Sayurbox Uses AWS to Deliver Fresh Food Faster

Logistics is a major challenge for many businesses in Indonesia, particularly for those handling fresh food. With small-scale farmers spread across some 17,000 islands, the supply chain from farm to table can involve up to 10 intermediaries. Sayurbox launched in 2016 to improve this process by managing its supply chain end to end.

In 2019, Sayurbox migrated from another cloud service provider to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to reduce overhead and take advantage of managed offerings such as Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Elasticsearch Service. Elasticsearch helps with monitoring and analytics activities performed in Sayurbox’s operations and warehouse management systems to assess demand levels and match them to supply sources. Customers can order on Sayurbox’s website and app, or even via WhatsApp. The startup uses Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) to automate inventory management.

With scalable managed services on AWS, Sayurbox keeps costs down, which is important for maintaining its business model. Customers can expect to save about 30 percent over purchases made at supermarkets, and farmers earn up to 20 percent more for their harvest. Nilesh Kumar, Vice President of engineering at Sayurbox, says, “With AWS, it’s been easier to scale up our resources and track spending as we go.”

Scalability and speed of deployment are key to enabling growth for Sayurbox. Daily orders have recently spiked by nearly 300 percent, and the company expects growth to continue as online grocery shopping becomes widespread in Indonesia. The startup currently serves 200,000 customers and 8,000 farmers each month. With AWS, Sayurbox can accurately track products and quickly deploy resources to maintain a 24-hour delivery time for produce.

Sayurbox is looking to AWS for ways to add machine learning features that would enhance its ability to forecast demand. Meanwhile, it gives farmers a better option for selling their goods at a higher price with a confirmed quantity.

The startup also helps farmers better plan for the future by diversifying crops. “Farmers have a guaranteed demand with Sayurbox and we can advise them on planting higher-margin items such as kale, which our customers are asking for,” Kumar says. “By leveraging technology, we can dramatically improve farmers’ livelihoods.”

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