Online shopping here to stay

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Online shopping here to stay - Whats your strategy?

Without a doubt, not only is online shopping here to stay, but before much longer it would most likely replace the huge brick-and-mortar shopping stores as the most favored method of shopping. In the world today, the number of sites selling merchandise online has greatly increased. 

 

Basically you can get anything from toys, jewellery, beauty care products, to cars delivered at your door step without your having to stir from the house. These platforms are highly utilized in the more developed nations, where sites like eBay, Amazon, and Craigslist are some of the most popular portals for online shopping.
In sub-Saharan Africa, and Kenya in particular, penetration of the internet is gaining ground at an astonishingly high rate, and in the process increasing the ways of using the internet. The highest traffic on internet usage primarily is the social media sites, which have fueled the online shopping frenzy in the country.

So what exactly is a virtual supermarket? A virtual supermarket is a kind of web-based platform where different goods and services have been catalogued, and short-listed in a digital format. The catalogues are in picture format, and in some cases video format, where the item and its properties are showcased.

Access to an online supermarket will usually require one to create an account on the website so that billing information of the user can be registered automatically. This makes the website secure, and at the same time helps the trader to assess and identify the consumer tastes and preferences. When the shopper logs in, he has the option to shop and add things to a shopping cart or basket, and check out after making payment.

Personally, when I first heard about that concept,the first thought that struck me that this concept must be from some developed western nation. On the contrary, right here in Kenya, supermarkets that started out having brick-and-mortar stores and malls are now branching out to virtual stores.

Leading the pack is the popular Ukwalla Supermarket that has developed a comprehensive virtual shopping experience for its customers. The store offers a complete range of commodities from kitchen utensils to groceries, and from stationery to electronics, with tabs showing you the available offers and discounts.

The striking difference that one can immediately see about the Kenyan online platform is the use of mobile money transfer services, instead of the usual online payment platforms like Paypal. This is due to the fact that Kenyan mobile money transactions have won the confidence of the consumer, while the unfamiliar ones remain are not popular with most shoppers.

Success of online shopping in the country has been to the contribution by a variety of factors, one being that Kenya has to some extent a degree of stable and reliable internet connectivity, and a relatively high technology proficiency and penetration level. The other reason and an important one at that, is that the industry regulators have to ensure upholding of the policy that makes online transactions a safe bet. Safety is the key that builds the confidence of the consumer to perform an online transaction.

Get yourself an online account and try the virtual shopping experience and and you can be sure that you would never have the need to get up from your lounge. 
kuzabiashara Limited  will definitely give you a heads up.

Safaricom takes on banks with micro-loans product

 (Source- Business daily)

Safaricom’s foray into the financial services market is expected to deepen on Tuesday morning with the launch of a mobile banking service that allows users of its revolutionary M-Pesa platform to save and borrow money using their phones.

The service, which mainly targets micro-savers and borrowers, requires users to open a mobile bank account, M-Shwari , into which they can deposit as low as Sh1 in savings and borrow up to Sh100,000 payable with a one-off interest rate of 7.5 per cent.

All loans are payable within a month of disbursement.

People familiar with the product told the Business Daily that deposits in M-Shwari accounts will earn a graduated interest up to a maximum of five per cent per annum.

Safaricom is offering the service in collaboration with Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), which has been the primary banker for M-Pesa, Safaricom’s mobile money platform.

Users of the mobile banking service will remotely open the M-Shwari account by simply clicking on their phones. This will spare them the pain of filling application forms as happens with traditional banking.

“It is simple. There are no ledger fees, no limits on the frequency of withdrawals, no minimum operating balance and no charges on deposits for M-Pesa to M-Shwari account,” said Bob Collymore, the Safaricom chief executive officer.

Safaricom is positioning M-Shwari as a groundbreaking financial service that promotes a culture of saving among ordinary Kenyans and allows those with no collateral to access loans through their mobile phones.

Mobile money enthusiasts declared the service another revolutionary product with the potential of taking the ongoing convergence between telecoms and banking sectors higher but critics warned of the dangers that lie in the high interest rates and the one-month loan term.

The M-Shwari service is designed to act as a rudimentary credit facility for those who have been locked out of the loans market for lack of collateral and credit history.

“M-Shwari will attract a one-time facilitation fee (read interest rate) of 7.5 per cent of the borrowed amount,” Safaricom said in a statement.

Though the 7.5 per cent interest looks competitive compared to interest charged on commercial bank loans, that advantage is severely eroded by the one-month lending period that will mostly require borrowers to pay a lump sum amount to settle the debt compared to smaller monthly instalments paid by those who borrow from commercial bank.

For instance, a loan of Sh100,000 from the mobile bank account would attract a Sh7,500 interest charge, which means that the borrower pays back Sh107,500 within 30 days, including the principal.

A similar bank loan attracting interest at the current average rate of 20 per cent, would be repaid at the rate of between Sh9,150 and Sh9,200 per month for a year on reducing balance.

