Artienex, is a Zimbabwe-based startup, which has recently launched a new platform designed to help informal traders reach out to the masses online for new customers.
All a trader needs to do, is to go online on www.artienex.com, open an account, list whichever item they are selling at a fixed price or choose to sell it via online auction. Then let the platform do the marketing for them.
Artienex in return charges the traders a $0.50 commission on every sale they make via the e-commerce platform. The people behind this startup were motivated into venturing into e-commerce because Zimbabwe as a country has very little platforms on that front. Meaning a lot of the traders still rely on the brick-and-mortar formation market to find buyers.
Clearly, they (the traders) are missing out on the convenience and cost-effectiveness of selling their items online. The same can be said about the end consumers who simply have to take out their mobile device or sit in front of a computer, and at a click of a button or tap on their mobile screen make a purchase.
One of the co-founders, Artwell Kamanga during an interview with a section of the media said Artienex is currently lobbying various leading supermarkets to enlist in the program. That way, Zimbabweans could shop from some of the popular local supermarket online.
“At the moment, the website only serves Zimbabwe but there are some strategic plans to extend this to the rest of southern Africa, particularly South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Mozambique,” said Kamanga.