Ecommerce company Bigstore.africa, has announced that it has received an undisclosed investment in its recently completed angel funding round.
- According to the online company, the funding sets the stage for the launch of a unique marketplace, a first in the Kenyan Market for retail consumer products like electronics, phones, home appliances and much more.
- The angel funding round was led by prominent high net worth individuals, and angel investors from Kenya, Africa and the USA.
- Through its mobile and web applications, Bigstore.africa allows customers to conveniently buy from different merchants using the Bigstore.africa website and mobile app.
“Our goal is to bring back trust in ecommerce in Kenya by connecting customers across Kenya directly to trusted merchants on our platform,” said Bigstore CTO and Co-founder Ongere H.M.
“With ambitious expansion plans in motion, the company aspires to become a market leader in the rapidly evolving eCommerce landscape in Africa. The angel investment will empower Bigstore to forge strategic partnerships with retailers, delivery partners and customers and invest in marketing initiatives to attract a diverse customer base,” he added.
Ongere expressed his excitement about the funding round, the launch of the product, prospects, and product differentiation in the market.
Similar to the popular delivery services like Glovo, and Uber Eats who focus on food, Bigstore’s hyperlocalised marketplace connects customers with a diverse range of merchants and sellers offering products across various categories, enabling them to shop for electronics, home appliances, fashion items, Leather products, drinks and beverages, toys and baby products, beauty, and wellness products and much more.
The platform offers customers opportunity to browse, compare prices, and make purchases from any merchant on the Bigstore platform without visiting each store’s website or physical location.
- They can also track their orders in real time, which reduces the uncertainties and anxieties associated with online orders on other eCommerce platforms.
- By adopting a marketplace model, Bigstore also empowers merchants and retailers to reach more customers beyond their physical location, sell more products, and grow their businesses beyond their physical locations.
- With Bigstore, merchants receive orders directly and instantly from customers and fulfill them directly to customers, helping boost their revenues and generate more sales for them while also connecting them directly with customers making purchases from their stores.
Bigstore has already onboarded merchants including Samsung, Hotpoint, Opalnet, Haier, Hisense, and others onto their platforms, allowing customers to shop directly from these trusted merchants from the comfort of their own homes.
The company says it is constantly seeking more merchants to expand its base and encourages trusted Merchants to reach out to the Bigstore Merchant team through its website. It also runs a partnership with logistics and fulfillment partners like G4S to ensure smooth delivery and fulfillment or products from its merchants across the country.
By leveraging state-of-the-art location-based technology and a deep understanding of consumer shopping preferences, the company aims to empower anyone to place an order from any merchant they want on their platform.
Through an innovative marketplace technology and business model, all orders made by customers are routed directly to the chosen merchant for fulfillment, eliminating the common challenges like not being able to know where you are buying a product from, which is associated with the current online shopping platform.
The platform further streamlines the entire shopping process, from selecting a merchant to browsing products, completing payments, delivering the order directly to the merchant and connecting the order to the delivery partner for fulfillment.
On top of this, Bigstore ensures the quality and authenticity of listed products by carefully vetting all its merchants and ensures that all its merchants and delivery partners are insured to ensure security of the customers’ orders.
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