Safaricom Embarks On E-commerce Journey With Masoko

Safaricom, one of Kenya’s leading mobile telecommunications firm with a focus of transforming lives has today officially announced the launch of its e-commerce portal, “Masoko”, a new platform which is projected to harness the power of mobile commerce through an all-inclusive platform.

Masoko (Swahili for ‘markets’) aims to leverage the mobile phone to provide local merchants with unlimited potential to sell their products and services via an online platform.

Users of the platform will be able to access items ranging from groceries to books and auto parts.

“Masoko hopes to unlock the untapped e-commerce market in Kenya by connecting consumers, merchants and vendors to each other using a powerful online portal. We are currently starting with close to 200 vendors offering over 20,000 products,” said Joe Ogutu, Director – Strategy, Safaricom.

“Masoko hopes to unlock the untapped e-commerce market in Kenya by connecting consumers, merchants and vendors to each other using a powerful online portal. We are currently starting with close to 200 vendors offering over 20,000 products.”

Joe Ogutu,

Director – Strategy, Safaricom

Masoko will accept all mobile money payments as well as Visa and MasterCard payments and will have dedicated delivery fulfillment partners such as Wells Fargo and Sendy to provide a seamless customer experience that is versatile, fast and secure.

“By leveraging the strength and reach of our network, our customer base, and a number of partnerships with vendors, we hope to create a solution that can power the next phase of growth for the Kenyan economy. We hope to create a universal platform that will connect the smallest of vendors in Kenya to a nationwide market,” said Mr. Ogutu.

Masoko will offer customers access to the very best in tech, fashion, latest trends and everyday essentials at the click of a button through either their mobile phones or computers.

A customer care team will also be available to manage any queries from customers, while a wide-ranging returns policy will ensure that all purchases meet the expectations of the customer.

Safaricom which has lived to its billing of providing voice, data, financial services and enterprise solutions for a range of subscribers, small businesses and government, using a variety of platforms delights for currently managing over 29.5 million subscribers, providing over 200,000 touch points for its customers and offering over 100 different products under its portfolio.

Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues in excess of Kshs 200 Billion (US $ 2 million), Safaricom invested Kshs 38 billion in infrastructure this year, providing over 80 percent of Kenya’s population with 4G and 3G coverage and providing 2G coverage to 95 percent of Kenyans. Safaricom has harnessed its proprietary fibre infrastructure to build a dedicated enterprise business, which provides managed IT services to clients in the East African region.

Safaricom pioneered commercial mobile money transfer globally through M-PESA, the most successful service of its kind anywhere in the world.  Launched in March 2007, M-PESA now has over 27.8 million customers and over 148,000 M-PESA Agent outlets countrywide.