The online retail scene in Kenya is set to experience intense competition in the next few weeks with the official unveiling of Masoko. This will have beneficial riple effects on the country’s online trading which for sometime has not kept up with formal retailing and also for online shoppers who will benefit from the price wars.
Speaking during the official unveiling, Safaricom Director of Strategy, Joe Ogutu said ‘Masoko hopes to unlock the untapped e-commerce market in Kenya by connecting consumers, vendors, merchants to each other using a single powerful online platform. As a start, the platform will have over 200 vendors offering over 20,000 products.
Safaricom has made partnerships with delivery companies, Wells Fargo and Sendy in a bid to make the deliveries as seamless as possible and secure too. At launch, the fully supported modes of payment are Safaricom’s own MPESA, Visa and MasterCard with more modes coming sometime down the line.
Task ahead
Cracking the local market will not be a mean task. Already established platforms such as Africa Internet Group’s Jumia, Kilimall International’s Kilimall, even Nasper’s OLX already enjoy huge publicity.
Check it out at www.masoko.com
