ShopZetu, a Kenyan fashion e-commerce firm, wants to trial regional delivery services in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda before expanding beyond Kenya, where it will begin in 2021, thanks to a $1 million pre-seed fundraising round that was recently closed according to .
Chui Ventures spearheaded the pre-seed round, which included Launch Africa, Roselake Ventures, and Logos Ventures. Kendall Tang, CEO of RT Knits; Ben Munoz, co-founder and CEO of Nadine West; Sumit Bhasin of Estee Lauder Inc; Patricia Ithau, CEO of WPP Scangroup; and Peter Njonjo, co-founder and CEO of Twiga Foods are among the angel investors that participated in the round.
With respect to the expanding requirements of Africa’s youthful and style-conscious women, the firm plans to expand its portfolio with beauty and home décor categories.
This is due to the fact that it is presently scaling regionally over the next few months, while also striving to recruit worldwide fashion companies and more than triple the number of sellers on its platform to 1,000.
ShopZetu aspires to be the top lifestyle portal by increasing its services in beauty, skincare, hair, and home décor, which are all reflections of one’s identity.
“We want to be a one-stop shop,” said ShopZetu CEO Marvin Kiragu, who co-founded the firm with Wandia Gichuru, co-founder of prominent Kenyan fashion brand Vivo.
According to Kiragu, ShopZetu was developed out of the necessity for a multi-brand marketplace to bridge a highly fragmented business with “hundreds of thousands of sellers” both locally and online, including on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. This, he added, makes the shopping process difficult, as it lacks price transparency and customer trust.
He went on to say that because there are an endless number of different stock-keeping units, it is practically impossible for any single player to house the full assortment in a single physical place.
ShopZetu’s approximately 300 sellers, including large and small local makers and traders of imported fashion products, have over 20,000 products listed on the ShopZetu marketplace.
Vendor onboarding is free; however, they must pay a commission on platform sales as well as any supplementary services such as shipping.
According to Kiragu, the business also provides merchants with content, digital marketing, warehousing, last-mile delivery, and returns management. These services are not free, but they are heavily subsidized to assure vendor success online.
“Our goal is to reduce the barriers to starting and scaling a fashion brand by leveraging ShopZetu’s reach and resources.”
We have good case studies of brands that were incubated and launched on ShopZetu before scaling online and establishing physical stores,” he said.
The startup wants vendors selling on the marketplace to be well-stocked, have high-quality products, and offer inclusive sizing, among other things.
The firm claims to have served over 30,000 users and sold over 100,000 products in the last two years, with a 400% rise in monthly orders since January 2021.
According to ShopZetu, it is interested in the expanding fashion business in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is now dominated by used apparel.
Startups like ShopZetu, on the other hand, are counting on inexpensive new apparel options and Africa’s burgeoning fashion-conscious, tech-savvy populace.
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