Based in Sydney, Australia, Freshbids manages the entire sale and delivery process for a wide range of perishable products including flowers, coffee, seafood and fresh fruit and vegetables.
Company founder Mirza Kashany says his years of experience in the flower industry, combined with an interest in the Dutch auctioning system, inspired him to set up this service as a way to streamline the selling and buying process.
“I’ve been in the flower industry for the last 15 years, and I’ve always found that the traditional approach had a lot of limitations,” he says.
“It was often hard to access growers or reach buyers directly, as you’d have to go through so many people, or have order sizes that didn’t suit your goals, so I decided to come up with an e-commerce platform that allows people to get into different markets, and offers multiple products from multiple growers, with customisable order sizes.”
The Dutch auction system means that the produce (or other perishables), starts at a certain price, and gradually decreases until it reaches the reserve price or a final sale is made. In the case of Freshbids, every auction is live, and both growers and buyers have a say in the terms of sale.
“Unlike with other auctions around the world, growers on Freshbids are in control of the product until it is sold. So if there’s no sale, they won’t need to ship it anywhere, which saves money when compared to traditional auctions. They can also set their own reserve price, which ensures they get a reasonable profit,” Mr Kashany says.
“For buyers, we give them the ability to choose their order size when they make a bid. So even a small buyer can access growers from different countries and import small quantities, instead of having to buy a whole shipment of one product from one grower.”
Freshbids was launched in September 2015 and now has weekly live auctions for flowers, as well as a growing catalogue of other products, from coffee to seafood.
Mr Kashany says there are currently over 3000 products on the system, which is “growing all the time” and will soon include auctions for fresh fruit and vegetables from Australian growers.
“We are in process of offering Australian fresh produce to buyers in Singapore and Hong Kong, with plans to expand to other major Asian markets in the future.
We’ll be starting with grapes soon, and already have a number of major growers signed up to the platform.”
Freshbids is set up to manage the entire export process after a sale is made, so for growers it can mean a lot less work to get their produce into other markets.
“For the growers, it’s a no brainer. They love platform because they can set the reserve price and sell any quantity, there’s no listing fee and we take responsibility for the transport logistics,” Mr Kashany says.
He explains that Freshbids has the potential to provide growers with better returns, and buyers with better prices because it reduces the number of people involved in the supply chain.
“I was talking to a few growers recently, and they said that they get a return of only 14 to 22 cents for a [kilogram] of their produce, so it’s very clear that growers are not always getting the returns they need on products,” he says.
“What our platform does is eradicate the exporter, importer and any other person in between that would usually make a margin on sales. We only have the grower on one side, the buyer on one side and Freshbids connecting them, which means the grower can get a better profit and the buyer can get better price.”
The sale prices cover all logistical costs, including transportation, and buyers can set their local currency for all purchases, or change their currency preferences as needed.
For a grower, the sale process is also very straightforward, and has potential to save a lot of time dealing with export procedures and logistics.
“Say you're selling grapes,” Mr Kashany says as an example, “first you need to register to be a supplier. Once registered, well email you with details of what we need from you, and when we receive that information we create a catalogue and provide you with a login and a password.”
“To be in an auction, you set the reserve price and quantities on offer. When we do the auction, you might sell say 100 boxes, and then there’s time for you to prepare that produce for pick up.”
Freshbids then provides growers with a quality control form to verify the quality of the produce (size, appearance etc), and ensure it meets current export standards. After that, the freight forwarder will pick up the boxes, and the grower receives payment within 48 hours of the buyer receiving and approving the product.
“We take care of all the export documents, and have systems in place to ensure quality control throughout the process – everything is done to current standards so we can ensure both growers and buyers are getting a great deal,” Mr Kashany says.
While it is still early days for the platform, it has already received a lot of interest and support all around the world.
“We have a lot of interest from buyers in Asia for fresh produce and Europe for flowers, and lots of growers in Africa, Colombia and Australia,” he says.
For more information:
Mirza Kashany
Freshbids
Tel: +61 412 209 271
Email: mkashany@freshbids.com.au
www.freshbids.com.au