Every company needs innovation. It’s not only essential to make the business develops, but also to have a powerful mindset in facing competition. The very assumption of a startup is according to innovative, new ideas as well as a transformation and liability. That’s the reason why a company should have a special connection with innovation.

Nonetheless, it is essential to realize that there are risks in developing innovation for startups and judi online businesses. So, in our article today, you will know our best tips to innovate for business and startups. Let’s check it out!

1. Thorough research

You should do the process of research and development thoroughly. Have a considerable time to submerge yourself in the marketing world that your company involves. You should be aware of the needs of the audience and who you want to target. Our suggestion is to step your awareness up to anticipate the consumers’ needs without they notice they need it. Don’t forget to reevaluate your research.

2. Do evaluation objectively

It is essential to evaluate your ideas thoroughly with an objective point of view. If you’re too assuage to the narrative behind your plans, you’ll be underestimating the potential to grow. So, to avoid this kind of thing, you need to approach some suggestions objectively and critically to get the best one to save the company’s budget and your time.

3. Know that investment isn’t only about idea and money

The vast majority of business and startups needs onboarding investors. They don’t only invest ideas and money, but also people. You need to think about a bigger vision when you get a good idea. Investors don’t only need proof when you can generate the plans but also wait for your victorious innovation. It is about you and the business to grow and drive triumph. Bring your confidence to show to your investors that you’re ready to implement a solid execution to make the goal achieved.

4. Practice in selling

No matter how good your idea is, you need to be able to make pitching ideas. Have a mindset that you can be successful in selling it so the process will be fruitful and smooth. The best way to practice your selling skill can be in front of your colleagues. Get feedback from them whether you can convince them or not before you start selling the outside world.

5. Implement an innovation culture

The spirit of entrepreneurial was born in such an innovation culture in business or startups. The workplace that has this kind of culture will bring the team to deliver the expectation. A management strategy of successful innovation can be a little bit easy to reach when an innovation culture exists. Some of the ways are by giving the employees a safe space and free reign to be creative. Hang a motto poster in the office that it’s okay to fail. Don’t be scared to challenge and risk.

The hype of the online marketplace, started by eBay, has become an ultimate market venue for small businesses. The perks of marketplaces have grown all over the world, including Africa. The infrastructure of internet access is getting better, so more Africans have better access to go online. The internet makes it easier for people in Africa to buy things or services from the marketplace. Even though the growth of the marketplace in Africa is not as big as in other countries, but it shows a significant difference from time to time.

With the growing rate of the marketplace in Africa, it is getting hard to get standout in the online https://165.22.99.18 crowd. If you aim to sell things or services in the African marketplace, here are some good tips to start and make your store stand out in the crowd.

Choose the right marketplace

With easier access to the internet, the marketplace becomes another sector that also grows significantly. There are lots of marketplaces that dominate African online retail. You will find different marketplaces in different countries all over Africa with various goods and services to sell. To start selling in Africa, you need to choose the right marketplace where your goods or services will be listed on the site. Each marketplace has a different target market, so make sure you have understood your target market and customers before entering a marketplace.

Know your products

Assuming that you already have the right products or services to offer in the marketplace, and then you need to identify the target customers. This includes the region (such as East Africa, West Africa, South Africa) and also the country. You will need to understand the consumption pattern, buying behavior, competitive pressure, and also standard prices in each region and country. If needed, you can also start selling with the help of the local community who have a strong local presence to help market your products.

Make the products standout

With the rising of the marketplace in Africa, it can be a little bit difficult to stand in the crowd. If you want to have a better online presence, you will need to take great and unique photos of the products. Find your aesthetic photography style to make your product appear unique and different from others.

To help build your brand, you also need to share a story about why you start the online business, the owner’s inspiration, and also brand values. This may not need for all products, but if you are selling vintage goods, antiques and fine arts, and so on.

Know and get involved in the community

To increase recognisability and popularity, it is important to get to know and involve in the community. You need to build an online community in the marketplace, reply to comments, and also interact with customers and other sellers. Some marketplace offers a feature to build an online community, but you can also use social media. Engage with people who use your products on social media to show.

Over time, technology and the internet have developed and become one of the tools / media used for various purposes. One example of the use of technology complemented by the benefits of the internet is e-commerce. E-commerce is actually a set of trading activity that is done using the internet. Some examples of companies that adopt an e-commerce system are eBay, Yahoo, Amazon.com, Google, and Paypal.

