Ietsie Ouliks (IO)

Access to a cell phone and internet does not digitally transform a poor community.  If they are not able to be involved by (1) utilizing services (2) creating content (3) economical inclusion necessary (4) have relevant skills and knowledge, they are still digitally excluded.

The IO solution, approaches process, technology, and people in a unique manner to overcome barriers 1, 2, 3 and 4 above.  IO act as translator between a low level of skill with raw data to transform it to sophisticated digital content (2). This enables disadvantaged entrepreneurs to utilize online services (1).  Another utilization of service which IO enable is the innovate feature of web analytics on product level.  This provides market intelligence and help them make choices on which products they should discontinue.

This enables entrepreneurs to become economically included in the online environment (3) and IO overcome their skills and knowledge gap (4).

The unemployment in South Africa is currently approaching 40% of a 60 million population. With post Covid economic conditions there is not end to this trend soon.  The population most adversely affected by this, is an eager but a digitally excluded group.  

Micro entrepreneurs are digitally excluded due to their limited knowledge of using technology and the complexity and high costs of digital online solutions.  

They lack branding and have no logos or banners to identify their offerings.  Many micro business owners in South Africa are not proficient in English and find it difficult to promote their business and products in only English.  Illiteracy makes it difficult to promote and write about their businesses in a way that can be promoted digitally.

Our 2020 - 2021 study involving 1 000 mini-micro entrepreneurs indicated that they lack knowledge to promote their products effectively to a much bigger online market.  This is essential for their sustainability, especially after physical sales being adversely affected with the COVID pandemic. 

Because of being digitally excluded, these entrepreneurs are also failing to partake in Micro Financing Opportunities, they have no Credit Profile and lack the skills of Finance Management and managing Customer Experience.

This innovative approach improve digital inclusion for disadvantaged entrepreneurs of all indigenous languages in South Africa together with fit for purpose mentorship, tuition and access to micro finance. Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to promote their businesses and products online in their indigenous language (isi-Zulu, Isi-Xhosa, Sepedi and Afrikaans) as well as in English.

Informative content about the entrepreneur is published online on a dedicated webspace within the Ietsie Ouliks website.  This descriptive content about the business and the products offered can simply be sent to the back-office team via WhatsApp.   This center of excellence is fully equipped and skilled to reproduce the information and publish the content professionally on the website where it can be viewed and bought by the greater online public.

Buyers are put in direct contact with the vendor by a click of a single button.  This could include WhatsApp, Facebook, an email or a direct phone call.  Products can easily be found due to searches by categories of purpose e.g. for the home, for baby, for her, for him, for the office, etc.

This makes it possible for a multicultural, digitally excluded community to get an online presence, without web development skills or excessive costs . 

The disadvantaged entrepreneurs will be able to access a digital online environment where they can promote their products and services and increase their revenue.  At the moment they use their existing communication methods, not digital included methods to promote their products, which results in very low incidental sales.  In addition, their have no community support and training available to them.

The target population is the disadvantaged entrepreneurs in South Africa who currently advertise their products using their personal Facebook profiles but posting on closed groups.  Some of them post only on WhatsApp to their contacts. Others used to sell at physical markets but can no longer attend these markets due to Covid restrictions.  Many of these are unemployed youth desperately looking for a job or income opportunity. These entrepreneurs are creative and make beautiful products but are digitally excluded from the online trading due to lack of skills. Some of them shared with us that they post up to 300 times before getting a single enquiry, this is because they market to a familiar audience.  

We have engaged a 1000 of these disadvantaged entrepreneurs and have documented what digital tool sets they use.  92% of them use either their personal Facebook profile to post on thematic Facebook groups or else post via WhatsApp to promote their goods by only using their phones.  These do not even have the knowledge to create a business Facebook and that most likely will not increase their sales exposure as they still can only post on closed groups or to their followers. 

They do not have the knowledge or tools to create a digital platform and even if they contract a web developer they simply cannot afford a website, logo and banner.  In SA this would cost around ZAR10,000 excluding hosting, which is equivalent to 6 months marginal income.  They also do not have enough products to justify a standalone website, and create enough revenue to repay, while also sustaining a living.  

Many of them also sell products which are all very different e.g. one lady offer accounting services but she also sells baked goods.  This helped IO with the understanding that these entrepreneurs need a platform where their products must first be found and then the entrepreneur.  

In addition, IO learnt during this period that these disadvantaged entrepreneurs need support to define their products succinctly and have no idea whether their products attract buyer attention or not.  IO offers web analytics at product level to improve product insight. 

During interaction with one of the few entrepreneurs who does have a website and online shopping, he was surprised that one of his products attracted twice the views (on IO platform) compared to another one.  Although he has web-analytics on his website the data is overwhelming and the IO product level web analytics information is much more informative. He did not have the products which received twice as much views in stock, and possibly lost sales as a result. 

