is the future of Herdy?
“We have only started imagining the scope of what Herdy has to offer to our customers. By mid this year, we shall have over 500 products on offer across multiple categories. We intend to become an enabler for young e-commerce entrepreneurs who wish to start or grow their agribusinesses using technology but lack the skill, capital or expertise to either build, procure or lease a platform such as ours.”
You can shop from either the website or from the app which is available for download from Google PlayStore.
Herdy has also given our readers a 10% discount on their first order and 5 free deliveries within Nairobi. All you need to do is use the code HAPA_HERDY on the payment reference during checkout.