Technology

One Kiosk Africa Provides Channel for Local Stores & Users to Connect Online

Post By: November 8, 2020 0 Comment

One Kiosk Africa equally provides the retailers (stores) with sales data which enables them to get access to credit lines from partner financial institutions for expansion and growth

One Kiosk Africa is an eCommerce solution, headquartered in Lagos Nigeria which leverages Geo-location and machine learning to provide access to market and finance for local stores (95% informal retailers’ also known as pop and mum stores) by connecting local stores to online users based on location.

As a brand, the eCommerce store is stepping up its role within this pandemic season to provide a channel for local stores to connect with users online with no contact with the buyers via its site and in 4 simple steps can start selling right away;

Step 1: Create a vendor account
Step 2: Check your email- Click on the verification link and activate account
Step 3: Login and click on Create a Store for Admin to approve store or stores
Step 4: Once you get an approved store mail/notification, do proceed to upload products

The team has equally positioned a channel where verified individuals can earn this period and post Covid 19 by picking and delivering orders within their locations.

To get started, users need to do is click on become a Pro and provide their details with your location.

This is in addition to its recent partnerships with Gokada and Bolt to ensure smooth and timely deliveries of different sizes of products across Nigeria and Africa in the long term.

One Kiosk Africa equally helps her users stock up fresh groceries/foodstuffs and other household items directly from the popular Mile 12 market and other strategic markets/stores through her verified agents within the market.

All orders for the market list sourcing are done through its business WhatsApp channel- +2348087935609 and orders received before 2 pm GMT+1 receive same-day delivery.

One Kiosk prides herself in ensuring that all orders done via its platform are delivered within 59 minutes.

In a statement with the CEO; Adeshina Adewumi he says they do an average of 30 minutes for all deliveries done via her platform while market list deliveries are received same-day delivery for orders placed before 2 pm or within 24 hours for orders after 2 pm.

“We are confident that with a strategic partnership with different stakeholders at State and Federal levels across Nigeria, our solution could contribute in flattening the curve across Nigeria as we support both small business owners and users to get their products sold and home stocked up accordingly.
As part of our contribution in supporting palliatives for the underserved, we have been equally working with some NGOs to distribute free items in packs of N15,000 (approximately $37) sourced from our vendors and market and delivered directly to identified persons. In the week to come, we would be doing another batch of 1,000 identified person within the Alimosho axis of Lagos, Nigeria.” Adeshina added

Overview of One kiosk Africa

One Kiosk Africa’s goal is to disrupt the retail commerce space in Africa, creating jobs along the value chain and contributing towards the eradication of poverty in Africa.

Its vision is to become a Global leading E-commerce solution driving economic inclusive growth and job creation through technology.

Since the commencement of its pilot in July 2019 to date, the eCommerce platform has done over $50k in ARR.

With its upgraded WebApp the platform is currently onboarding over 14,000 merchants on its database.

One Kiosk Africa is actively addressing the Nigerian market. It commenced a pilot test in Lagos but will get to soon hit the Nigerian market.

The platform’s system has been deployed from day one to scale into any country with little or no much modifications.

As at today, any vendor from any part of the world can list on One Kiosk Africa.

The only issue would be around settlement since the platform as of now only accept settlement for Nigerian banks.

However, One Kiosk Africa looks forward to penetrating South Africa, Ghana, Egypt and Kenya within the next 3-5 years.

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Nigeria’s One Kiosk leverages geo-location to help local stores expand their horizons

Post By: November 7, 2020 0 Comment

Lagos-based retail-tech startup One Kiosk is leveraging geo-location and machine learning to connect owners of local stores with potential customers online.

Founded last year, One Kiosk targets informal retailers and “mom-and-pop stores”, helping them connect to online users based on location, and also providing them with sales data which enables them to access credit lines from partner financial institutions.

From a customers perspective, the platform allows users to find stores near them, search products, and make orders for delivery within an hour.

