E-commerce, like all other online services, has been accelerated in the new normal of the pandemic and lockdowns. Businesses have had to use digital channels to sell products and services to their existing and potential customer bases that are sheltering in place. We have seen a number of services that have cropped up of late, like Marketsquare and ZimArt Shop. And to continue the e-commerce revolution we have a new entry into this bustling industry called Mutapa.co.
Unlike Marketsquare which is more like Classifieds and ZimArt Shop which is for artists and artisans. Mutapa.co is a storefront for small to medium businesses that are selling anything from clothes to electronics. It has a Shopify sort of feel.
How to register
In a Medium post, the company is said to have a seamless and quick onboarding process. Mutapa.co has onboarded more than 50 business and retailers, and looking at their website there is already a plethora of businesses already in.
To register to sell on Mutapa.co, all you need to do is go to the site and go to vendor registration which you can do with the link here. There you will fill in your details and then you’ll be brought to a dashboard that looks like this.
On the dashboard you will see a number of menu options that allow you to check orders, your stats and reports, coupons and more.
Payments, order processing and deliveries
The one thing that every business owner needs to know is what kind of payments can be processed on the platform and how they can redeem their money. Mutapa.co offers both local currency and forex payments options for your business. Giving you the option of both international and local clients.
You can make a withdrawal at any point as far as I have seen from exploring the dashboard. What is unclear however are the fees for shops to host their products on the site or the cut that Mutapa.co will be taking from each sale.
One other area of great importance to e-commerce is logistics. It’s one thing to have a place to sell goods but something else entirely to get those products to your customers. This issue was addresed in Mutapa’s Medium post:
“Through its partnerships with the leading courier networks, Mutapa.co has the ability to provide 100 per cent delivery coverage across the nation, from high-density cities to rural communities”
What those courier services are and the rates that will be charged to the vendors or their customers is unclear.
Thoughts
I’m all for the expansion of e-commerce, and I think Mutapa.co offers is a welcome development. There are a number of small businesses that need more than social media in order to get their products out there. The one thing that sites like Mutapa offer that social media doesn’t always are accessible payments facilities.
The platform is coming out of the gate with both local and foreign currency payments. This is very encouraging and I think makes the site worth checking out. And if you are interested you can use the link here.
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What’s your take?