Power in a Purse

Power in a Purse is an e-commerce platform tailor made to suit the needs of Zambian female entrepreneurs. It gives women the ability to sell their goods and services beyond geographical proximity. The platform will also leverage on cash pools to give women access to small business loans.

The Challenges

• Most women do not have affordable places to conduct business in Zambia as physical shops are expensive.
• Market Fairs are either expensive or can not accommodate more than 100 vendors at a time
• Some women lack geographical proximity because they do not live in the rural areas and hence they can not access markets in capital cities.
• There is a general lack of finance for working capital but women believe in being part of savings groups and pooling funds together and lending to each other.

The Solution

Power in a Purse is an affordable e-commerce platform that will be available via a website and a mobile app. It is tailor made to suit the needs of Zambian female entrepreneurs. The platform will allow an unlimited number of women to sign up to sell their goods and services. Despite geographical barriers, women can use the platform to reach markets that they could not physically reach while we will handle the administration part and assist with the logistical part of delivering goods and services.

The platform will also have an electronic savings group where women can save a small amount of money per month. The money saved by the women monthly will be used as a cash pool to ensure a part of their online business and also to lend out to women who need to borrow money to restock their goods or improve their businesses. The platform will therefore provide access to both markets and capital.

Mobile smart phones are widely used in Zambia and women are already using social media networks such as facebook, instagram, twitter and whatsapp to advertise their businesses hence we know that they would be able to accept and use an e-commerce platform if it was tailor made to their needs.

Most women in Zambia cannot afford to rent a shop or office. They advertise for their goods on social media platforms because mobile phones. Market Fairs have limited space availability and work on a first come first serve basis.

Geographically disadvantaged women from rural areas also face a problem accessing markets that their counter parts in the city have.  

Women lack access to small business loans due to lack of collateral. Women practice the culture of forming savings groups and making monthly contributions and pooling funds which they lend to each other for the purpose of growing their businesses.

I have been running market fairs and giving women the ability to have an affordable place to sell their goods. I can only host 50 women per marketday despite getting more than 300 enquiries. We also pool funds together through a savings group which we use to lend to some of the women. I have gotten requests for me to run market places in rural parts of Zambia. This e-commerce platform, will allow all women to be able to sell their goods and services including women in rural areas. This will result in increased access of markets, finance and incomes. 

The benefits of my solution will go to women in small businesses in Zambia especially those who make handmade crafts, clothes and artisans. The impact of the solution will be that women will have access to markets and finance. We will use word of mouth as well as social media to deploy it to the women and leverage on the database that we currently have of people that have attended our market fairs as well as those that have enquired in the past. We will also use mobile telecommunications and banks to send bulk sms to women. 

Number of women who set up e-shops in the app - 200 women become sellers in our app

Number of active members who shop through the app - 2000 people shop through the app

Number of downloads of our app in PlayStore - 3000 people download the app

Our solution is innovative because we will not only allow debit and credit card purchases but also use mobile money use which is popular in Zambia.

In addition there are a lot of e-commerce apps but they do not have the addition of e-pooling of funds to give their sellers access to finance. 

We will work closely and directly with our target markets when developing the e-commerce platform allowing the women that have vended at our market fairs to be the first to use the app and provide us with valuable feedback on how they would want it to work on a seller perspective. We will also allow people that come to shop at our market fairs to try and shop in order to see what they would want to see changed and made better for buyers. 

The application will be free to download for all users. Vendors will only have to pay a monthly subscription in order for them to set up a shop and an administration fee for every sale they make. We will use word of mouth at our market fairs to deploy this and also use social media platforms such as whatsapp and facebook in groups where female entrepreneurs currently post.

We will continue to earn incomes from our market fairs and business development services to women entrepreneurs but our app will also be sustaining as vendors have to pay a monthly subscription fee to sell.

Integrating our solution to mobile money systems may limit our ability to succeed. In addition, we may need to get a microfinance licence from the Bank of Zambia in order to be able to lend in app and this costs a huge capital injection.

https://www.facebook.com/powerinapurse

https://instagram.com/PowerinaPurse

I am applying for Solve in order to help the Solve Community to help me refine my idea and see how I can make it more customer centric. I would like to interact with community leaders and change makers who can give me a difference in perspective on how I can make this solution achieve the change I hope to see for women in Zambia. I would also love the technical expertise to pilot, scale and implement this solution.

I working to get Zanaco Bank, Zoona and MTN mobile money as my partners. 

Tigmoo shopping app.