The development of e-commerce has spread to various countries, such as the United States and several countries in Africa. The growth of e-commerce in African countries, especially Africa, has grown rapidly with the number of internet users reaching 88.1 million. The value of transactions that have been carried out by the people of Africa reaches USD 130 trillion.

Based on data from a research institute

the African e-commerce market will increase and be higher than other African countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Some examples of companies that have become “giants” in the world of African e-commerce are Lazada, Zalora, Berrybenka, Tokopedia, and many more. These companies have successfully exploited opportunities in Africa’s rising e-commerce market.

From 2010 to 2020

The opportunities for e-commerce sales have increased every year. Which indicates that the development of e-commerce in Africa shows positive things.

As the e-commerce market develops rapidly

there are also Africans who have not used the facilities and conveniences provided by e-commerce provider companies for the following reasons.

1. Low penetration of debit and credit cards

Of the total population of Africa, more than 40% of the population has a bank account that is connected to a credit or debit card. Whereas when compared to ownership of a mobile phone which reaches 85% of the total population of Africa, the debit or credit card penetration rate is still low. With these limited payment methods, there are still Africans who have not used e-commerce facilities.

2. Distrust

For people who already have credit cards, the obstacle they have is distrust. 60% of Africans are still afraid to give their credit card information on the internet to shop online. More than any other country in the world. However, this can be improved in many ways one of which is by developing a more secure system that will ensure the transaction is safe.

In conclusion, it can be said that the development of the e-commerce market in Africa is quite rapid. But there are still some obstacles that African people have in using e-commerce facilities.

Even so, the growth of e-commerce in Africa is considered to be continuing. This is due to the possibility of investment from other countries that will help build the existing growth. So, the current e-commerce market in Africa is not a steady condition which will remain the same for a long time. However, of course there will be various dynamics in the future that can be used as opportunities for entrepreneurs in Africa.

Online marketplaces have become the global trends that have existed in almost all countries. Despite the negative sides of online marketplaces, they still have numerous of benefits being offered for the people. Increase the economical growth is one of the main reasons of why online marketplaces are growing rapidly in many counyries, including in Africa countries.

1. Create a lot of new jobs for Africans

The rapid expansion of online marketplace in Africa is negligible. Now people from remote areas are also able to buy the products from city market easily. On the other hand, they can also sell their products to the people in the city. This active supply and demand situation through marketplace, will make the assets become more productive for all people.

The active online marketplaces will create up to 3 million new jobs for Africans. The new jobs available for most Africans are Logistic providers, delivery drivers, technicians and staff at the online marketplace company, micro and small – owned company by the local people. Therefore, these new style businesses will boost African economies.

2. Offer new opportunities for people

When we talk about the existance of online marketplace, we find that online marketplaces are able to help people to develop their skills and thus opportunities either. Unskilled labors who tend to easily lost their jobs, are now having another options to earn more money for their lives.

All people, whether they are men or women, have the same opportunity to earn money by selling products on marketplace. People who create homemade products and don’t have enough resource to promote the products through regular TV channel, now gain the same opprotunities to introduce their products to the bigger market.

3. Improved Efficiency in Market Transaction

Based on what have happened in many countries where e – commerce and dadu online marketplace have penetrated, these countries showed the improvement in market efficiency. Online marketplaces are able to cut off some intermediaries in conventional transactions. Thus merchants are able to sell their products directly to the consumers.

This ability is very beneficial in most developing countries in the world, especially in Africa, they face the distribution goods problem. In several African countries, most of conventional retail channels are remain underdeveloped.

4. More transparent information about the products

This is the advantage of transactions by online. Every people have the rights to access the information publicly about the products. As the buyers, you can easily get information about the quality of the products by reading the reviews from other consumers.

5. Increased Supply

Online marketplace main advantage is making new and easier ways to reach the customers. The same goes for the customers or producers where they can get suitable information about the supplier of the products they need. Therefore, online marketplaces play a role as the bridges for people who have the products or services with people who need them.

Online marketplace is a space in which businesses gather in one highly accessible platform for the prospective customers. In current era when the internet becomes an essential part of human life, the role of online marketplace in economic sector cannot be undermined any longer. An online marketplace provides some advantages that traditional market does not. For instance, it enables small businesses to reach bigger target market. It is because these businesses can advertise their products at lower cost through the automated system. Customers will be able to find products that they need only in one platform instead of having to access multiple platforms.