This would translate to an interest burden of Sh11,161 spread over 12 months – compared to Safaricom’s Sh7,500 interest payable in a month.

Safaricom is relying on the spending patterns of its customers, traceable from their airtime top-ups and M-Pesa transactions to determine the creditworthiness of subscribers.

Credit evaluation experts see this as giving the telecoms firm an edge over banks, especially with regard to target market that is mainly made up of informal sector operators who have been unable to secure loans for lack of cashflow statements, payslips and collateral.

To qualify for an M-Shwari loan, one needs to be an M-Pesa subscriber for at least six months, deposit some savings in their M-Shwari account and be a regular user of other Safaricom services such as voice, data and M-Pesa.

And to open an M-Shwari account, consumers will go to the Safaricom menu in their phones, select “M-Pesa”, go to “My Account”, “Update Menu”, enter “M-Pesa PIN” and wait to receive the updated M-Pesa menu.

Commercial Bank of Africa is hoping to hook a large segment of Safaricom’s 19 million subscriber base to M-Shwari as well as the telecom firm’s network of 47,000 distribution agents to deliver the service.

It is estimated that more than Sh300 billion of money in circulation in Kenya is outside the formal banking system and M-Shwari is designed to bring some of that money into the formal banking channels by targeting the 12 million Kenyans identified by the Central Bank of Kenya and the Kenya Bureau of Statistics as unbanked.

Safaricom launched a similar service with Equity Bank in May 2010 but the initiative collapsed a few months later amid reports of disagreements over fees and revenue sharing.

It also comes just six months after Airtel launched its credit-over-the-mobile service offer, targeting commercial banks’ core lending business at the lower end of the market. Airtel’s loans are capped at Sh10,000 and are issued in partnership with Faulu Kenya, a micro-financier.

The partnership between Safaricom and CBA comes after last week’s release of Central Bank of Kenya data showing that Kenyans transferred Sh1.117 trillion through their mobile phones, helped by the interface between banks and cash transfer services of telephone firms.

The value of all economic activities in Kenya — or the Gross Domestic Product — was Sh3.7 trillion last year.

CBK said the increase in mobile money transfers was being fuelled by the high number of consumers moving money into and from their bank accounts using mobile phones.

Kenya’s six biggest banks have established mobile banking platforms that allow consumers to access their accounts through their phones.

Kenya’s mobile phone operators first rattled the banks with money transfer services five years ago, forcing the lenders to form partnerships with the telecom operators for a share of the fees charged on the multi-billion-shilling domestic transfers.

The direct entry of Safaricom into the lending market is expected to lift its earnings from M-Pesa, which was introduced as a money transfer tool but has evolved into a utility bills payment and credit service.

Daily M-Pesa transactions stand at two million and are valued at Sh2 billion. M-Pesa users now stand at 15.2 million, having grown from 52,452 at its launch in April 2007.

Revenues from the service rose 32 per cent to Sh10.4 billion in the first half of the year ended September 30, making it a critical growth area compared to the voice business, which has been hit by a vicious price war.

M-Pesa’s contribution to Safaricom’s total revenue rose to 18.6 per cent from 17.1 per cent, with Safaricom’s parent company, Vodafone, set to take the service global by signing more partnerships in multiple markets.

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Safaricom-takes-on-banks-with-micro-loans-product-/-/539552/1629894/-/item/2/-/kkxxo0z/-/index.html 

I had no idea of this ITU is until now.

Internet sanctions? Whats your take?

On the 3^rd of December, 2012 The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), branch of the UN, will be meeting to discuss an outdated communications treaty. This meeting that will take place behind closed doors could threaten our very freedom and our ability to connect with others throughout the rest of the world. Our Internet should be open and inclusive not threatened with censorship that could stifle innovation!

“Contrary to some of the sensationalist claims in the press,” ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré shot back in a speech last week at Columbia University, “WCIT is definitively not about taking control of the Internet or restricting people’s freedom of expression or freedom of speech.”

Despite Dr. Touré’s reassurances, however, claims that the WCIT is being hijacked are hardly sensational–nor are they being raised by “the press.”  Rather, a remarkably broad coalition of governments in both developed and developing nations, advocacy groups on the left and the right, and leading international Internet engineering groups have all been sounding the alarm.

http://www.empowernetwork.com

Make Your Voice Heard by December 3rd – Support the Freedom of the Internet

What's at stake?

On the 3rd of Dec, Something is going to happen.

 A free and open world depends on a free and open Internet

 The Internet empowers everyone — anyone can speak, create, learn, and share. It is controlled by no one — no single organization, individual, or government. It connects the world. Today, more than two billion people are online — about a third of the planet.

But not all governments support the free and open Internet. 

There is a growing backlash on Internet freedom. Forty-two countries filter and censor content. In just the last two years, governments have enacted 19 new laws threatening online free expression.

 Some of these governments are trying to use a closed-door meeting in December to regulate the Internet.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is bringing together regulators from around the world to re-negotiate a decades-old communications treaty.

