Roundshopper Mobile App Launches in Harare
Roundshopper Mobile App Launches in Harare
Roundshopper officially launched in Harare this month and will scale into other cities in and around Zimbabwe later this year. Roundshopper is the magic key that will unlock the shackles restraining tuckshop owners in Zimbabwe. Roundshopper is a mobile application created to solve the challenges of stock ordering for tuck shop owners in Zimbabwe.
The Roundshopper team came third place at the first Zimbabwean Seedstars event brought to the country by Impact Hub Harare in October last year. Danny Zembe and Kuziwa Muvezwa, co-founders of Roundshopper, are making bulk pricing and transportation accessible to micro-vendors.
Stock ordering is one of the biggest challenges faced by local tuckshop owners countrywide. Shop owners make the cumbersome journey to wholesale stores–most of which are located in the Central Business District. Upon arrival, tuck-shop owners need to lug heavy cartons and push trolleys before they can purchase their items.
The next issue is transportation. How does one get their procurements from the CBD back to their tuckshop through busy streets and long traffic lines? This burdensome process results in tuckshop owners opting for expensive alternatives. Fortunately, Roundshopper allows tuckshop owners to make an electronic order from home and ultimately pay on delivery. This solution is true innovation addressing a quintessential African issue.
Roundshopper is still at the testing stage with more brilliant ideas to incorporate. The main being to find an intersection between technology and commerce, a strategy still to be initiated in many commercial business models.
Although the business is growing, difficulties in implementing and offering Roundshopper services still remain. One of the main challenges is the local cash crisis. Zimbabwe continues to face a worsening crisis which more adversely affects small businesses and their transactions. Collection of payments from tuckshop owners to wholesalers is still an issue. As Roundshopper begins to gain traction their methods continue to disrupt the status quo of archaic business operation into a more modern enterprise.
“Don’t throw in the towel and grind away” says Danny Zembe. This serves as a piece of advice for local entrepreneurs facing multiple challenges in the pursuit of establishing their businesses. Many entrepreneurs are demoralised by constant difficulties and some eventually lose hope. Endurance, persistence and perseverance in the business realm are key.
The positive impact of this business model is far-reaching and replicable in other emerging markets.
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