Author: Hubtel

The inaugural list of the 2019 50 Most Influential CMOs in Ghana compiled by Avance Media, Reset Global People and Afiba Consulting, has been recently released.

The list, which was not ranked recognized the works of CMOs who are motivating performance, broadening markets, creating new trends, impressive financial performance in the Ghanaian market as well as brand perception.

A team from Avance Media today presented a placard to Elsie Bram, CMO of Hubtel as part of this exercise.

21 of the 50 people listed are women. Sectors considered cut across media, technology, banking & finance, insurance, food & beverage, telco, oil & gas, among others.

November 2019 Product Update 

Easy & Direct: Subscriptions, Payment Plans & Using Digital Wallets.

See what’s new in this update:

More Ways to Top Up 

Fund your Hubtel Prepaid account or Wallet balance from hubtel.com/services or on the mobile app

Recurring Payments 

Create recurring invoices for your customers with unique payment terms 

Recurring Messaging

Schedule your daily, weekly, or monthly messages to be sent to customers later

Recurring Payments APIs  

Integrate recurring payments into your applications for installment billing  

Messaging for all accounts on Hubtel.com
Send messages to your contacts, schedule messages to be sent later and view all SMS campaigns.  

Payment from Prepaid Balance
Top up SMS credits and purchase bundles from your Hubtel Wallet. 

Contacts
Create and save contact groups. Add individual contacts or upload bulk contacts from a file. 

Reports
View real-time reports on each message sent and aggregated reports of all SMS campaigns. 

International Payments
Make payments using international cards on Hubtel web check

Recurring Payments 
Setup standing orders for customers to pay for a service or product from their mobile money wallet. 
A one-time setup and approval process automatically bills customers’ mobile money wallets, based on agreed payment terms and intervals with quick payment tracking access.  

Key Features: 

• Multiple Payment Schedules
  Create subscription plans with different payment intervals. You can choose to bill customers on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. 
  
• Integrated Notifications
  Receive notifications on all recurring invoice activities; when invoices are created, installments are paid or an invoice is cancelled.  
  
• Varied Payment Amounts
  Offer flexible payment plans for customers. Initial deposit and subsequent installments can be set at different amounts as agreed per purchase. 

How does this work? 

1. Select Add New Invoice tab, from Sales under Recurring Invoices and indicate: 
   – Business branch  
   – Item being sold to the customer 
   – Initial amount 
   – Recurring amount  
   – Customer details  
2. The customer will receive a One-Time-Password sent to their phone for verification. This password will also be indicated on the customer’s payment order. 
3. When the agreed payment time is due, the customer will be debited automatically from their mobile money wallet.  
4. All recurring invoices setup are available under Sales.  Select Recurring Invoices tab to view invoice details. 

Transforming local corner stores into all-purpose neighborhood service points. 

ACCRA, GHANA – November 21, 2019 – Hubtel, Ghana’s first fully integrated business retail system, and messaging service provider, today announced a series of new features for retailers and their customers at its 2019 Rethink – Keynote Edition, which was attended by more than 100 businesses.   

Hubtel as an  eCommerce platform has been expanding in innovative ways focused on helping businesses of all sizes with tools to accept payments, engage customers and improve service delivery.   

In its biggest update since the company’s rebrand in May 2017,  Hubtel has released several features including an all-new inventory management system, with functionalities to manage both tangible products and digital services as well as generate notifications for stock movements and expiry.   

The latest updates also include insights for sales, customer visits/purchases, and employee management. The company also announced new interfaces for bulk SMS services on its new platform – with advanced options to schedule and automate messages for future delivery.  

The company since 2005 has delivered billions of business-critical SMS messages and pioneered mobile banking and online payments in Ghana. Its latest feature release includes a new ISO 8583 compatible banking system to assure proper accounting and hourly settlements of all payments. This has enabled retailers using Hubtel to gain full control over their transfer schedules. Payments received from retailers’ customers on Hubtel via bank card, QR, or mobile money can be transferred to any connected mobile wallet or bank account on daily, weekly, or monthly schedules. 

“In preparing towards regulation and increased capacity to manage higher merchant sales volumes, the company has since June 2018 embarked on a major overhaul of nearly all our systems. The overhaul has also included several improvements to user interfaces…” says Alex Bram, Chief  Executive Officer at Hubtel. 

