The Journey: How zonline started its online marketplace

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Ever heard of an ecosystem so wide that allows you to buy and sell almost any legal product or service?

Well then, meet ‘zonline’, an Africa based reliable, and potential content marketing ecosystem. With zonline, you can easily expand your business by buying and selling across various companies and sellers based in Africa. The inspiring journey of zonline in setting up a marketplace to meet all the needs of both sellers and buyers was a result of utmost determination and hard work. Let’s take you back to that point, from where all of this actually began.

Homepage of zonline Marketplace

Birth of the idea 

There is no doubt in the fact that growth is an essential part of a business. If your business is not growing and has stuck to a particular point, it’s actually not progressing. That’s what inspired Khumz Khumalo to start zonline. Inspiration can come in any form, to Mr. Khumz, it came in the form of the need for growth for African business and trading.

When we asked Mr. Khumz about what led him to the idea of creating zonline, he said, ” The reason was the real need to give African businesses a chance to effectively and efficiently trade with one another. So that they can more easily grow their businesses beyond the African continent.”

With this ideology in mind, Mr. Khumz decided to make way for the African business community via zonline. Since the roots of the marketplace were established on the basis of providing great opportunities and chances to the African businesses, zonline has been efficiently doing it so far. 

Also Check: “How to create an online marketplace?”

The vision behind zonline

The sole purpose behind the existence of zonline was to create a content marketing ecosystem, which is both extensive and safe for the users. Basically, zonline was started to unbound the African business to the globe and give them a wide exposure so that they can trade globally. 

We asked Mr. Khumz about his mission at the start of the marketplace and his answer was, ” the mission was to create a system that would be easy to use and scalable to so that the entire continent could rely on it. Be trading anything from products to services can be inclusive, the main intention of zonline is to ensure that even the smallest vendor could easily be able to create an online store and compete with other sellers.”

zonline has been delivering its goal undeniably and has been helping sellers, businesses, and vendors to expand their businesses’ reach by being a link. 

The features that zonline needed to take-off

Mr. Khumz came to Cedcommerce with the idea of zonline. But there’s an entire journey behind zonline’s takeoff, the primary step was to implement the necessary and required features that Mr. Khumz wanted in zonline. When Mr. Khumz came to us, there was a particular set of features that he specifically wanted to be present in the marketplace. He wanted:

• The marketplace to guide sellers through the process of entering and updating products.
• The customers must be able to work in a virtual marketplace by the vendor, shop by category, or search all sellers at once.

At Cedcommerce, we provided him a marketplace solution enriched with all these features that he mentioned. In fact, Mr. Khumz believes that Cedcommerce’ e-commerce marketplace solutions have added even more value and extra features to his marketplace.

Also Check: “Develop an eCommerce Marketplace”

 

What actually helped the marketplace

“Market research is what actually helps a business to grow, as there is a constant requirement to remain relevant and informative to the clients and their customers as well. Led by consistent market research, we were able to understand the ongoing trends, needs, and demands of the African businesses. Also, our Marketplace cannot offer to have stagnant features but rather continue to offer features that are relevant and helpful in the current economy. So we basically have set up a marketplace that evolves with the needs of African sellers and buyers across the globe. In this journey, Cedcommerce has been helping us and is working with us along the way in getting this done at an affordable price rate and the best customer service in the industry.”

What you just read in the above section, are the words by Mr. Khumz on what actually helped his marketplace idea in order to become a reality. Well, that’s completely true that marketplace research is responsible for building a firm foundation of a business by making it aware of the risks and competitions in the industry. Not just this, market research also plays a crucial role in influencing the decisions involved in your business. 

At Cedcommerce, we have been doing it for years. We know how unpredictable businesses can be and that is why we ensure careful measures at every step, to make your business grow and stand out. 

Challenges faced by Zonline before coming to reality 

We live in a fast-paced world that is rapidly evolving and growing. In this generation where advancements and technologies are introduced on a regular basis, businesses often face challenges while adapting to entirely new marketing channels and technologies. The business world we live in today is completely uncertain and indefinite, where challenges are regular visitors. But as challenges sharpen the grit, it makes your business even stronger and developed. 

In that order, zonline also came across a few challenges before hitting the skyline. 

“One of the biggest challenges was to ensure that the processes to add products were as fluid as possible. We had challenges in creating a Marketplace that was scalable and designed from the ground up to be used for products and services available in Africa. We needed a system that would accommodate our vision for a true African marketplace and we believe with Cedcommerce’ Marketplace solutions, we are building what will soon be Africa’s biggest Marketplace.”, says Mr. Khumz, when asked about the challenges faced by him. 

He further added that Cedcommerce’ Marketplace extensions, in particular, the category attribute mapping extension solved his general concerns. It made it quite simple for sellers to create new products. We really like this extension and are currently considering other extensions including the app as well. 

Also Read:Build Websites like Flipkart, Amazon, etc

What led him to Cedcommerce

Mr. Khumz mentioned that he was consistently looking for a marketplace solution provider who can meet their requirements. He also said that “The approach from Cedcommerce has made him feel like he had done the IT Department worth millions of dollars right within his office even when we were some thousands of kilometers away. He absolutely needs a partner with exceptional client service and ultimately found that in Cedcommerce.”

His decision to choose Cedcommerce was led by consistent online research, which made him believe that Cedcommerce was the best e-commerce solution provider for his online marketplace. 

While explaining how he came across Cedcommerce, Mr. Khumz also added that ‘ Chatting with Ms. Priya Vig ( Senior Business Analyst at Cedcommerce) was also an eye-opener in terms of the level of support and client service delivery we deserve and would get from Cedcommerce. It became obvious and she has been absolutely outstanding along with the team of developers that include Mr. Abhishek, as well.”

Also read the success story of India’s first fuel delivery startup here.

How CedCommerce helped

At Cedcommerce, we believe in making the online world a better place by streamlining the process of online buying and selling. We and our team at Cedcommerce hustle to make the experience of operating and managing an online business as smooth and efficient as it can be with the help of our e-commerce marketplace solutions. 

When Mr. Khumz came to us with the idea of his online marketplace, we understood at that exact moment what he exactly wanted. In that order, our team assisted him to understand our solutions, and if they are meeting his needs.

We asked Mr. Khumz: What sealed the deal for you when you chose to go with Cedcommerce? 

His answer left us gratified and proud. What he said was, ” The personal touch and responsiveness to queries that we experience from Ms. Priya and Mr. Abhishek even before becoming a client sealed the deal for us. Our technical questions were also attended and they made us feel like we were their best and biggest client even though we were just a small startup company. Their personal approach is exactly the sort of relationship we needed and one that we promise to consistently deliver to our clients.”

Also, read the success story of the leading food and liquor delivery services: Wyoming Deliveries.

About CedCommerce: 

Cedcommerce is one of the leading e-commerce solution providers and we offer all the essential technical online store solutions. Our marketplace solutions and extensions are enriched with multiple advancements and features designed in a way to ensure the development of a rich multi-vendor online marketplace. Our especially designed and advanced multivendor marketplace extensions can help you attain a marketplace exactly as per your needs.

Here, at Cedcommerce, we offer the marketplace packages and addons that are ready to use and are also budget-friendly so that you don’t need to crash your bank. With our services, you can create an online marketplace just like Amazon and Flipkart. When your online marketplace is backed up by these high tech features, you can certainly provide the best online shopping experience to your customers as well.

If you want to create your own online marketplace, get in touch with our expert team at Cedcommerce, today!