As e-commerce seeks to gain footing in Africa, Kenyan firm B & S Media seems to be accelerating the process by offering a platform to promote online businesses.
Currently operating nine brands in Kenya, B&S Media connects buyers and sellers of different goods and services on an online trading platform that is secure, accurate, feature-filled and cost effective.
The founder Sham Kanji told HumanIPO that the company’s core business is offering online classifieds in a number of fields, he added.
Kanji says that, after he came back from Canada, he started BuyandSell.co.ke, a classified site that was later rebranded to KilaKitu.co.ke. which inspired him to start others such as Autobazaar.co.ke.
He later introduced other sites, including RealEstateOnline.co.ke, Bargains.co.ke, Mpenzi.co.ke, Whatson.co.ke, Listed.co.ke and Mshahara.co.ke.
“These cover the Automotive, Real Estate, General Merchandise, Employment, Group Buying, Entertainment and Business fields,” he explained.
Not all of these sites have come up without their challenges. Kanji says the idea of online trading is a challenge in Africa, although slowly changing.
“The main challenge in building an e-commerce business has been the slow uptake of online trading by users in the country, this is slowly changing with the integration of mobile payment gateways on the online sales matrix,” he said.
B&S Media is looking to great things ahead.
“We plan to offer more features for users of our platforms, making the whole listing and selling process as seamless as possible. We also plan to move into complementary fields and offer our users a more enriched experience in using our classified sites,” Kanji said.
