East Africa: Rupu - M-Commerce Applications Should Be Used for More Than Just Selling

By Baraka Jefwa

Rupu, an online a deals platform, has been in Kenya for 5 years, making them one of the pioneering Start-ups in the country's maturing e-commerce space. The company though, does not have an App sighting the fact that they are looking to develop an e-commerce App that can be used for more than just selling of products and services to its customers.

This was said by Claire Chege, MD, Sales and Marketing, Rupu, during an interview with CIO East Africa, she said that the company is yet to adopt a Mobile Application to drive its sales, preferring to drive m-commerce to its Kenyan customers via a mobile responsive site. Sighting the fact that, such a site uses less data to access as a major reason as to why they use it.

"At the moment we don't have an App, it's something that we are looking to do. What you will find with our website is that it's responsive; now the reason why we've been pushing a mobile responsive site is because we want to reach not only those with smartphones but also those with limited data," added Chege.

"We'll be moving to App services so that people with more expensive Smartphones will be able to access our services. Another key thing that brands fail with Apps is that it shouldn't just be a market place; it is also an opportunity to provide content and communication," she continued

Rupu was recently acquired by Ringier Africa deals, making it the first of three companies in Africa to be bought by the firm, in a bid to expand its presence in the continent. Following this CIO East Africa held interviews with the Ringier Africa deals group management team to understand the company's plans for the future.

"We (Ringier) partnered with a company called Silvertree holdings, a South African venture capitalist firm, so we bought a bit of shares in Rupu, we also bought Dealday and Tisu. So Rupu is in Kenya, Tisu is in Ghana and Dealday is in Nigeria, we are all part of Ringier Africa deals group," said Damien Bonnabel, CEO, Rupu.

Companies under Ringier have a management team consisting of group managing directors who are directly below the group CEO. Damien Bonnabel is the group CEO, under him are: Claire Chege, MD, Sales and Marketing, Rupu and Stacey Ondimu, MD, Operations and IT, Rupu Kenya.

"E-commerce is important, it's a growing industry, and we are looking at 20 percent growth year on year. At the moment we can see about 70 percent of Kenyan's are online, so it is important for us to provide online solutions especially for the shopping industry and the retail industry," said Claire Chege.