You don’t have to rent shop space.

The advent of mobile technology and consequently mobile money has without doubt boosted business a great deal in Uganda. Not a wonder when I recently visited Nalongo’s Kafunda (my favorite drinking place) in one of Kampala’s suburbs, one folk wished to distance himself from the rest of us by requesting to pay his bill via mobile money. Despite seeming richer than the rest of us, I did not fail to relish my drinks while pondering how technology had elevated a man’s status at Nalongo’s Kafunda. This eye opener and probably a dent to my ego challenged me to think of better ways to vend my merchandise. I hence came across a Ugandan based online platform that allowed me to display my products and services for sale at no cost! 

This platform is an online marketplace that brings buyers and sellers together to achieve transactions either as individuals or businesses. It’s hence an e-prototype of our local katale (market). The online marketplace is none other than www.ekatale.com.

You probably may have heard of the legendary e-commerce websites EBay and Amazon or even transacted on them. The thought of shopping on these websites may send chills down the spine to some folks given the fact that a purchase requires submission of credit card or debit card details. This fear emanates from poor e-literacy that is also blamed for the lack of prevalence of e-commerce in Africa. E-commerce in Africa is however taking a course different from the global trend, one that should now be dubbed ‘African e-commerce’. This change in direction has well been depicted on the platform ekatale.com.

How to create your account

If space for a shop at a newly built mall in town was free and the only pre-requisite was ‘first come first served’? Please guess... That is the same scenario with this platform. It’s free of charge. All you need is to sign up by creating an account where it prompts you to fill in a username and password as well as a phone number. Once the account is up, you can then upload photos of your merchandise and services with a descriptive line or two for each which may or may not include prices. You then have to fill in your desired payment method which could be cash or mobile money. Most importantly you don’t need a debit or credit card to transact.  Finally, you are required to fill in a delivery channel. The big query is how will you benefit from such a set up? 

No set up costs

Setting up an up to date e-commerce website is no simple task. Today, you need no less than Ugsh2, 000,000 to put up a fully fledged e – commerce website. This amount is however not inclusive of maintenance costs. Ekatale.com will therefore be a perfect solution especially if you operate a small enterprise.

Little technical effort expended

Any webmaster will tell you that it’s highly crucial to have your website ranked by search engines like Google. This simply implies that whenever users search a keyword that is included in your site, a link from your website will appear among results on Google’s first page. The beauty about this website is that you don’t have to do all this.  The webmaster does it for you! At the end of the day you will benefit from the large audience that comes with the internet.

Make quick sales

How often have you wished that the car you imported last week was bought so that you probably import another? Sales are definitely the life blood to your cash flows. All you have to do now is get a camera with a good resolution, take several snapshots of that car, land, house for rent or sale and upload them on ekatale.com. Guess what? Your turnovers are bound to shoot a record high.  

Buy quality cheaply

Most sellers on the internet look at selling multiple products at low prices. Try picture a scenario where several shops that sell ladies handbags in Kampala were accessible from one huge mall, say, a mega mall... What would you expect? Well, of course a cheaper price. You will no longer have to walk to work... at least cost savings will suffice to pay for your transport to work.

I have just uploaded photos of some old romance novels on ekatale.com, who knows what I will brag about at Nalongo’s Kafunda this weekend? Something like, ‘Nkolela ku interneti, tewali ansinga’ (I work on the internet and am the best)