In Africa

the online marketplace realm is growing rapidly as it is in other parts of the world. It even thrives in areas that are remote. The technology has reached even some of the most hidden communities. In the places where the people are unable to access certain products, online marketplace is very helpful. These people will be able to obtain goods easier without having to go to other places far from their locations. Of course, there are still some issues with delivery because Africa is really vast and in some parts, the infrastructures are not well developed.

To deal with such situation

online marketplace must provide easy methods of correspondence to accommodate their bola 88 target market. Good correspondence system will improve the customers’ experiences in the marketplace. The chance for them to re-utilize the marketplace for their bidding will be increased exponentially. It actually supports the economic system greatly because the economy depends on how active the market is.

The most ideal correspondence would be utilizing live chat system. This type of correspondence enables customers to contact the platform and receive immediate response to their shopping issues. However, this system certainly requires plenty of resources to develop. The marketplace needs to find experienced customer service team that can handle varied ranges of customers. Its platform system also needs to prepare big size data storage space. There are also conditions in which the platform’s chatting feature does not have friendly interface. At the end, users are not likely to use difficult chatting system for correspondence.

Another method of correspondence that can be used is by ticket

It means that the customers will fill in form to submit their problems to the customer support team. This method is simpler because the customer support has more lax time constraint in answering these reports. However, in some cases, the ticket form is often only accessible from computer desktop. This is certainly difficult because not all people have desktop computer or laptop. Thus, the marketplace must work to provide mobile friendly customer support interface for its customers.

Traditional correspondence method like phone call should not be disregarded either. It is important to still provide this mode because some people might not be savvy with technology, particularly the older generations.

The economic growth trends in Sub – Sahara Africa have attracted many businesses to take a role in this continent’s market potential. Since the digital technology is growing fast worldwide, online transactions become one of the new lifestyle not only for Western people, but also Africans.

Online marketplaces expansion in Africa, although their existances are not as many as in the other developing countries. But they are projected to have potential growth in the future.

The Role of Advertising to Consumer Behavior

Some studies show that advertising products in several Africa countries have significant impact to rise certain brand awareness. In order to make the advertising efforts from companies to be successful the companies have to implement right strategies.

The Condition of Internet Penetration and Its Impact toward Marketplace Businesses

Like most of the developing countries, Africa still has to deal with the lack of internet access. The average percentage number of people in Africa who have already some form of internet access is only 40% and it is dominated from urban parts of Africa.

Kenya is the country in Africa that has highest internet accessibility with more than 80% people who live in the cities already have access toward internet. Meanwhile, the number will drop significantly when people from rural areas of Africa take into account.

The group of people in Africa who have internet access is dominated by higher household income. Although there are still many poor people get the ways to connect to the internet.

Up to 90% of Africans who have access to internet are using smartphone as their devices. The type of connections are mostly 3G network. Therefore, companies who want to develop their online marketplaces here, need to consider the speed of 3G connections toward their website and e – commerce design.

Consumer Behavior in Africa

Millenials are the group of people in Africa who actively using the internet. Almost three – quarters of internet users in several Africa countries such as Uganda and Algeria are dominated by young generations. Therefore, the emerging growth of e – commerces in Africa are targeting young generation.

But, most of these youngsters are using internet to get information about the products they want to shop offline. For example, if they want to shop certain footwear, they will look for the price information and product specifications first through internet before going to the retail stores.

Most Africans prefer to shop in traditional retail channels such as kiosk, general stores, markets, street hawkers and so on. Even the number of people who visit traditional retail channels are four times higher than the number of people who visit modern channels.

But of course

it does not mean that there is no future for online marketplaces in this continent. There are several indigenous players who successfully gain many attention from people.

World Bank forecast the economic growths in some countries have increased greatly. There are several reasons why the economy has grown so fast. As you know, Africa is known for its poor countries. Middle-class expansion, friendly market business, and also rapid urbanization have changed the business trends in the region.

Countries’ government across Africa has realized that the small and medium sector of business can be used as a source of job creation and economic growth. Some major countries even make everything easier for the entrepreneur to run a business. Some digital tools are also utilized these days. Now people in Africa familiarize themselves with some digital tools available in the marketplace where they can operate some streamline or online processes like opening a bank account for business, tax submission, registering a brand new business and etc.