IO also learnt during the period up to now that we need to design logos and banners for these entrepreneurs, else they are not able to enter a digital presence.  

Only a small percentage have access to email, but 100% use WhatsApp.  We amended our back-office processes to interact with them via WhatsApp and enable them to use voice notes to communicate with us.  

As a result of the understanding above, IO customize the Web space per entrepreneur and if the entrepreneur can only receive a phone call or a WhatsApp, IO configure the contact buttons from their customized web space accordingly.  

Many of the disadvantaged entrepreneurs responded with "I cannot believe someone thought of enabling my business to earn online" when we contacted them.  This demonstrated how alone, excluded and unempowered they feel in this challenging post pandemic time. Therefore the sense of community and support which IO offers is critically important and the entrepreneurs are placed in a "portfolio" where an IO portfolio manager support them and create a small community of entrepreneurs where training and knowledge sharing take place.   

South Africa have 11 official languages, of which four are indigenous languages.  Many citizens are not proficient in English and have difficulty to to promote what they offer in English.  As a result IO offers these digitally excluded entrepreneurs the opportunity to promote their products and service in the languages which they able to community effectively in.  

Lastly the ability to reach larger markets is made possible through IO promoting the IO website wide in South Africa which increase the likelihood that these entrepreneurs' products will be viewed and bought by a much larger audience.  IO also market to South Africans living abroad looking for unique products to buy for their loved ones in South Africa. 

Most jobless people in South Africa are younger than 30. Self-employment and trading are the only remedies in a saturated, stagnant economy.

Post Covid conditions poses a constraint on physical trading while online shopping across all indigenous groups is booming.  The masses are failing to participate herein.  

The jobless community all have access to the Internet on smartphones. Yet, they are still digitally excluded from an economic buying and selling point of view. 

This digitally excluded community can now create a sustainable online business and trading platform to promote their products and merchandise without expensive technology, skillset or finances.

We have worked on our solution in 2020 and launched it in January 2021 during which we made contact and researched 1000 Afrikaans disadvantaged  entrepreneurs in various product and service verticals across South Africa.  This assisted us in understanding just how large the barrier of entry to these entrepreneurs are.  They are alone and desperately need support to grow their sales, but they do not have the knowledge to use technology and it is too expensive for them via the traditional methods.  

In addition, they do not have adequate working capital to carry stock, and sell via other large commercial platforms.  Most of them do not have logos and banners, and lack market intelligence on which products attract interest from potential buyers. In addition, these entrepreneurs need training support in short bursts as they are desperate to optimally use their time.  We realized that they desperately need community support.

The perception exists that a smartphone connected to data provide the benefits of digital inclusion.  This may be true from a social point of view; it is not true from an economic point of view. 

Access alone does not digitally transform a poor community.  If they are not able to be involved by (1) utilizing services (2) creating content (3) economical inclusion necessary (4) have relevant skills and knowledge, they are still digitally excluded.

The innovative IO solution, approaches process, technology, and people in a unique manner to overcome barriers 1, 2, 3 and 4 above.  IO act as translator between a low level of skill with raw data to transform it to sophisticated digital content (point 2). This enables disadvantaged entrepreneurs to utilize online services (point 1).  Another utilization of service which IO enable is the innovate feature of web analytics on product level.  This provides a report to the entrepreneur (via their social media communication) on how many views and clicks their individual products received.  This provides market intelligence and help them make choices on which products they should discontinue.

Buyers’ interface with this sophisticated online presence, and contact the entrepreneur to purchase, with a hyperlink from the entrepreneur’s webspace directly into the entrepreneurs’ social media communication of choice (WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger) which the entrepreneur can use in a proficient manner. 

This enables these entrepreneurs to become economically included in the online environment (point3) and IO overcome their skills and knowledge gap (point 4).

Open to suggestions but an academic input form MIT on best practice would be beneficial.  This model has the potential to be scaled globally as the problem does not only exist in SA.

The IO solution enabled digital inclusion of disadvantaged entrepreneurs, addressing a current blind spot in the assumptions on benefits of digital inclusion.   

The IO solution enabled digital inclusion of disadvantaged entrepreneurs, addressing a current blind spot in the assumptions on benefits of digital inclusion.  

The IO solution enabled digital inclusion of disadvantaged entrepreneurs, addressing a current blind spot in the assumptions on benefits of digital inclusion.  These communities largely exists of Women entrepreneurs.

The IO solution enabled digital inclusion of disadvantaged entrepreneurs, addressing a current blind spot in the assumptions on benefits of digital inclusion.  This address immediate indigenous language communities in SA.