Environment-friendly innovations from UAE’s online shopping pioneer

Shopping online is a sure time saver and a convenient solution to find everything you need without having to wait in a queue. In the UAE, Early Bird (Earlybird.ae) has been a trusted name for e-shoppers as the first to introduce online grocery service in the country.

Since opening in 2006, Early Bird has been growing its product range specialising in essentials that should always be available in every household and are mainly heavy or bulky. Early Bird provides delivery options to suit all needs of the customers, whether for homes, offices or hotels.

It is also known for its environmentally-friendly innovations. For imported premium natural mineral water from Germany, Early Bird introduced a deposit-return system where empty bottles and crates are collected from the customers for cleaning, sanitation and reuse.

Besides the zero-waste effect, the carbon footprint is – even with returning the bottles to the manufacturer – significantly lower than single-use glass bottles, not to mention plastic bottles that end up in landfills or the sea. Earlybird.ae sees a 60 per cent increase in demand for this product line over the last couple of weeks.

Besides the high quality of the product, this results from the fact that people see the actual amount of waste they produce while being at home most of the time. The number of different items in the shopping carts almost doubled compared to the time before Covid-19. Earlybird.ae is expanding its range of products to cover the need of its customers. It has imported high quality face masks – being one of the fast movers – to be able to fulfill the demand.

By optimising its logistics – one of the most challenging tasks these days – all orders are delivered by the time requested from the customers. Early Bird has been offering contactless credit card payment at the doorstep since 2006. Additionally, a secure online payment module will go live in the next couple of days.