online market place
AN online marketplace is basically a website, where you can find products coming from multiple sellers, be it brands, shops or persons, in the same platform. The marketplace owner is responsible for attracting customers and keeping track of money transactions taking place. The third party vendor deals with manufacturing and shipping. This way, the marketplace avoids holding stocks, and the manufacturer directly sells his or her products.
In a country like Tanzania where we are only starting to grasp the uses of the internet, people are used to the more traditional ways of shopping, whichare physical shops and stores. This is why much emphasis is needed to point out the fact that an online marketplace is not a shop, it is a meeting point for many shops (on the internet) to sell to buyers also using the same platform. Countless times we see an online marketplace advertising their website and the comments and questions will include several, “Where is your shop located?” I am sure that websites like Kaymu Tanzania can relate.
Online marketplaces are really fun to shop at because as a customer, you can find literally anything from items that are no longer in production, to the latest gadget or book. Fashion, Jewelry, Electronics, Mobile Phones, Health, Beauty, Kids and Babies, Home and Living, are just some of the few common categories you are bound to find at your typical online marketplace. Sellers of these items could come from all over the country that the marketplace is operating in. For example, Kaymu Tanzania online marketplace has sellers from Kariakoo and so many different parts of Dar-es-Salaam city, even a few sellers from outside the Dar-es-Salaam region. Bigger online marketplaces can consist of sellers from different countries.
Kaymu Africa CEO, Massilimiano Spallazi stated that, “Sellers on online marketplaces need to be reliable, efficient and consistent with their services to customers because the element of trust from a customer is very important for a successful online marketplace. Situations where customers have paid sellers and not received their products or products have been sent out and the sellers have not received their money occur. It is then the role of the online marketplace to manage these little problems and the better the management, the more successful the website.”
Starting an online marketplace to begin with, might be the biggest challenge, mainly because of ‘the chicken-egg problem’. You have to attract both sellers and buyers. So which one has to come first?
About Kaymu
Kaymu is the leading online shopping community, and the safest platform on the market. It connects and empowers buyers and sellers to allow them to take advantage of the best deals on an extensive range of products including electronics, mobile phones, fashion items and tons of gadgets. Thanks to a fixed price system, Kaymu guarantees that users will always find the lowest prices on the market.
About AIG
Africa Internet Group introduces and accelerates the online shift in Africa – for its people and its culture. It is committed to running successful and vibrant internet companies which boost the evolution of African online culture. AIG is the parent group of nine successful and fast-growing companies in more than 25 African countries, accounting for over 3, 000 staff. AIG cares about entrepreneurship and brings together all the key elements required to build great companies: team, concept, technology and capital. Its network of companies includes JUMIA, Kaymu, Hellofood, Lamudi, Carmudi, Zando, Jovago, Lendico and Easy Taxi.