Tag: Ecommerce

The eCommerce Boom

According to Bigcommerce, eCommerce (or electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods (or services) on 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.

Globally, eCommerce growth projections are on an upward trajectory:

Taking Advantage

What does this all mean for you as a business? Taking advantage of such an opportunity is the logical route to take here. Now you may be wondering why the attribution to Instagram?

Instagram has an estimated 1 billion monthly active users, according to Statista. As a business, establishing a strong social media presence is not only a smart move, but a wise business decision. Most consumers now prefer to establish relationships with their favorite brands via social media. This is a good time to get active on Instagram. Images speak louder than words. Combine both and you have something going!

The Instagram Link “Curse”

Instagram has one caveat however: You can only post links (active links) on your profile. And you are allowed just one link. Placing links in your captions doesn’t cut it here: they make it visible as a normal text and not formatted for clicks. What this means is that you get one CTA on your profile. Have you ever seen a brand using this in the caption: “Click on link in bio”? Yep. That’s the one.

How do you make good use of this real estate? You may have to use your website link here. But what if you only have social media accounts and not a website? What if you don’t have the budget to afford a web designer?

What you can do is to have one unique link that sends your customers to a page that lists all your products/services. This is where the Hubtel Webstore comes in. You get a unique link like hubtel.com/kny where customers can easily view and shop from your business. Plus it’s free. You don’t need a web developer to work on this. It’s your own special eCommerce platform to help you extend the reach of your business. Plus it comes as a bonus when you sign up for a Hubtel account.

Next Steps – How To Use Your Webstore

• Visit your instagram account. Go to profile > Edit Profile.
• Insert your new webstore link as your website link on your instagram account.
• You can then refer your followers to always check the link in your bio.
• Educate followers in your posts on how your webstore works. Make them understand that they can purchase items from you using your webstore, and have it delivered to them almost instantly.

Your Own Webstore

Need a free webstore for your business? Visit the registration page or simply dial *713#. Everything can be done in a day for you so you can start selling from anywhere (especially online). Happy selling.

MPower Payments is rewarding users for their loyalty in using its payment services. To achieve this, MPower will be giving out rewards in the form of funds to several account owners.

MPower is an online payments service in Ghana offering a complete end-to-end web and mobile payment transactions solution to enable consumers and businesses to send, spend and receive money.

The rewards have been packaged as a standard amount of GHs100 for selected users who keep an active MPower account. The goal here is to reward active users hence the selected user must have completed at least two transactions within the week of selection.

Transactions performed on MPower currently take place in 3 main ways:

1. Users transfer/send money or tokens to other accounts including MPower, bank, and the various mobile wallets of local network operators.
2. Users also make payments to merchants:
   1. Purchasing products from online stores that have integrated MPower as a payment option.
   2. Paying for services from providers who accept remote payments via MPower.
3. Purchases on MPower CornerShop:
   1. Airtime top-ups for all networks
   2. Internet bundles purchases
   3. Utility bills payments
   4. Vouchers vended by services

Users can also initiate another transaction type by making requests to other account owners via PayPal, mobile money wallets, and MPower tokens using the receive money feature on MPower.

Fees and charges that apply per the various transactions performed are listed on the MPower Service Fees page.

The giveaway/offer, which began on October 30, 2015, is set to run weekly till the end of December this year; coinciding with the gifting tradition of Xmas and New Year holidays.

Selections will be made each Friday and payouts will occur instantly to furnish the recipient’s MPower account with the reward. This amount can be spent in the same way as regular funds on MPower.

The MPower service is accessible via web at www.mpower.com.gh and also via mobile on MPower’s android application.

The second Ghana eCommerce Expo was officially opened today, 10th November 2015, by the Deputy Minister of Communications, Hon Felix Kwakye-Fosu. The theme for this year’s conference is: “Unleashing Ghana’s Online Potential” and the event is scheduled to run for two whole days at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Organized by OML Africa, the Ghana eCommerce Expo is a prestigious event for the online business industry.
Over 40 exhibitors made up of eCommerce websites, digital payment providers, software developers, telcos, etc are displaying their cutting-edge solutions to the burgeoning Ghanaian eCommerce market.

The conference running the exhibition is being addressed by 18 experts in the eCommerce industry. Speakers include Haris Broumidis(CEO, Vodafone); Cherian Mathew (V Partner, QNET); Sandra Owusu-Kyerematen (Country Manager, Tonaton); and many other reputable luminaries in the field.