The company also released two infomercials about the work it did towards the release of its new platform and how Hubtel’s product development teams worked with customers to create the latest features.  

A capstone to the event was the release of a new feature to allow the sale and distribution of commission-based digital services. This marks a fresh beginning for service providers to integrate their service for immediate distribution to all retailers and customers on Hubtel. Some services already integrated on Hubtel include airtime on all networks, Surfline, Busy, GHIPSS Instant Pay, and many other utility services.

“It’s really exciting that we can now provide our customers a comprehensive platform that allows them to attract customers, handle inventory, optimize sales, with integrated messaging, one-click online web store, and deliveries into one simple very inexpensive solution for all types of payment,” says Hans Nilsson, Board Chairman at  Hubtel. 

For more information, visit blog.hubtel.com/updates

Standard, Scheduled or Instant Transfer

Your Money. Your Rules.

Transfer funds from your Hubtel account on your own terms. Starting Monday 18th November 2019, you will have the flexibility to pick and choose how you would like to transfer funds, based on your business needs with any of these settlement options:

Scheduled Settlement:

Set and save daily, weekly or monthly funds transfer to your mobile money or bank account for each branch of your business.

Instant Settlement:

Access day-to-day funds for your business without any hassle. Instantly transfer funds to your mobile money wallet directly using the Hubtel App.

Hubtel to Hubtel Account Settlements:

Settle payments to other businesses on Hubtel with ease. Transfer funds directly from your settlement account to other businesses on Hubtel.

Set Settlement Account Details on Multiple Branches

Track sales per branch. Set unique settlement details for each branch of your business. This could be the same bank account or mobile money wallet details.

October 2019 Product Update

Stock Adjustment. Services. Reporting.

See what’s new in this update:

Services

An entirely new Services page; redesigned and better organized so you shop and pay for everyday services with ease

Programmable Services

Allows developers to sell digital services; like airtime and data

Stock Adjustment

Track every single movement of your stock

Online Checkout Assistance

Instant support to quickly resolve any issues for customers during checkout

Download Reports

Request and track downloads of your sales report, funds transfer, and service debits

Hubtel Mobile App Updates

New features have been added to your Hubtel app. This requires that you update to the latest version. Older versions may not work as expected.

• Save order and pay later: Save items you want to buy while you continue shopping and pay when you’re ready.

• View all your receipts on Hubtel: Receipts of all your payments now shows in Stream.

• Support on the go: Report issues to our support desk directly on WhatsApp.

• Update card details: If you’ve got bank card(s) saved, you will need to complete the card details and save on the wallet page after the update. Your mobile money wallets will, however, work as usual.

Stock Adjustment

Manually reduce and increase your stock, as a result of any of the following reasons:

• Expiry 
• Theft/loss 
• Damaged  
• Returned  
• Recount 
• New Stock 

How does this work?
1. Select the product you wish to adjust stock on from the list of products on your Products & Services page. 
2. Tap the action icon, select Update Stock from the list of options to display a pop-up. 
3. Enter quantity to increase or decrease and save. 

Upcoming Features

• Create Your Own Messaging Plan: Schedule messages to be sent to your customers daily or weekly. Set up and save recurring campaigns for future use.

• Real-Time Messaging Reports: View real-time reports on the status of messages sent to your customers.

• Buy SMS Credits From Your Prepaid Balance: Top up your SMS Credits and purchase bundles from your existing Prepaid Balance.

The efficacy and profitability of Farming have become More Profitable Than Gold. Yes, you read that right, “Farming”.

Africa is changing and you need to be a part of this big dream that’s finally coming true!

Like Author, Samuel Amartey-Armah rightly puts it:

“What if I could teach you how to watch plants grow or livestock live with you while making money?”

A simple and but very profound question. The good news is, it’s a question that has been answered in his pioneer book “More Profitable Than Gold”

Food never goes out of fashion! This makes Agribusiness one of the best opportunities worldwide. Africa has a ready market and a high demand for agricultural produce. We currently spend billions of dollars every year to import grains, flour and all kinds of finished and semi-finished foods that can be produced locally.

