Colombo, Thursday 05th November 2020: During the recent lockdown in Sri Lanka, many businesses were driven to rethink their business model and come up with new strategies. New health and safety regulations and reaching customers at their own homes became an imperative, mainly for hospitality and the food industries.
Just Eat Right (Pvt) Ltd, one of Sri Lanka’s pioneering health food restaurants also found themselves rethinking their business during the pandemic. With the restaurants temporarily shut down and food delivery not being an option, the Eat Right team turned to their website to see what could be done. While working on the existing site, the team began to also get inquiries from their loyal customers for essential goods which was in scarcity at the time. Starting off with something as simple, yet as essential as bread, Eat Right transformed their platform to include daily essentials that were hygienically and promptly delivered to Colombo and the suburbs.
While working on the fresh country white and brown bread deliveries, the team then took in to consideration more requests from customers and their own daily needs and sourced out vendors who were also finding it difficult to get their produce across to customers. Eat Right thereafter created an e-Commerce platform that would bridge the gap between the producer and the consumer. One of the most notable projects was when Eat Right undertook to ensure that Avurudhu celebrations were not dampened by the lockdown by creating sweetmeat baskets sourced from local vendors and delivering it to those who needed a little bit of celebration. The project ensured that home-based vendors had a much-needed source of income during the difficult times.
“We started working mainly with home-based or small businesses who were finding it difficult to sell their products. It started off with essential goods but eventually evolved to other products as well”, notes Minoli Peiris, Managing Director of Eat Right.
Today, Eat Right’s e-Commerce platform has transformed in to a lifestyle location that is the hub for many small and medium scale entrepreneurs. Working with brands that have unique products to offer like gluten-free cakes, keto-friendly food, organic produce, handmade soaps, artisan teas and much more, Eat Right is also a platform for customers to ‘choose life’ through products that are certified good for you.
The Eat Right website also won the hearts of its customers for another unique feature which reached out to one of the most marginalized sections of our community. During the lockdown the truly homeless had no food, clothing or even access to clean drinking water. The Eat Right team together with their customers and contributors from around the world launched a “Gift a Meal” campaign online where customers could “buy” a meal for as many homeless individuals as they could afford. Through generous contributions Eat Right was able to feed hundreds of the homeless and also provide them with other essentials like clothes and sanitary products.
“It was such a humbling experience to see that people were still willing to reach out and do something in whatever way they could to support those who could not support themselves during difficult times. Working with the truly homeless was such an eye opener for all of us that we have now decided to extend this feature on the website to allow more people to reach out to vulnerable communities in Sri Lanka”, Minoli added.
Accordingly, Eat Right will list out care homes for children, elders and differently-abled on their website with the requirements at each facility. Customers then have the ability to donate funds which will be transformed to the goods required by Eat Right and supplied to the relevant care home. This ensures transparency and that the money reaches those who need it the most.
For its uniqueness and the website’s ease-of-use, security features and transparency, www.eatright.lk recently won the coveted Silver Best Web Award in the e-Commerce platform category. The Best Web Awards are conducted by the LK Domain Registry every year and recognizes websites that promote and popularize web presence in Sri Lanka. For more information on becoming a vendor with Eat Right or to find out more details about the products available online please visit www.eatright.lk