The current health crisis related to the VIDOC-19 pandemic has shaken the world. The social and economic consequences are unprecedented and many activities are now paralyzed.

In the logistics field, prices for Outalma’s air freight service are impacted by the elimination of passenger flights between France and Senegal. Outalma’s maritime groupage service has been disrupted by the closure of DIY factories and stores.

Faced with this unprecedented situation leading to the slowdown of its key services (air and sea freight), Outalma has found an opportunity to innovate to the benefit of its ecommerce platform “Outalma Market” available on www.market.outalma.com.

Outalma has allocated all its resources on its e-commerce platform to offer door-to-door delivery services to its customers and help limit travel.

“Stay at home and let Outalma take care of you”; to limit the spread of the coronavirus Outalma has thought of everything! Do your shopping online, fill your gourd, select your food baskets, and even receive your Ndogou baskets from home. Indeed, with a non-contact delivery system, well armed delivery men with the necessary elements (hydro-alcoholic gels, masks and gloves) deliver to your home while limiting the risks of contagion.

Thus, containment has improbably allowed Outalma Market to impose itself on the market with new concepts by adapting to a serious sanitary reality.

This readaptation of our services has also borne fruit: the number of orders placed on the platform has tripled in just a few weeks and we have been able to avoid economic layoffs within Outalma.

At the same time, the team was able to benefit from more time to develop its skills and training. At a time when almost all employees are teleworking and therefore confined to their homes, we took advantage of the opportunity to organize online coaching sessions on personal development, team building, business development and even awareness raising on new topics such as cyber security and personal data management.

All of this showed that Outalma has a real capacity for adaptation and resilience.

Moreover, despite the difficult situation with a team working from home, Outalma managed to keep the team motivated and united in order to recover stronger than ever after the crisis and look to new horizons with new partners.

As a result, in the light of this crisis, we have a better trained team ready to take on all the challenges that will be on the market.

Yacine CISSE