As Africa’s economies continue to grow, the demand for raw materials will surely increase and create more interesting opportunities for agribusiness on the continent. This presents a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs who can provide cheaper and locally-grown alternatives to the food that Africa imports.

“More Profitable Than Gold seeks to help any serious-minded Agribusiness Entrepreneur start and run a successful Agribusiness with special focus on farming and be able to reap a relatively higher profitability than the average Gold business” – Samuel Amartey Armah

Agribusiness is very scalable. You can start with whatever you’ve got! Whether you own one plot of land or 10,000 hectares, agribusiness is one of few business opportunities that allows you to start on any scale, with whatever you have!

The opportunity to start small means that people with little capital can become part of Africa’s multi-billion dollar agribusiness industry. Because of the guaranteed demand for agricultural produce, that small vegetable or poultry farm in your backyard could just become a huge business tomorrow.

So, if you’re looking to start a business or invest in an industry that makes a significant social impact, provides jobs and creates sustainable wealth, More Profitable Than Gold is surely the way to go!

The potential of agribusiness in Africa is not just promising but immensely profitable. If would like to explore it much further, we have just the right resource for you!

5 Schools in Accra Receive ICT Equipment from Hubtel 

Hubtel, Ghana’s leading bulk messaging and e-commerce platform provider, has donated ICT equipment to 5 schools in the Greater Accra Region as part of the company’s social responsibility commitments. 

Hubtel is Ghana’s first tech company to become a member of the globally acclaimed Pledge 1% in 2017. By this, Hubtel pledged to give 1% of profits, 1% of products, and 1% of paid employee time towards charitable courses. 

According to the founders of Pledge 1%, “the initiative is a global movement to create a new normal in which giving back is integrated into the DNA of companies of all sizes. Pledge 1% encourages and challenges individuals and companies to Pledge 1% of equity, profit, product, and/or employee time for their communities.”   

The items donated to the 5 schools included laptops, projectors, projector screen stands, speakers, microphones, internet routers, and other computer peripherals. The schools were selected by employees of Hubtel after several visits to understand the challenges the schools face in the teaching and learning of information technology subjects. 

The first donation at the St Paul Primary & Junior High School, Kpehe – Accra New Town, was received by the assistant headmaster of the school. Also present were the Chairperson of the PTA and a section of the school pupils.  

Making the donations at St Paul Primary & JHS, Alex Bram, CEO of Hubtel emphasized that “We [Hubtel] ultimately want to transform the time for teaching and learning ICT into one filled with memorable moments and lots of fun. Schoolchildren should not be intimidated by technology.  What we are doing is to provide early access to quality computer education for these pupils. We wish to see more school children take computing programs at higher levels because we believe the illiterates of the future will be people who cannot use computers”. 

Other schools that received similar donations were Liberty Avenue 2 JHS at Adabraka, Dr. FV Nanka-Bruce Junior High at Korle-Gonno, the Nima Cluster of Schools, and the Bethel AME Zion JHS at Ashaiman.  

These schools either had one PC for teaching and learning or none at all. In coming to the aid of the schools, school officials expressed relief and gratitude for the donations. Mr Michael Owusu, Assistant Headmaster at the St Paul Primary and JHS speaking to journalists after the donations was beside himself with joy, ”It really feels special. For more than three years, we’ve made frantic efforts to acquire these items with little success. Now, our pupils can have a real chance to understand better what they are taught. This is a moment of pride for us”.

Hubtel was founded in May 2005 on the campus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. In its 14 years of operation, the company has carved a reputation as a trusted and admirable tech brand across Africa. Starting with a bulk SMS messaging platform, the company has evolved into the e-commerce space – offering businesses tools to enhance the customer shopping experience; in-store, online, and mobile.  

In becoming a signatory to Pledge 1%, Hubtel joined the ranks of Silicon Valley giants like Salesforce, Yahoo, Box, Glassdoor, DocuSign, and other leading companies in over 100 countries.

Many insightful themes grace this year’s Customer Service Week celebration.

At some point in our lives, we all get the opportunity of either rendering service or being attended to as customers. That highlights the importance of customer service to all of us.

Although it’s an official weeklong celebration, starting October 7^th – 11^th 2019, delivering exceptional service remains an all-year-round affair.

Great customer service is a powerful tool for any company.

