Move Over eBay, Sky Mart Is Here
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday August 31, 2020 13:02
Following his graduation, pressure of reality of unemployment back home pushed Ben to start his company, Sky Mart. The business is now a leading e-commerce outfit which serves as an online marketplace.
Ben’s journey dates back to 2012 while studying in Malaysia when he assisted Batswana students to ship back their furniture to Botswana.
“During my studies, I was always nervous of what I will do when I get back home because unemployment was growing tremendously especially for graduates,” he explained.
Ben said it all started off with families and friends and later he decided to start an import oriented online store.
According to him, he was fortunate enough that his brother who was by then in Botswana assisted with the logistics in the country and even processed all the documents for company registration.
Two years later, when Ben arrived in Botswana he opened a small office to pursue his passion. He said the reception by then was okay as people preferred to come to their office for authenticity before buying online.
“Our office was in the Main Mall and it was very small that people used to queue outside to access our services. As the business expanded we started integrating online swiping, pay-to-cell, Orange money and My Zaka,” he said.
His business grew with time and by 2016 he had about 300 stores. Consumers were also warming up to the idea of buying online as most people preferred to come and order with them to avoid cyber scamming.
According to Ben, they have been able to beat competition as they collaborate with other businesses, have a unique marketing strategy and customers prefer Sky Mart as they have been around for too long.
Ben stated that they planned to be visible in every village locally and start assisting people in those areas to sell their indigenous products online.
“Online selling has the potential as your products get exposed to the international market. Other continents have over the time shown their interest in our indigenous products. My aim is to empower locals as much as I can,” he said.
Ben is also fortunate to be the beneficiary of the first cohort of the Stanford Seed Transformation Programme, which provided them with management training, leadership team workshops and networking. The Stanford Go-To-Market is an intensive, one-week entrepreneurship boot camp which helps budding entrepreneurs gain confidence and skills to commercialise their business ideas and accelerate their route to market.
“The training was an eye-opener to me as an entrepreneur and my business. It has also exposed me to building a bond with other local entrepreneurs who have been instrumental to me,” he said.