Digital tools used to be very expensive in Africa especially for small businesses. On the contrary, people are easily able to access the internet to gain their business. Things like data entry, email marketing, customer service, and accounting make everything is easy. Nowadays, people use their phones as their gateway to information and knowledge from posting something on social media, complaining about things, buying online tickets, writing reviews, and many others. There are huge populations that make use of the internet in Africa. This is a business trend that should be utilized.

Africa is known for its large quantity of resources in both mineral resources and agriculture. Africa has struggled from transforming these resources into persistent economic development. New investments and innovations change and create an exciting occasion for business. Nigeria is considered the largest marketplace in the continent as it has a large population. Foreign investment is also growing rapidly mainly in resources sectors. The country is known for its power deficiency makes it a great opportunity for business.

Skeptical about online retail

On the other hand, internet business reality in Africa diverges from what is accessible in the western world. The optimism clouds some noticeable challenges in the continent to deal with. That’s why internet commerce is not profitable.

Many Africans are still skeptical about buying things online. They prefer buying things offline which is easy for them to choose items cautiously. On the contrary, people in Africa are enjoying the growth of the internet as they can access the web easily. With the high cost of bandwidth, internet business in Africa is challenging.

Logistic restriction

Since internet business needs delivery through the postal system, most countries in Africa only utilizing motorbike to deliver things. Of course, it will increase the cost that affects the price and selling. Literally, markets are everywhere with low prices offered and e-commerce companies have to overcome this to keep the company exists. Since many Africans cannot read and write, it is difficult to grow internet business in Africa. Low literacy capability affects the e-commerce business as everything displayed with texts and images.

Every marketplace in the world has its challenges to grow. Well challenges as a part of how marketing analytics should work, and it creates better and better strength each time. The geographical condition shall also bring impacts to marketplaces’ challenges. Southeast Asia, for instance, most challenges come to shipping, due to strict regulations in most of the countries or facts that Southeast Asia country comes in archipelagos.

But now let’s talk about Africa. What are the challenges marketplaces in Africa‘s face?

Then, what are the impacts of the challenges? What should you prepare if you were in the marketplaces’ CEO’s shoe?

Example of Marketplaces in Africa

In Africa, few local marketplaces are pretty famous and working well. One of the reasons is that they sell authentic locals’ masterpiece hand-made accessories. Africa’s hand-made woven or other authentic creations are pretty known around the world.

Those marketplaces are Jumia which operates around multiple countries in Africa, next is Kilimall which operates in Uganda, Nigeria, and also Kenya, then Konga which operates in Kenya.

The Examples of Challenges the Marketplaces Are Facing

There are so many examples of challenges the marketplaces should face. Some of them due to logistical problems. One challenge that has happened the most is the accountability of PayPal and other worldwide networks. A fact that worldwide is purchasing Africa’s authentic hand-made products but not a lot of their countries’ commercial banks are connected to Africans’. To handle that challenge, most marketplaces in Africa allow PayPal as their payment gate.

The next challenge for marketplaces in Africa includes the existence of eBay and Alibaba. Those two gigantic marketplaces have a huge power of the market in Africa among the Africans themselves. And because they are bigger, guarantee more items and products, and also likely have better distribution capabilities, the other marketplaces (such as Jumia, Kilimall, Konga, and others) should do regular development and evolve.

Talking about the better distribution of eBay and Alibaba

the next challenge of African marketplaces is the effectiveness of the distribution. As distribution is a crucial part of order-fulfillment, it is very crucial for marketplaces to make sure their distribution to the customers does not take too much time for the products to arrive.

Still talking about distribution and payment, the next challenge is cash-on-delivery payment. Impacted by the rush distribution across Africa, and also the marketplace should consider the additional costs for the cash-on-delivery payment services.

The next challenge is the high rate of return and refund possibilities in Africa. In some marketplaces even have more than 10.0% of refund and return demand from the customers for pretty various reasons. This is likely the last more crucial or happens in Africa. Meanwhile, the other challenges that were not mentioned before are pretty occasionally.

Are There Other Crippling Risks for African’s Marketplaces?

Yes, risks such as cultural, societal challenges, currency risks, and human resources are also common for the African marketplace. But we know that these risks are always stuck to every marketplace from around the world, and not necessarily only in Africa.