Led by chief executive officer (CEO) Adeshina Adewumi, the One Kiosk team combines experience from Stanbic IBTC, Andela and Proville, and hopes to become a leading e-commerce solution by targeting excluded areas of retail.

“The informal retail space has been left out of the value chain of e-commerce in Africa for too long,” Adewumi said.

“But previous e-commerce models did not fill the infrastructural gaps in Nigeria and Africa. This has led to the shutdown of most e-commerce solutions in the past.”

To address this issue, One Kiosk uses geo-location, which it combines with a zero inventory model since it has partnered with regular brick and mortar stores.

“This has helped us achieve more efficient turnaround time for delivery while also cancelling out pay on delivery – a death trap for most e-commerce solutions in Africa – since most of the stores are trusted stores already known by users who only want to enjoy convenience,” said Adewumi.

Since launching its pilot in July 2019, One Kiosk has onboarded over 14,000 merchants, and has seen US$50,000 worth of transactions pass through its platform.

Its pilot was focused on Lagos, but One Kiosk is now ready to expand across Nigeria.

“Our system has been deployed from day one to scale into any country with little modifications,” Adewumi said. “As of today any vendor from any part of the world can list on our platform. The only issue would be around settlement since we currently only accept settlement for Nigerian banks. We however look forward to penetrating South Africa, Ghana, Egypt and Kenya within the next 3-5 years.”

One Kiosk makes money through commissions on transactions that take place through its platform, but plans to charge for subscription to the system once it fully populates its merchant base.

“The merchants who wish to appear top based on each location they own a store would have to pay a premium monthly fee, in addition to other data we would provide them to position their stores and inventories,” said Adewumi.

Self-funded until now, the startup is in talks with a number of investors around funding now that it feels its model has been proven. Securing funding as an e-commerce platform will have been a significant achievement, Adewumi says, given most venture capital firms have a “stigma” towards e-commerce in general.

“Once they hear “e-commerce” they instantly block you off. However most VCs who at first refused to hear us have now begun to engage once they get to understand how this model works,” he said.

Source: Distrupt Africa

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Using the hyperlocal model, Lagos-based One Kiosk Africa plans to deliver your orders in an hour

Post By: November 7, 2020 0 Comment

When the likes of Jumia and Konga raised millions of dollars to go head-to-head, Nigeria’s eCommerce space looked ready to take off.

Years have passed and the hype has dwindled. Jumia, an ex-private Unicorn is now a $250 million public company while Konga is a Zinox Group subsidiary.

From infrastructural problems and logistics to an unready market and payment methods, most players in the space face a plethora of challenges.

Up to this point, issues around payment have been navigated with pay on delivery models. Also, logistics companies have spurred out, solving these players’ logistics problems, to an extent.

In light of this, Yinka Awosanya, an editor at Techpoint Africa, argued in this piece that eCommerce’s problem lies in market readiness and eCommerce startups might need to adopt a hyperlocal approach to achieve sustainability.

Adeshina Adewumi, co-founder and CEO of One Kiosk Africa, thinks so too.

Reaching a hyperlocal customer base in Lagos

In 2016, Adewumi left the bank where he worked. With Oluwatomisin Adewumi-John, he started Home Tutors Nigeria, an on-demand tutoring platform.

This period saw them frequently visit the Eko market, a popular market in Lagos, Nigeria. According to him, “that was the beginning of us discovering opportunities that later gave birth to One Kiosk Africa.”

In 2018 when different eCommerce players started struggling in the Nigerian market, Adewumi began exploring ways to find sustainable eCommerce models that could work in the country.

The research led them to examine how foreign companies like Instacart run. The US-based company operates a hyperlocal grocery delivery and pick-up service in over 5,000 cities.

Given the logistics gaps that make eCommerce difficult, Adewumi took a cue from Instacart’s hyperlocal approach.

