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Our Solution

Power in a Purse

Our solution's stage of development:

Pre-Seed

Our solution:

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.

Our pitch:

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.

The problem:

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.

Why our solution will solve the problem:

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.

Who recommended you to Solve - or - how did you find Solve?

Opportunitydesk.org

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