Digital Lead of Pop Out, Maximus Ametorgoh has outlined a few things entrepreneurs must pay attention to before starting a business online.
The use of technology and digital means has been on the rise for years now. During this coronavirus pandemic, many businesses have moved to online platforms to stay relevant and survive.
On the Citi Business Festival E-commerce virtual forum on Tuesday, Mr. Ametorgoh gave six points business owners must put into consideration if they want to do business virtually.
Customer – The focus always has to be on the customer. If you are able to do proper profiling on your customers, you’ll be able to know what they want, where they spend most of their time, where they live, what their technology survey is, and what kind of social media presence they have. This would help you shape the context in which you advertise your product.
Product quality – Entrepreneurs must consider which product that the customers are interested in and want to buy. What is the digital skill of your target audience? Can they access online channels? If they are on social media, how do you position your product in their faces so they can easily make decisions? After they buy your product, can they become advocates of your products?
Pricing model – Usually people would want to go for deals on online channels. If I walk into a shop and the product is GHS50 and I go on the online platform and it’s the same price and you want me to pay for delivery and all that, I’m most likely going to walk to the physical shop and have a physical experience with the product before I make a purchasing decision. The pricing model is very important so that when I buy things online and have it delivered to me, it should not be more expensive than me going to the physical shop to make purchases.
Payment – Do people have payment options? Is your platform able to allow all the options, cards, mobile money, etc? What is happening in Ghana currently is people having social media presence on Facebook and Instagram then when people request to buy their products, they ask them to send them mobile money to pay. Then the next thing is they are sending a courier company to have the product delivered to the buyer. So there’s an emergence of social-mobile money-delivery, which is happening and this needs to be optimized.
Government – What is the policy driving e-commerce in Ghana? We need to have that so that anyone creating an online presence knows that government has a policy guiding that the buyer knows that there’s a protocol guiding all the online transactions.
Policing – How do we police the platform because a lot of people complain about fraud? People order for a product and someone defrauds them. People order for a pink shoe and they get a black shoe delivered to them. How do we make sure we avoid fraud and crime?
About Citi Business Festival
The 2020 edition of the Citi Business Festival started on Monday, June 1, 2020, with a line-up of radio and TV programs. It will feature virtual business forums and will be live on Citi TV.
The month-long festival of business events and on-air activities provides inspiration, business ideas, and information for persons who are starting, building or growing their businesses.
This year’s edition of the Citi Business Festival is sponsored by Absa Bank, GIPC, Citi 97.3FM and powered by the most comprehensive business news website, citibusinessnews.com.