“We stumbled on Instacart, Cornershop, and a few others. We decided this was a model that would work coupled with our experience connecting small businesses in Eko market online.”

In July 2019, One Kiosk Africa completed its registration. Using a one-page site with Google Forms to gauge users’ feedback, the company launched its pilot.

Fully launched, One Kiosk Africa is offering stores the option to connect with buyers locally.

The CEO explains with an analogy.

“Let’s imagine a busy working professional or a busy stay-at-home mum who wishes to stock up her home. She would have to go out, identify stores around her location, pick up items, queue to pay, and then bring them home.

However, with One Kiosk, she can shop from her neighbourhood store and be assured of delivery within 59 minutes.”

Adewumi says this provides timely delivery and convenience for buyers and access to the market for the local stores.

“This is what online shopping should do,” he adds.

In places like Ikeja, Lagos’ capital city, the eCommerce startup delivers products from popular stores like SPAR and Shoprite. However, partnering with the likes of Bolt and Gokada for delivery, its main focus is on the informal brick and mortar stores in these vicinities.

Positioning One Kiosk Africa for growth

Food and grocery items top the list of One Kiosk Africa’s hyperlocal delivery.

For the latter, cases exist where the items a customer wants are not accessible in grocery stores within that locality. To meet the needs of such customers, Adewumi says a ‘market list’ feature was designed.

“We have a market list via our WebApp where users can detail specific items. Items here range from foodstuff such as tomatoes, meat, pepper and groceries like milk, sugar, Milo, and cereals, among others. We deliver all items on the same day for all orders confirmed before 2 p.m.,” he says.

Adewumi affirms that based on a survey the startup recently carried out, the market list service has saved about 25% of users’ monthly spend when they go to the market themselves.

He goes on to say that over 4,000 paying users in Lagos make use of the hyperlocal shopping and market list services. “The merchants listed on the platform exceed 14,000,” he adds.

One Kiosk Africa runs a commission model with these merchants. For hyperlocal shopping, it earns 10% on any product ordered while collecting an average transaction fee of ₦2,750.00 ($7) for market list items.

Knowing that the commission might not suffice, the startup has plans to introduce a subscription model for merchants who wish to appear top in every region where they have a store.

With its current business model, it has been able to rake in over $200,000 in transactional value since July last year. Additionally, Adewumi says when the startup ended its pilot phase in December, it declared a $3,000 profit before tax.

“We operate a zero inventory eCommerce model, we do not do pay on delivery. So we have removed the increased issues around pay on delivery returns,” he says proudly of how his startup makes a profit in a loss-making market.

Scaling beyond Lagos and Nigeria

Like most startups, One Kiosk Africa started out self-funded. Not long after its pilot phase, it secured an angel investment from Niche Capital and Aptive Capital, a US-based VC firm where Adewumi is a partner.

According to him, there are plans to secure a funding round which would help scale across Lagos.]

As important as funding in a startup’s journey is finding the right talent, one area the startup has found challenging.

“So for us, getting very skilled people, especially the tech hands, to join our team and stay focused at the early stage was a bit of a challenge. Over time, we have gradually attracted the right talent despite not paying so much at the moment,” says the CEO.

Onboarding popular stores has also proven difficult. According to Adewumi, when pitching to these stores, they think of digitising their sales channels instead of working with the startup. However, he believes that as long as users keep increasing they will come around.

The eCommerce market in Nigeria remains nascent and players have begun to create a niche for themselves, preparing for a ready market. For One Kiosk Africa, Adewumi believes if his startup is able to engage the informal retail players to adopt online models, “then the mass market is ours.”

While bringing them online, he intends to help them connect to financial partners that can use their sales data to grant them access to credit for expansion.

As that happens, the CEO says One Kiosk Africa will deepen its presence in Nigeria within the next 12 months. After that, the goal is to get into Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt over the next five years.

 

Source: Techpoint Africa

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