It’s Friday and your best friend’s birthday is set to go down over the weekend. Saturday to be specific and you have done most of the planning except one little thing - buying them a gift.
You have been meaning to go out and buy one but work has been tedious with deadlines to meet, strategy meetings to attend and reports to submit.
Now it’s 5 PM and your options of salvaging the situation are running out. What do you do?
This kind of thinking is exactly what Safaricom had in mind when they were coming up with Masoko, their latest platform hell bent on revolutionizing online shopping.
They envisioned that there would come a time when you’d pushed to a corner and you would need a trusted partner to help you sail through. A platform that would grant you access to an array of quality products from the convenience of your phone and with fast, safe and secure payment methods.
Their mission was to build an E-commerce brand that will be trusted, loved and embraced by consumers and that would premise itself on the equity of its mother brand, Safaricom.
The company’s aim all along has been to transform lives which they have done over the years and will continue to do. With the recent growth in mobile and fixed data penetration, the world has become a global village and online shopping is gaining prominence in this whole transformation.
Masoko is positioning itself to be at the heartbeat of all this in Kenya and the greater sub Saharan region. It is an ideal platform to connect people to new markets using mobile technology and at the same time give merchants/vendors access to new frontiers of growth to sell their product and/or service offerings.
That’s why you no longer have to worry about that birthday gift or christmas which is just around the corner. Your weekends also don’t have to be spent in long queues in shopping malls as you can do all your shopping from the convenience of your home and have it delivered to your doorstep.
Masoko also promises convenience and variety and already has 300 merchants on board.
[caption caption="A screenshot of the Masoko website"]
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And the platform is pretty easy to use. All you will be required to do is create an account on the site after which you can start shopping from the catalogue of goods on offer.
Once you have completed your selection, you will then be asked to enter a shipping address, choose a shipping method, and pay for the order using either mobile money (M-PESA or others) or via your Visa or MasterCard.
For delivery of orders, the platform has partnered with Wells Fargo and Sendy who offer two options - Standard (1-3 days) and Express (up to 24 hours). You probably need the Express option if don’t want to disappoint your best friend.
As for those looking to be vendors, businesses and individuals can sign up for free via an online form on the platform – www.masoko.com/start-selling, or send an email to sell@Masoko.com and Masoko will reach out to you.
