Local Entrepreneur Opens E-commerce Supermarket

Boniface Keakabetse | Monday November 27, 2017 15:54

Through his company, Smartbuy Groceries, Molosi said that his business offers convenience as it accords customers to buy online using websites, mobile apps as well as Facebook.

Narrating his journey, Molosi noted that he developed the idea while he was working with Alibaba, a company that owns AliExpress.com, an online retail service made up of businesses in China, which offers products to international online buyers.

“I was creating a website for drop shipment at AliExpress and was surprised to find out that people can buy a product they have never seen using credit cards.

I realised that this service was convenient hence the reason why I then decided to set a similar infrastructure locally,” he said.

Molosi said that when he started, people discouraged him, but he forged ahead determinedly. He said that his profession helped him achieve his dream, but he had to learn some of the basics of the business to be effective and efficient.

“The app uses internal app to manage customers grocery inventory and can also send them messages to remind them that they are running out of groceries. Internal app take customers orders to shops we have partnered with and then they prepare the orders and deliver to the provided address.”

He said that credit cards are processed through First National Bank Botswana as merchant and have partnered with Fours and World Foods at Gaborone’s Commerce Park to make this project a success.

To ensure safety, Molosi said that his business is certified with level 1 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for complaint.

The PCI DSS is an information security standard for organisations that handle credit card and debit card information. It was created to increase controls around credit card data to reduce credit card fraud through its exposure.

“When your website is handling sensitive clients’ personal information and banking details, you definitely have to be under a compliant platform which banks check before acting as your merchants.

Everything is monitored. Even your robots have to be approved by both Facebook and e-commerce platform,” he said.

Further, he noted that his website has live chat agents who act as store assistants and help with anything. Molosi plans to expand his business to Maun, Lobatse, Selebi-Phikwe and Francistown as well as Windhoek in Namibia.