Many companies are embracing “e-commerce,” or business conducted online over computer networks, as a means of expanding markets, improving customer service, reducing costs, and enhancing productivity. Companies have traditionally used computers to manage their product and customer data. Now, however, advances in networking technology have enabled firms to streamline their transactions with suppliers, distributors, and retailers through the electronic exchange of information.
State-owned postal and courier services company, Zimpost, has introduced two new services namely the Virtual Post Office and the Zimpost Mall.
The Virtual Post Office is an online customer portal where customers can access or they can interact with Zimpost virtually. A virtual P.O. Box means you can access your mail 24/7, all from the convenience of your smartphone.
The e-commerce site will provide users with the ability to purchase goods from brands including books, African art and more.
As consumers become more accustomed to e-commerce. It is creating a race to conquer the “last-mile” space, with parcel carriers, traditional fleets, and startups seeking the most efficient ways to deliver small packages as well as oversized and irregularly shaped goods directly to consumer’s homes.
Local entrepreneurs, who intimately understand the accuracies of their respective markets and are willing to get their hands dirty and build out the required end to end solutions, enabled by local logistics, payments and optimized by data and technology, will reap outsize rewards in a business that once at scale, will be hard to replicate, even by much better capitalized global competitors. As the saying goes: “if it ain’t hard, it ain’t worth doing!”.
