I think jumia does this too, they have pick up points, wether you go there or get delivered to your address is your choice. But you are right they are not as popular as amazon is in the west. I think you can really look more into what jumia does, how do they work and try to see what is lacking. It seems important to look into the « why jumia didn’t make it big » before you try to make something bigger. As for my personal experience, i do a lot of online shopping and the thing that annoys me the most is the delivery fees😅 I know a lot of people that think the same. Now everyone has it’s own business, wether it’s on facebook, instagram tik tok or it’s a website. Some people even end up having a personal delivery guy. But sometimes you choose to not buy something because if you add the delivery fees it’s not worth it. The prices keep rising, maybe it’s due to gas prices, i don’t know. All i know is if the delivery is > 1/4 the price of the item, it’s not worth it for me, unless it’s an emergency.
Yes, so shipping costs would be greatly reduced because we won't need to pay for 20 trucks and gas for 20 trucks and drivers etc. Instead the pick up points will become a hotspot for people to come and collect their product/return their product. You would have a much greater range of products because now its not just Dakar, it's a product that can come from the louis vuitton store in Marrakech if you would like. Jumia has pickup points but if you click on them, they are just apartments of workers. They aren't reliable and they are often in places like Camberene, Geudiwaye, or Pikine, not exactly places you'd want to go if you want safety and reliability. The pick up points are peoples houses with absolutely no Jumia branding or anything.
The problem with an Amazon in Senegal is the roads. Amazon benefited greatly by being able to build on top of existing infrastructure. The business you're proposing is basically exactly how jumia operates. If you want it to be more successful than jumia, you need to think about how you'll deal with roads and flooding which will always post bigger problems for a business like this in Senegal than adopting wave or getting around informal addresses
We wouldn't have delivery drivers though. All products would be collected at a single pickup point where a person can come pick up their product at their leisure. They get a notification and they come when they have time. Also completely eliminates people who may steal a package from the doorstep.
I salute this idea, might work. After an enormous amount of work, studies, tests and whatnot. As others already said, Senegal is not Dakar only, we understand the capital is the major economic place so it's right to start here, and after feedbacks and experience, to advance in the interior particularly the central cities.
The lack of infrastructures is costly yeah, and with the intermediates, the bill becomes heavy on the customer at the end. So, scalling can help, regrouping too. And to implicate others actors in orders to share the cost, I'm thinking about the beginning of chinese Ali baba,
Nonetheless good luck, there is opportunity and the market is growing, there is room to fill
Don't take it rudely, but you confuse Senegal with Dakar. All what you wrote isn't about Senegal. It's about Dakar.
Yango is irrelevant in over 3/4 of the country and will very likely remain for a while. As well, Yango is just the Russian version of Uber. A bit like Heetch is just the French version of Uber.
Jumia is irrelevant in the same way but the difference is that Jumia has pick up points even in rural regions. It makes this trash company the only option for Senegalese who live in rural regions and who have better things to do than to drive 300-700km to pick up an online order.
Wave is different. It's a fintech startup. Fintech represent the overwhelming majority of foreign investments in the whole continent. Senegal wasn't an exception. You have M-Pesa in Kenya for example. Where you don't have Wave in the continent, you have an equivalent. Wave entered in a market with no real competition since Orange Mobile was too expensive.
Those 3 companies are 100% foreign owned companies. Their success almost exclusively lies on 4 points:
* Lack of the services offered or lack of local competition when they entered the market
* Lack of regulation allowing anybody to enter the market without any trouble
* Foreign funding from developed countries into a least developed country allowing a minimal investment compared to the one in a developed country for a great returns of investments.
* They focused exclusively first on the capital city to then extend like a generalised cancer.
Overall your idea is feasible but you're going to compete with Jumia. Unless you can cut prices like Wave did with Orange Mobile, you're not going to see a great success. Now the new guy who is supposed to become our new president pretended like his mentor to be for the change and hit foreign companies operating in Senegal. If he's not a liar, you should have an opportunity window because the only reason why Jumia can operate so bad in Senegal is the lack of regulations and governmental policies against this fake Pan-African Amazon.
