Bob Go – Ten years and counting of simplifying online shopping deliveries in South Africa

Bob Go is celebrating its 10th birthday and now ships over 4 million packages per year.

Bob Go, South Africa’s leading delivery platform, is celebrating its 10th birthday.

The delivery platform shipped its first parcel on 19 February 2016 and has since grown to ship over 4 million parcels per year while working with over 6,000 South African businesses.

• Click here to learn more about Bob Go.

Across the millions of deliveries it has completed, Bob Go has achieved a 99.9% uptime, ensuring its customers can always see where their parcels are in the delivery process.

However, Bob Go will not rest on its laurels, and is committed to ensuring that its next big bash in another decade – its 20th birthday – will celebrate even greater accomplishments.

A South African success story

Bob Go, which forms a part of the greater Bob, is a seamless, all-in-one platform designed to simplify the delivery process for businesses and individuals.

This includes everything from comparing courier quotes and printing waybills to tracking parcels and managing multiple deliveries at once, all from a single dashboard.

The service was created to serve both businesses and individuals, which has made it an indispensable tool for users who frequently have large quantities of concurrent deliveries.

Furthermore, it allows online stores to connect their Shopify, Woo, Ecwid, Magento, or Rekisa stores to automate order syncing, waybills, and tracking updates.

Small businesses can also ship from multiple locations, manage returns, and keep customers updated with seamless courier options.

For entrepreneurs and individuals, Bob Go allows sending parcels at affordable rates with no contracts or monthly fees.

It is therefore no surprise that Bob Go works with the country’s top couriers, including The Courier Guy, Internet Express, Pargo, RAM, and more.

Merchant success story

Merchants that choose Bob Go have also experienced great success. Phaedon Gourtsoyannis, the founder and owner of Cape Coffee Beans, started using Bob Go in 2016.

“I needed a way to dispatch parcels across the country for my new side gig without having to spend painful hours filling out waybills by hand – a practice that wasn't so uncommon in those days,” said Gourtsoyannis.

“I also wanted to be able to automate communication about deliveries with my first customers.”

He explained that Bob Go began to save him time and headaches from day one, and that as the business grew, Bob Go became much more than a mere time-saving tool.

“Now I could have several people dispatching orders, digitally printing waybills, and tracking the progress of deliveries – all from a centralised system that integrated with Shopify and was even helping us save money on delivery fees.”

Gourtsoyannis also highlighted Bob Go’s integration with a wide range of couriers.

“I think Bob Go's continuous integration with more couriers has kept it very relevant for us.”

“As we've grown, we've needed more flexibility and delivery options, and Bob Go has always provided us the functionality and access to rates and courier partners that we've needed,” he said.

Looking to the future

Looking forward to the next ten years, Bob Go’s future will see the company significantly expand its offerings - including a consumer app that accepts direct bookings for local shipping (locker/door-to-door).

The consumer app will allow users to book courier services directly using its smart locker network for convenient drop-offs and collections.

It also plans to expand its support for advanced tracking, and AI features for greater efficiency and user experience to take the platform to new heights. 

All of this will be done while strengthening the integration between Bob Go and platforms like Bob Shop and Bob Pay - creating a full-stack ecommerce solution.

These plans and expansions are all in aid of Bob Go’s goal to become the go-to platform for simplified, smart, and scalable shipping for online businesses and consumers in South Africa.

Click here to learn more about Bob Go.

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