If you’ve ever been at home, or in the office, and wondered where you could get a Soda, or an Energy Drink, or Water, well, Coca-cola, one of the world’s most recognised brands, is today announcing their foray into the world of e-commerce with DialACoke, a website that allows you to place orders, pay with M-Pesa of course, and receive your order from wherever you may be. Yes, this is real.

The Coca-Cola system partners in Kenya have today launched a new home delivery service which they say will provide consumers with access to its range of beverages from the comfort of their home, office, business premises or whatever location they are. As part of its launch offer, there’s a 20% discount on all products on the platform while stocks last. The available brands of drinks one can get are:

Cocacola
Fanta
Sprite
Dasani
Keringet
Minute Maid
Monster Energy

From the official announcement, the company says the platform will be available 24/7 as an addition to other Coca-Cola services. The company says they’ve set up a dedicated a 24-hour helpline number and email manned by experienced customer care agents.

If you’re asking yourself why, so am I. Why go through all the work of building an e-commerce platform, set up agents, and work to perhaps expand access to the whole of Kenya when you’re already one of the most recognised brands worldwide? Isn’t that a waste of money? A lack of ideas? Aren’t Coca-cola products already one of the most easily accessible products out there? Does it make sense to go to a website, place an order, and wait for what you could get from a shop near you?

Also, we already have so many e-commerce platforms in Kenya. And while the logistics of delivery is still quite complicated for many of these platforms, they’re in that business full-time, and they understand that bit better. So why not build partnerships with them. Why not have dedicated tabs on food apps say Jumia Food or UberEats where people can order Coca-cola products faster, and easily. Or even on full-on sites like SkyGarden, Jumia, or Kilimall? And then from such partnerships establish ways for expanding countrywide? Maybe I am not seeing the bigger picture here, but I doubt DialACoke will be here a year from now. This is a product I feel has failed at launch. Especially with the fact that it is targeting normal consumers. If it were targeting shop owners with depots, that would be a different story altogether.

How to place an order:

Go to www.DialACoke.com
Select the Coca-Cola products you want and place them into the shopping cart.
Validate the order, confirm the delivery address, and the date it’s required.
Pay via MPESA.
Receive an order confirmation message.
Delivery will be dispatched to the customer after payment is received.

Speaking about the service, Xavier Selga, Managing Director, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa – Kenya said: “The platform has been designed to be easy to use for our consumers with very simple steps of ordering your favourite Coca-Cola beverage of choice. It has also been optimized for mobile use to ensure each consumer with a smartphone can be able to easily make an order. Orders placed before 12 noon will be mostly delivered on the same day and the rest will be scheduled for the next day or the date specified by the customer. There will be no deliveries on Sundays, but orders can still be made for Monday deliveries.”

“We have developed the DialACoke.com platform to ensure our consumers continue to access and enjoy their favorite Coca-Cola drinks from the convenience of their homes,” said Theuri Chege, Commercial Manager, East and Central Africa.

“The home delivery service, coupled with our wide national reach through our distributors, will ensure delivery of orders across the country. Through this elaborate engagement platform, we will be able to listen to our consumers and deliver orders at their doorstep and with utmost regard to safety”, emphasized Theuri.

“The DialACoke.com team has undergone training and certification to safely handle all deliveries from our distributors to the consumer. We have also ensured that the teams handling all consumer orders are equipped with the necessary Personal Protection Equipment for safe home delivery service that includes gloves, facemasks, and hand sanitizers. We have also invested in quality packaging that ensures that all consumer orders are insulated and safe,” said Theuri Chege, Commercial Manager, Coca-Cola East and Central Africa.

Would you order Soda, energy drinks, or water using a dedicated website? If so, why? Let me know.