Local e-commerce startup Zimbogini officially launched revamped e-commerce website with new feature at an event held in Harare torwards the end of last year. Although Zimbogini has been around for a while now, the (re)launch was primarily centered around the new payment features and partners they now have on board.
With regards payments, Zimbogini.com is now vPayments enabled and payment can also be made via Ecocash. However, the Ecocash option is the good old merchant options which has no interaction with the site itself.
Another key announcement was that the shipping or delivery partnership with Zimpost. This is the first time we are seeing an online shop partnering a courier which is a huge development for eCommerce in Zimbabwe. The partnership with Zimpost means Zimbogini can deliver anywhere in Zimbabwe within 24-48 hours and can price shipping based on the more accurate weight shipping rates.
Techzim managed to speak to Zimbogini’s customer care manager who said the company has one central warehouse were all stock in kept and dispatched to Zimpost offices whenever an order is processed.
The one challenge that Zimbogini may face is on the pricing of their products and the issues around minimum order quantities. Zimbogini primarily sells low cost groceries that include snacks, toiletries, ect that are generally priced more than what a typical brick and mortar competitors charge. For example, the price of a 500 Coca Cola PET drink is generally $1 in most retail stores but on Zimbogini its going for $1.30.
You would think that with low overheads (rent, wage bill, etc) that come with running online store, these savings can be transferred to the consumer but clearly with Zimbogini, its not the case. Maybe their reasoning is based on the idea that people will pay for for the convenience of shopping online?
With regards to shipping and MOQ, Zimbogini will charge consumers what they call a “low order fee” of $8 for purchases below the minimum order value of $50 and that same purchase will be also subject to a weigh based shipping charge. Orders above $50 are charged the weight based shipping.
Despite these concerns, as a player that has been around for a while, Zimbogini is learning from experience and implementing new things. The partnership with Zimpost is a good move and can be a standard that other players can emulate and set as a benchmark for Zimbabwean online commerce. The online payments issue (widely believed to holding back online commerce) is close to being resolved now and the next question in online commerce advancement in Zimbabwe is going to be on logistics.
Today we featured another player new in the online retail space called Prices.co.zw. Whilst Zimbogini is making profit from both product sales and shipping, Prices.co.zw is looking to make profit from shipping and deliveries.
Do you think online retail is something companies that companies in Zimbabwe should now prioritise.
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