E-commerce is already the number one source of business for Estafeta

On Tuesday, April 14, 2020, it was noted in the notebook of Jesus Garcia, Director of Operations at Estafeta, as the day he “boarded” the roller coaster he did not get off from. From that moment on, it began a sudden increase in operations, forcing it to increase the company’s investment for the year from 664 to 830 million pesos, hire more people, and advance the delivery of its sixth aircraft, which will arrive at the end of next year. June.

The Covid-19 pandemic took three weeks to lock up and the uncertainty began.

“Non-essential activities have been suspended, but it so happened that around the Easter period people started buying many products with e-commerce. On April 14th I looked at my report on the services being run and realized it was a similar volume to the Good End, a peak week par excellence. Thus, the rate has not decreased.

In an interview, the manager explained that e-commerce in 2019 weighed about 40% of its sales and at the end of last year increased to 60%, with an average of 300,000 shipments per day (in December there were 360 ​​thousand).

“We have come with an interesting growth in the subject of e-commerce, although we have been greatly accelerated by the pandemic and have progressed, at least, by two years in the growth of this sector. It must be said that Mexico has been lagging behind in this matter with respect to other countries in region, like Brazil,” he explained

Besides the increase in the delivery of food, medicine or health protective equipment, Estafeta made sure to protect its collaborators who were on the streets or operations centers by implementing strict protocols.

Before that moment, the company had 7,000 people working and at the end of 2020, there were about 11,000 people.

“The first big challenge was the additional volume that led us to transform our operations. The early days were slow because we collapsed. We understood that more infrastructure and people were needed, which is why the investments grew. I must stress that my HR colleagues did a great job because Recruiting and training about 2,000 people in three months was a great thing and not much was said about that,” said Estafeta’s Chief Operating Officer.

In addition to purchasing trucks and opening eight operating centers, the company was relieved at the end of July when its fifth plane landed at San Luis Potosi Airport as scheduled. The arrival ceremony was broadcast, according to the occasion, on his Facebook page. Now, the sixth plane has been ordered and they are lucky, because there is an excess demand all over the world for cargo planes.

Was there a fun moment between all the complications?

Something happened that made us nervous in December, when Mexico City went back to the red light and supermarkets had to close for Christmas. Santa Claus and the Three Wise Men had to look for us. At that time, we realized that we must always provide high quality service because we can’t imagine what would happen if the baby customer did not receive his gifts. We comply.