Proposed changes to the treaty could increase censorship and threaten innovation.

Some proposals could permit governments to censor legitimate speech — or even allow them to cut off Internet access.

Other proposals would require services like YouTube, Facebook, and Skype to pay new tolls in order to reach people across borders. This could limit access to information — particularly in emerging markets.

The ITU is the wrong place to make decisions about the future of the Internet.

Only governments have a voice at the ITU. This includes governments that do not support a free and open Internet. Engineers, companies, and people that build and use the web have no vote.

You have to stop this!!!

The ITU is also secretive. The treaty conference and proposals are confidential.

Internet policy should work like the Internet — open and inclusive.

Governments alone should not determine the future of the Internet. The billions of people around the globe that use the Internet, and the experts that build and maintain it, should be included.

For example, at the Internet Governance Forum, anyone can attend and anyone can speak — a government official has the same influence as an individual.

People around the world are standing up for freedom.

Users, experts and organizations from around the world have voiced their opposition to governments regulating the Internet through the ITU.

Add your voice in support of the free and open Internet: 

“A free and open world depends on a free and open Internet. Governments alone, working behind closed doors, should not direct its future. The billions of people around the globe who use the Internet should have a voice.”

 http://www.empowernetwork.com/emdumas/blog/free-and-open-internet/?id=emdumas

Making the best use of You Tube

Know, Experience and grow your biz.

You Tube is the currently second biggest search engine owned by Google which is the first biggest search engine in the world. Pound for pound there is no comparison between the two but make no mistake You Tube remains as the most powerful tool for promoting your business, charity or non-profit organization as well as getting your message to the right people.

From personal experience, I understand how good You Tube is especially for practically researching on anything. On YouTube, there are good films out there that can help you get your head round so many things both big things and little things.

To quote a personal example recently, I wanted to update my blog on HTML. I took the first step with the little knowledge I had, went round and round trying to fix flash on the header in vain impossible.

After a several minutes of exhausting activity I was definitely getting nowhere and that’s when my colleagues suggested that I use Google it. I pooh-poohed the idea and got even hotter and more disturbed until when I eventually gave up and asked her to try Google on my behalf.

Within seconds she found a clip on You Tube which demonstrated how to get that flashing header on the blog using HTML. So the message here is, whenever in doubt try You Tube.

Well for the moment at least it is pretty easy with the right kind of tagging. Today I look forward to doing a short video on how to use social media as a marketing tool, an You Tube is my channel of transmission.

The result is that his film has rocketed up the pages and is now taking pride of place just below the paid for positions. It is not like SEO - a mystical process akin to shoveling fog into the back of a lorry, it does not take months to see the benefits. The progress only took minutes and it really isn’t that difficult. So if you want to get ahead of the game on You Tube while you still can - give me a call.

And going back to the pop-up, why were there no instructions for getting it back in the bag

TIPS FOR BUSINESS GROWTH.: Fresh and Relevant Content is the Holy Grail of Online Marketing

TIPS FOR BUSINESS GROWTH.: Fresh and Relevant Content is the Holy Grail of Online Marketing

Fresh and Relevant Content is the Holy Grail of Online Marketing

Content is king for SEO. You need to consider this

Quality content can establish your brand as a trusted source of information and position you as a thought leader for your industry.

It will get indexed by the search engines and bring through relevant visitors who will in turn share it via social media networks or linking to your site.

That is pretty much the ‘holy grail’ as far as online marketing is concerned and therefore worth looking at in more detail.

Indexed by the search engines – there is a little bit more to this than just content – first, you must have a website that is well structured and allows spiders and bots to ‘crawl’ the site and provide them with a sitemap – but then it’s more or less down to ‘content’.

Share via social media – let’s face it unless you are Safaricom or Kuzabiashara no-one is really interested in what you had for breakfast and after a while it is like being at a 24/7 dinner party where you are expected to be interesting and sparkle.

Fresh and interesting content allows you to post links to Twitter, Facebook andLinkedIn which can then take people back to your website, it also allows other people to share links to your site and amplify it to their contacts and networks.

Linking to your website (backlinks)

A backlink is a link that is directed towards your website and Google uses the number and quality of sites that link to your sites to attribute a PageRank to your site. PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Google co-founder Larry Page that assigns a numerical weighting to a web page.

A link from another site to yours counts as a vote of support and the more authoritative that page the greater the value – so a link to your site from the Safaricom, a university or a government site will be much more valuable than a link from an ordinary Jack.

A page that is linked to by many pages with high PageRank receives a high rank itself although the Google algorithm takes into account many factors it is a high PageRank that gives a site a good reputation.

So in the proverbial nut shell decent, relevant fresh content is a must have for anyone serious about search engine marketing.

If you think I can help you increase your website viewership or with SEO content development, then get in touch – isaac.nasongo86@gmail.com/ twitter@Izo_oo

Additional inputs from _ www.freshbusinessthinking.co.