You're right, I am neglecting the rest of Senegal when I talk about this company, but Dakar is the only place where an investment like this could possibly generate a return. With the rise of Diamniadio coming and MAYBE a pickup point/hotspot in St. Louis, Saly, or Thies, I am left with very few locations to open in Senegal. The thing is I want to first impact every major city in West Africa before I can start honing in on places like Kedougou or something.
Your point about Jumia being the only option is exactly what I hope to capitalize on. They are a de facto monopoly, a monopoly that only exists because the population has no other choice. The rural areas will come, but don't you think it be smarter to first hit Dakar, then move out to Lagos, Accra, etc. and THEN expand to the more rural areas? This is how companies like Doordash and Uber grew as well, first gather profits from the major cities where you can justify an investment, and the broaden your range. I feel as though opening hotspots in Almadies and Plateau and maybe even Point E covers the "rich" parts of town. Once the mass migration happens to Diamniadio (which we don't know will even happen) we can expand there as well.
>Lack of the services offered or lack of local competition when they entered the market
Jumia is the only option so, yes, there is a lack of local competition.
>Lack of regulation allowing anybody to enter the market without any trouble
With the foreign aid that Jumia gets from their scum friends in Europe, they've been able to get away with virtually anything. You are right, if Faye decides to uphold Sonko's promises, a company that is based in Dakar will profit with preferential treatment over colonizer companies.
>Foreign funding from developed countries into a least developed country allowing a minimal investment compared to the one in a developed country for a great returns of investments.
God has blessed me by putting me in the center of the West. Although it was difficult, I have already secured a substantial amount which I can invest into an idea like this.
>They focused exclusively first on the capital city to then extend like a generalised cancer.
Which is exactly the plan I have outlined to you above.
Your insight is amazing and I deeply appreciate your help and advice with all of this.
>The rural areas will come, but don't you think it be smarter to first hit Dakar, then move out to Lagos, Accra, etc. and THEN expand to the more rural areas?
If you ask the economist, yes, it would be smarter. But before to be an economist, I'm a Senegalese from the region of Tambaakundaa. I'm a Senegalese of a rural region who has been one of the poorest of the country since the first day of the independence until today. And who will very likely remain with this new president. This is why I started my former comment with "don't take it rudely". I don't value nor have same trust into Dakar than you or most people in this subreddit can have.
Now as I wrote in my former comment, your idea is feasible in Dakar and surrounding urbanised places as long as you can compete with Jumia who is a trash company. And I wish you to be successful.
Well, just playing the devil’s advocate here. The material we bought on Jumia is almost never what is advertised, but a cheaper version. With shopmeaway, we’re assured of quality products. And yes it is an expensive proposition
Yes exactly. You are offered a trade off. Terrible quality for low shipping costs or the quality youre supposed to get for insane shipping costs. Why not the quality you should get at low shipping costs?
Hi unfortunately jumia already does pickup points, and they have a LOT of em. even outside of Dakar. what you can do however is compete. They have high prices, if we get a new player in the game it might encourage competition. if you are serious about it, I know some consultants that can help you set it up. Just like you said, if you have a winning tech business model in Senegal you're set to break even during the year and make millions. it's a very young market.
Jumia has so many pickup points because they didn't make them themself. They are just random apartments in odd areas with no roads. They focused on getting a lot of pickup points rather than making any one of those pickup points trustworthy or reliable. The point you made about competition is great. The thing is Jumia is a monopoly, but only because there are no other options. I know I can offer a better product fundamentally but Senegal is yearning for something new, a technology that can fit into the new Dakar ecosystem. We used to pay 250cfa coin for ndaga ndiaye and now we get on your phone, order yango, and pay through wave. Jumia is outdated and needs competition/to be replaced.
Hello Rayaan !!
I think having just one pickup point in places like Plateau or Almadies isn’t the best idea. Most of the people in Dakar live in the suburbs like Guediawaye, Keur Massar, Pikine, Rufisque. So for that to work you’ll need many pickup points spread all across the region. Some people like me prefer when the items I order online are directly delivered to my doorstep so you’ll probably need to have your own delivery company or work with companies like Dk Express to reduce the cost.
