No… No… guys why bother going online. at least not yet. What is the greatest assets that Nakumatt that no other vendor or third party can do a) can give great discounts b) have data on all your spending habits.. contacts.. basically a profile of you from the smart card. The strategy STEP 1: Personalized Discounts. If you profile my spending items and know the one item that i spend on constantly (habit of buying) and give it to me at discount… you have a winner. How to do it Send me an SMS a personalized SMS with the discounted item that is of value to me.. explain that due to tough economic times you love me.. e.g. "Dear Mugambi, We are giving only you a special price for Diapers from Ksh 650 to Ksh 600. Simply present your smart card when checking out to get the discount. Thank you for being a valued customer".. I can tell you i will jump from my seat and buy the diapers and other items in Nakumatt, and even tell my friends how i get special discount. Think about it. this are tough economic times. How many Kenyans rushed to Kobil on Tuesdays and Fridays because fuel was Ksh 2/= less. That is less than 2% Discount. How much resource will it take to create such a system.. very little.. STEP 2: Personalized URL - Everyone thinks they are important and special. i am not a "kawaida" mwananchi Once I am baited to the SMS discount item, i begin to want more control of the particular items i would like discounted. Nakumatt then creates a specialized page with my discounted items (which they profile). from there i can have control to choose at least 2 items out of 20 to which i get discount. In addition i get exclusive access to other promotions based on my profile and my net worth. all it take is to alert me of the page to select my items. e.g http://www.nakumatt.co.ke/@mugambi The result of the above strategy is that you would increase your revenue and data on consumers. Thats how i would do it if i were nakumatt. MK On Thursday, November 24, 2011, Mugambi Kimathi wrote:
Interesting Article..
in my "opinion" the reason as to why m and e commerce in Kenya is closing shop is that it has not evolved. instead we all jump to online businesses without solid brick and mortar businesses. IMHO kalahari should have been started by the likes of Nakumatt. They can give great discount and know the market well, heck… they even know their customer habits from the smart card. surly the can offer me a product they know i always buy at great discount.
I blame the OverHYPE of Online and Mobile Business. Just because we are techies doesn't mean everyone is a techie.
My theory on how to be successful online in Kenya.
First build a "factory" (business that generates cash) understand it then move processes to an online business.. slowly pushing your customers to online.
It may take a while before you move from brick and mortar -to- hybrid -to- online thats why you will always need the factory to be running.
question for online classifieds ads:-
a) do we actually do Market Research to see if they work. What do people want.
b) How much is the return on investment. i.e. How long shall you keep running before you get tired of taking photos of cars?
c) Yes you have simplified the process but have lessened the the shopping experience. (Smell, Taste, Feel)
MK
On Thursday, November 24, 2011, aki wrote:
On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 7:08 AM, Mbugua Njihia <mbugua@symbiotic.co.ke>wrote:
The recent closure of Kalahari locally and in other African markets put into sharp focus the current state of m and e commerce in Kenya. A number of conversations I had in the past week pointed to the need for a service that “breaks the ice” for consumers to appreciate buying and selling of goods online and on mobile. The service of choice was seen as classifieds. ****
A simple search for classifieds online will bring a whole list of providers, with all, more often than not calling themselves the number one destination. Cutting to the chase, let us look at those I consider major players and what they may or may not be doing right. - bit.ly/u4aeBk****
@Njihia. A very nice and balanced article :-) I like the use of words "scraping", this is a real problem I faced early on, on the site I ocassionaly maintain. I had to block static ip addresses just to get around such content use abuses. For those who want to know the reality of online business, it requires a 100% commitment to such a project but financially the returns in our market are not worth the turnovers unless you are ready to put in a 3-5 year plan. How DealFish is going to pull through such remains to be seen, I'd still ask computer programmers to ensure that Nation and Standard media have the latest technology methods available to them to be effectively competitive.
Enjoyed reading your article.
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**--If I ever wrote code on a system for the better of consumer freedoms or choice, I'd rather create the complete system with people who share the same views than give out a single line of code to code thieves who will use it to defeat the principles of freedom and choices---2011--Me--**