Buy, Sell or Deliver goods on Cabbana, a local online store

Online stores now make sense in Zimbabwe. Apart from the increased internet penetration; we, because of the cash crisis, have been forced to ‘grow up’ fast. Amongst other epayment options, mobile money e.g EcoCash came into the scene and made online payments simpler and doable.

You’ll also notice that there has been a rise in local online stores even in the last year with even some physical shops beginning to create their own online platforms e.g. Choppies.

Over the years, Techzim has covered a good number of these online stores and/or online trading platforms. Today meet Cabbana, a fairly new kid on the block.

Cabbana is an online store which sells a variety of products from both male and female clothing to home decor. The site is quite appealing and has a user-friendly User Interface (UI), though of course the images of the products on the home page could surely be improved.

Nonetheless, Cabbana isn’t just open for those interested in buying items online, but those who are willing to sell, or deliver the products. On the site, you can sign in as a ‘seller’ or as a ‘driver’. Sellers can sign in as individuals or as companies. Drivers however need to provide a couple of documents before they are verified.

If you sign as a seller, you get to take away 85% of their purchased goods. The rest of the 15%, according Happy Zhou – the founder, is divided between the transaction fees and the business (Cabbana) at 5% and 10% respectively. Drivers on the other hand get 60% of all delivery fees while the remaining 40% goes to Cabbana.

All the money generated from sales goes into the Cabbana account first, from there, it is then sent to the various sellers accordingly rather than it going to the seller first then Cabbana. I assume it’s so that they are guaranteed of getting their money from the sales. I know for sure that companies especially, have issues settling debts with ‘smaller companies’ or startups, so this should be a smart way of ensuring that they pay. But it can still go the other way round right?

Anyway, there’s something that’s of interest on the Cabbana market, it allows for buyers to make an offer aka negotiate for a price that they are more comfortable with paying. I know of friends who would never buy anything without thoroughly negotiating for a lesser price first, of course only if that permits. So when choose a product you want to buy on the Cabbana site, you can either just add it to your shopping cart, buy it or ‘make an offer’. There’s also room for you to then make a note justifying why you’d prefer that amount instead of the initial amount and then wait for the seller to either accept the offer, make a counter offer, or decline the offer.

Sounds interesting doesn’t it?

Maybe you can try the site and tell us what you think. It will obviously be helpful for the startup as well since they are still testing their system and all. The site also has tutorial videos you can use to help you navigate or understand how the system works even more (which is also impressive I must say).