This post has been long in coming but is worth the wait :). I started my online shop Roots by Naa because I had a day job already and I knew i wouldnt be able to physically manage a shop. I also knew that social media was my easy access to many online prospective customers via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, so using socialmedia in collaboration with the website i could draw in many customers.
My first stop was Facebook where i built a Page and put up all photos of my products. This of course drew many people to the page. But Likes on a page doesnt mean a sale. One day whilst attending a Google+ event organised by +GoogleGhana, I joined a group of entrepreneurs talking about a GetAfricaOnline website created by GoogleGhana for SME's looking to sell online. I immediately created that when i got home because of reason No 1. It was FREE! I love freebies :). Initially it was slow but with frequent tweeting and updating my status with the websites link i was able to draw attention to the site. Before long orders started coming through.
The website also enables me to use its dashboard where i get to analyse the activities on the site. The dashboard gives a daily and monthly statistics of the various pages on the site. It also provides information on which country views the site most. Understanding where your prospective customers are coming from is really useful to enable you to target your products accordingly to them.
Contacting customers using email is very easy and faster and also enables me to create a customer database whereby i can send newsletters or information on new products to them. The website makes this easy as customers have to input their contact details when ordering for products.
I use #socialmedia jointly with my website by sharing new products from the site to all my #sm accounts on
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and also through my blog. This has brought more clients to my doorstep and more awareness of my products which of course translates into profitability.
In recognition of my use of the internet to power my online business, I was awarded InnovationHero by #InnovationGhana an initiative by the Ministry of Trade & Industry supported by Google. Recently the business got featured on
where success stories in Africa which are powered by web are being shared and celebrated. This initiative is by Google and its
. This is indeed a powerful initiative which will also encourage more African businesses to go online to reach the global markets.
Nothing comes without challenges but with such challenges should be the capacity to overcome them. The business is working feverishly to create easy and cost effective means of shipping to international markets and best online payment services.
The Internet is key to bringing many businesses in Africa profitable success. Share your story on Africa Connected!
Here is the video if you havent seen it yet. :)
Thank you to all clients and future clients for your patronage and support!
