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Online food ordering service launched in Azerbaijan - INTERVIEW - PHOTOSESSION

Online food ordering service launched in Azerbaijan - <font color=red>INTERVIEW - PHOTOSESSION</font>

16 May 2012 09:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA. Recently, an online food ordering service has been launched in Baku. APA interviewed with the founders of Nuush.az Aykut Keskin and Jalal Rahimov. They spoke about their project and objectives.

AYKUT KESKIN: Online food delivery is actually a service that we have been using very often and for a long time. It all started when we first moved to the United States around 2003. During the years weâ€™ve studied and later worked abroad we both individually discovered that grocery shopping or cooking was actually quite challenging and required a great time- time that we and most of the students and working crowd donâ€™t have. The most convenient solution weâ€™ve found for this problem was simply ordering our food online. This was around 2005- 2006, and since then online food ordering has become very popular all over the world and in Turkey as well.

JALAL RAHIMOV: With all these in mind, and after doing our investigation, weâ€™ve decided that Azerbaijan was ready to meet with actual online services and particularly online delivery service. At the moment in Azerbaijan, Internet is most commonly used for reading news, participating in discussion forums or participating in social media. So â€œusing internet to order foodâ€ is a brand new concept in Azerbaijan. However; we are actually quite happy with the reactions we have been getting - majority of our users have already placed multiple orders.

As a result of our busy schedules, demanding careers, a myriad of errands to run each day and the traffic in Baku, we actually have very little time for ourselves- similar to what the residents of metropolisâ€™ experience all over the world. And as you work harder to build a reputable career and to earn a living, you get trapped in a monotonous cycle, doing the same things and eating the same food every day. This is where Nuush comes in.

AYKUT KESKIN: We offer three services on our site: delivery, pickup and catering. Our delivery service works in a very straight forward manner. You can go to www.nuush.az or the Nuush Facebook Page to start an order. The first step is to select where you are located by first telling us your Rayon and then selecting a Baku city landmark- a metro station, a well-known statue or a shopping mall- closest to your location. Afterwards you see the list of restaurants who serve your location- for now our services are only available to Baku residents but we plan on expanding to whole Azerbaijan. On this list, you can also find approximate delivery time, the minimum delivery amount required by the restaurant and most importantly restaurant ratings given by members who have already ordered from a specific restaurant. You can then go on to prepare an order to your liking.

JALAL RAHIMOV: Pickup works in a slightly different manner. Instead of having your food delivered, you place an order on www.nuush.az and go to the actual restaurant to pick it up yourself. We already have customers who place an order when they are about to leave the office, and pick-up their food on the way home without having to wait for their order to be prepared. As for catering, we have a number of very reliable partners providing a wide range of services. Usually it is not easy to find a reliable caterer who can provide services to fulfill your expectations. When you fill- out an inquiry form on Nuush, we contact our partners and get back to you within 24 hours with multiple offers tailored to your wishes both in terms of quality and price.

AYKUT KESKIN: Nuush thrives to make it convenient for you to have new experiences and try new dishes on a daily basis. At the same time, these services come at no extra cost to our members. Using Nuush is absolutely free. The prices on Nuush are exactly the same as with the prices at the restaurants. And last but not least, you are never charged extra for delivery. Also, while using Nuush, you do not have to provide any sort of credit card or financial information. You place your order and pay at the door when your food is delivered.

JALAL RAHIMOV: Furthermore, Iâ€™m sure everyone is fed up with wasting time on the phone trying to place a simple order or trying to describe an address over and over again to three different people. Placing an order with special instructions such as â€œno onionsâ€, â€œno mayonnaiseâ€ or â€œextra mozzarellaâ€ is also quite a struggle when you try to place an order via phone, especially if you are a foreigner.

AYKUT KESKIN: By the way, as a Nuush user, your complaints about a restaurantâ€™s service never go unnoticed. After receiving your order, you simply go to Your Account on www.nuush.az and rate your orders for taste, speed and quality. These scores are published on the website for other users to see. Also, at the end of each month we communicate your feedback with each restaurant and make sure they improve with the help of strict conditions and service level requirements listed in our partnership contracts.

JALAL RAHIMOV: The number of Facebook users in Azerbaijan has been dramatically increasing since the beginning of 2011. Plus we provide our services over the internet, so our main audience at the beginning, are people who use internet on a regular basis. For these reasons, our marketing activities so far took place in the online sphere.

AYKUT KESKIN: Weâ€™ve launched our Facebook fan page, which accumulated more than 11,000 followers so far- and there are more than 1,000 Nuush members. We are just about to start our first ad campaign, and will be focusing on online activities for the most part- however, we might surprise you every now and then on the streets.

JALAL RAHIMOV: Currently we are working with more than 60 restaurants covering a very wide price and cuisine range. Some of our well-known partner restaurants are La Strada, Chio Chio San, Zeytun, Kure Pizza, Merkez Lahmacun and Mado. We are actively looking to increase our restaurant base to provide our users a greater variety of choice.

AYKUT KESKIN: On a side note, at the moment we are actually at a tipping point. Our site has been live for almost 3 months and weâ€™ve actually collected a significant amount of user feedback through our rating system. And now we are going to start concluding our partnership with a few of the restaurants that consistently get unsatisfactory ratings and complaints from our members.

JALAL RAHIMOV: We strive to bring a wide selection of restaurants with high quality service and delicious food to our membersâ€™ fingertips. So naturally, Nuush is actually more than only nuÅŸ.

AYKUT KESKIN: Nuush Olsun!