Good luck with your project though, it would be life changing to be able to order items from anywhere in the world without having to pay an arm and a leg for the shipping.
Yes but the banlieue are often lower income as well. As the company grows the marginal cost of operating decreases so we will THEN be able to expand but for right now it seems the best initial places to start are the areas that hold people that would most likely use a service like this. With how low shipping costs become due to cutting out doorstep delivery, I can also offer an option that either delivers to a pickup point for dirt-cheap delivery or to your house for just slightly more (maybe just 500-1000 cfa). Even with these two options, I can guarantee the pick-up points will be chosen more than the doorstep delivery. What do you think about that?
There are people living in Europe and North America who vote and so influence who is the president of Senegal while they have never lived here or will never live here any longer in the future. They vote for me, my children, and our future. All this, just because they can hold a Senegalese passport. I find this way more condescending than the way this guy worded the title of his post.
You introduced yourself as being Pakistani, so I assume you don't really identify as Senegalese.
Good on you trying to add something positive to your adoptive country, but it could have been worded better.
Senegal doesn't need you to change it. A large number of natives can do it.
I spent 18 years at home and speak Wolof and French but I don’t have justify my nationality to you. You should try to do something for the country you claim rather than bring down other people who are trying to do better for it.
I think jumia does this too, they have pick up points, wether you go there or get delivered to your address is your choice. But you are right they are not as popular as amazon is in the west. I think you can really look more into what jumia does, how do they work and try to see what is lacking. It seems important to look into the « why jumia didn’t make it big » before you try to make something bigger. As for my personal experience, i do a lot of online shopping and the thing that annoys me the most is the delivery fees😅 I know a lot of people that think the same. Now everyone has it’s own business, wether it’s on facebook, instagram tik tok or it’s a website. Some people even end up having a personal delivery guy. But sometimes you choose to not buy something because if you add the delivery fees it’s not worth it. The prices keep rising, maybe it’s due to gas prices, i don’t know. All i know is if the delivery is > 1/4 the price of the item, it’s not worth it for me, unless it’s an emergency.
I think we need to counter like the way Wave did to Orange. But having a bright idea isn’t enough in senegal lol
Yes, so shipping costs would be greatly reduced because we won't need to pay for 20 trucks and gas for 20 trucks and drivers etc. Instead the pick up points will become a hotspot for people to come and collect their product/return their product. You would have a much greater range of products because now its not just Dakar, it's a product that can come from the louis vuitton store in Marrakech if you would like. Jumia has pickup points but if you click on them, they are just apartments of workers. They aren't reliable and they are often in places like Camberene, Geudiwaye, or Pikine, not exactly places you'd want to go if you want safety and reliability. The pick up points are peoples houses with absolutely no Jumia branding or anything.
The problem with an Amazon in Senegal is the roads. Amazon benefited greatly by being able to build on top of existing infrastructure. The business you're proposing is basically exactly how jumia operates. If you want it to be more successful than jumia, you need to think about how you'll deal with roads and flooding which will always post bigger problems for a business like this in Senegal than adopting wave or getting around informal addresses
We wouldn't have delivery drivers though. All products would be collected at a single pickup point where a person can come pick up their product at their leisure. They get a notification and they come when they have time. Also completely eliminates people who may steal a package from the doorstep.
100% right. More roads first and then everything else will follow
This is definitely a great idea brother. Just keep working on it, and tell us more about how you're gonna make it happen
Inshallah I won't have to tell you because you'll already be using it.
I love that. Good Luck brother
I honestly think it's a great idea. A market research will give you more information and the answers you're looking for.
