One of the main pain points faced by small businesses in Uganda is the high cost of rent for stalls and business space. The cheap stalls are not marketable while the marketable stalls are out of reach for small businesses. Nonetheless, technology is solving some of these issues through democratizing advertising and general access to market information.
Among the platforms that are spearheading this is Merchandise Uganda; a free online marketplace where sellers and buyers meet and transact. When you have a business or products to sell, you just visit the Merchandise Uganda platform and open a shop. A seller/trader is required to provide some KYC (Know Your Customer) in form of trader name or business name, location, contact details, good photos of products, and videos of how the products work (if need be).
When someone wants a product, they go to the website or download the Merchandise Uganda app and search for the product they want. Then people with such a product will be listed and the client can contact them directly.
They also have partnerships with courier companies. All suppliers are assigned to these logistics companies. So, when the client makes an order, the delivery company is notified to pick the product and deliver it
Suzan Awori, the General Manager of Merchandise Uganda notes that since they launched in 2019, they have on-boarded tens of clients, created hundreds of jobs, and served thousands of customers.
“We have been in business for more than five years and over the years have on boarded more than 10,000 businesses and created as many jobs along the way. These businesses serve more than one million customers. We are a general business platform and some of our top sectors include automotive, devices, agriculture and furniture,” Awori said, adding:
“We have since upgraded our platform and added a payment system that enables customers to shop and pay digitally. This makes it easy for customers to make payments and also for the sellers to easily and safely receive their money.”
Merchandise Uganda appeared on Day 7 of the HiPipo 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative season five.
Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.
With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.