Zimbabwe’s Prices.co.zw, an online department store with 90 minutes delivery guarantee is set to launch across Africa and the middle East in a move to make eCommerce efficient and loved by everyone.
Founded by Mr. Dakarai Martin Mshoperi and his mother Mrs. Grace Mshoperi, Prices.co.zw was inspired by the increasing adoption of online shopping in countries like Great Britain and the US, even as Africa lagged behind.
Groceries online
” We believe that people in Zimbabwe are eager to purchase their groceries online and that is one of the things that inspired me to develop this service,” Mr. Dakarai Martin Mshoperi told TechMoran. “I programmed the entire website. There are currently very few online shops operating in Zimbabwe. ”
Though he is not the first one in Zimbabwe to launch an online shopping store, he says Prices.co.zw has a smooth system for accepting payments and delivering goods. Customers currently pay using EcoCash and Cash on Deliveryand Visa while ZimSwitch vPayments are coming soon. Their major advantage over their competitors is that they sell groceries and deliver in 90 minutes said Dakarai.
Amazon’s-Drone delivery dream,
Just like Amazon’s Prime Air dream, Prices has plans to bring convenience to people who have busy schedules at work or at home, or people who like to spend less on fuel to drive to the supermarket, or people who want to avoid standing in queues, or people that generally prefer online shopping and want their groceries delivered straight to them.
Prices, run by Universal Intelligence, a software developing company incorporated January 2013 is now looking for more investment from other partners purchase delivery vans and steadily expand to South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt and then to other countries like Madagascar, Dubai among others with the promise of variety of products and a delivery to buyers doorsteps in 90 minutes.
The site has various shops in Harare working as warehouses and when a person places an online order for, say; Cooking Oil, Rice, Bread, and Drinks, the firm’s delivery man goes to SPAR, purchases the groceries and delivers them to the customer. The idea behind getting shops like SPAR to sell on prices.co.zw is that it makes them able to sell goods such as groceries online.
Revenue from deliveries
There are over 100 shops on prices selling various goods, he told us including shops like Edgars, Truworths, FABS Hardware, Bradlows, Solution Centre, iClik, Allan Murray Jewellers, Autozone, Bata, Creative Computers, Veterinary Distributors, and Topics among others. These shops sell their goods on prices.co.zw free of charge and Mshoperi says they aim to obtain their revenue from deliveries.
“We want customers to buy their groceries in bulk for the month on our website and have some average sales of $80 per trolley. Our delivery charge when buying from 1 shop is $15.” he concludes.
Though just starting, their portal works equally well, all a buyer needs is identify the products they want to buy, search for it, browse among the search results and then add it to their trollies. Time to tap into Universal Intelligence!