Customers expect quick, consistent and outstanding service, starting from the moment they enter your store or visit your webstore, to when they pick up their purchases or receive their delivery.

Here are a few insights you can view about your customers on Hubtel:

• New Customers visiting your business for the first time.
• Returning Customers who have made more than one purchase.
• Average Customer Value on the average amount a customer has spent in your business.
• Average Visit Value on the average amount a customer will spend in your business during a visit.
• Inactive Customers who have churned in the last three (3) months.
• Dormant Customers who have churned in the last six (6) months.

Great companies aim to exceed customer expectations positively. These companies provide support for customers to know and track the status of orders and delivery. They also respond to feedback and ratings from their customers.

September 2019 Product Update

Customers. Sales. Reviews. Security

See what’s new in this update:

Feedback & Inbox

Know what your customers think and feel about your business

Invoice Additions

Add taxes, levies, or other service charges a customer may have to pay as part of a sale

API Security Alerts

API Customers now receive notifications on any unauthorized (HTTP 401 or HTTP 403) attempt on accounts

Filter by Expiry Date

Filter items based on expiry dates. This requires that you add expiry dates to items; as part of product details in Advanced Options

Stock History

See all stock reduction activities when items are sold in-store, online, and on mobile

Feedback & Inbox
• Receive and instantly respond to customer Ratings and Feedback.
• Your customers will receive your response and can also reply from their inbox.

Invoice Additions
• Set up invoice additions for your items per branch. This can either be included in or excluded from the price.
• All invoice additions are added to the sub-total for your customer to pay.

Callback URL Check
Your callback URL may be down or timeout once in a while. This may happen when Sending money, Receiving money, or using the Hubtel checkout.
Check the status of any of these activities whenever you miss a callback:
1. Your own client reference
2. The Hubtel Transaction ID or Checkout
3. The Network Providers transaction ID

API Self-service
Manage your API credentials yourself. Get things done on your integrations swiftly and securely with Setup API Keys now in your control.
Visit Hubtel Integration to Add, Change or Delete API Keys.

PSP Regulatory Act, 2019 (Act 987)
PCI DSS and ISO 27001 certifications in progress to meet all new minimum requirements for Payment Service Providers issued by the Bank of Ghana.

Key Features
Add the most essential and interesting key details about each item as part of the product details in Advanced Options.

eCommerce, even in its most basic form has been around for 40 years!

The history of e-commerce dates back even before the internet. How Did It All Begin?

1979 – Michael Aldrich ‘invented’ online shopping. Aldrich was an English inventor, innovator and entrepreneur, who is credited with developing the predecessor to online shopping.

The idea came about during a stroll with his wife, when Aldrich lamented about their weekly supermarket shopping expedition.

This conversation sparked an idea to hook a television to their supermarket to deliver the groceries.

Immediately after the discussion Aldrich quickly planned and implemented his idea.

In 1979, Aldrich connected a television set to a transaction processing computer with a telephone line and created what he coined, “teleshopping,” meaning shopping at a distance.

By definition, ecommerce or electronic commerce, is the buying and selling of products or services via the Internet.

From mobile shopping to online payment encryption and beyond, ecommerce encompasses a wide variety of data, systems, and tools for both online buyers and sellers.

Most businesses with an ecommerce presence use an ecommerce store and/or an ecommerce platform to conduct both online marketing and sales activities and to oversee logistics and fulfillment.

The history of ecommerce started 40 years ago and, to this day, continues to grow with new technologies, innovations, and thousands of businesses entering the online market each year.

eCommerce has taken over the air, and no one is holding back! Enjoy the convenience of online shopping today. Check out great deals on Hubtel Mall. Shop. Pay. Get delivery in minutes!

One of the biggest exhibition of professional and business leaders in the beauty industry happened this weekend at the Accra International Conference Center.

This first edition of the Hair Senta International Beauty show dubbed “HIBS Africa”, attracted vendors and exhibitors of hair and beauty products across the African continent and internationally.

The vision of HIBS Africa is to bridge the global divide and make African businesses in the beauty industry, globally competitive and successful.

Hubtel introduced exhibitors to the importance of offering convenient shopping experiences for their customers. Emphasizing the competitive advantage of online sales, electronic transactions and prompt service delivery.