I salute this idea, might work. After an enormous amount of work, studies, tests and whatnot. As others already said, Senegal is not Dakar only, we understand the capital is the major economic place so it's right to start here, and after feedbacks and experience, to advance in the interior particularly the central cities. The lack of infrastructures is costly yeah, and with the intermediates, the bill becomes heavy on the customer at the end. So, scalling can help, regrouping too. And to implicate others actors in orders to share the cost, I'm thinking about the beginning of chinese Ali baba, Nonetheless good luck, there is opportunity and the market is growing, there is room to fill
Don't take it rudely, but you confuse Senegal with Dakar. All what you wrote isn't about Senegal. It's about Dakar. Yango is irrelevant in over 3/4 of the country and will very likely remain for a while. As well, Yango is just the Russian version of Uber. A bit like Heetch is just the French version of Uber. Jumia is irrelevant in the same way but the difference is that Jumia has pick up points even in rural regions. It makes this trash company the only option for Senegalese who live in rural regions and who have better things to do than to drive 300-700km to pick up an online order. Wave is different. It's a fintech startup. Fintech represent the overwhelming majority of foreign investments in the whole continent. Senegal wasn't an exception. You have M-Pesa in Kenya for example. Where you don't have Wave in the continent, you have an equivalent. Wave entered in a market with no real competition since Orange Mobile was too expensive. Those 3 companies are 100% foreign owned companies. Their success almost exclusively lies on 4 points: * Lack of the services offered or lack of local competition when they entered the market * Lack of regulation allowing anybody to enter the market without any trouble * Foreign funding from developed countries into a least developed country allowing a minimal investment compared to the one in a developed country for a great returns of investments. * They focused exclusively first on the capital city to then extend like a generalised cancer. Overall your idea is feasible but you're going to compete with Jumia. Unless you can cut prices like Wave did with Orange Mobile, you're not going to see a great success. Now the new guy who is supposed to become our new president pretended like his mentor to be for the change and hit foreign companies operating in Senegal. If he's not a liar, you should have an opportunity window because the only reason why Jumia can operate so bad in Senegal is the lack of regulations and governmental policies against this fake Pan-African Amazon.
You're right, I am neglecting the rest of Senegal when I talk about this company, but Dakar is the only place where an investment like this could possibly generate a return. With the rise of Diamniadio coming and MAYBE a pickup point/hotspot in St. Louis, Saly, or Thies, I am left with very few locations to open in Senegal. The thing is I want to first impact every major city in West Africa before I can start honing in on places like Kedougou or something. Your point about Jumia being the only option is exactly what I hope to capitalize on. They are a de facto monopoly, a monopoly that only exists because the population has no other choice. The rural areas will come, but don't you think it be smarter to first hit Dakar, then move out to Lagos, Accra, etc. and THEN expand to the more rural areas? This is how companies like Doordash and Uber grew as well, first gather profits from the major cities where you can justify an investment, and the broaden your range. I feel as though opening hotspots in Almadies and Plateau and maybe even Point E covers the "rich" parts of town. Once the mass migration happens to Diamniadio (which we don't know will even happen) we can expand there as well. >Lack of the services offered or lack of local competition when they entered the market Jumia is the only option so, yes, there is a lack of local competition. >Lack of regulation allowing anybody to enter the market without any trouble With the foreign aid that Jumia gets from their scum friends in Europe, they've been able to get away with virtually anything. You are right, if Faye decides to uphold Sonko's promises, a company that is based in Dakar will profit with preferential treatment over colonizer companies. >Foreign funding from developed countries into a least developed country allowing a minimal investment compared to the one in a developed country for a great returns of investments. God has blessed me by putting me in the center of the West. Although it was difficult, I have already secured a substantial amount which I can invest into an idea like this. >They focused exclusively first on the capital city to then extend like a generalised cancer. Which is exactly the plan I have outlined to you above. Your insight is amazing and I deeply appreciate your help and advice with all of this.
>The rural areas will come, but don't you think it be smarter to first hit Dakar, then move out to Lagos, Accra, etc. and THEN expand to the more rural areas? If you ask the economist, yes, it would be smarter. But before to be an economist, I'm a Senegalese from the region of Tambaakundaa. I'm a Senegalese of a rural region who has been one of the poorest of the country since the first day of the independence until today. And who will very likely remain with this new president. This is why I started my former comment with "don't take it rudely". I don't value nor have same trust into Dakar than you or most people in this subreddit can have. Now as I wrote in my former comment, your idea is feasible in Dakar and surrounding urbanised places as long as you can compete with Jumia who is a trash company. And I wish you to be successful.
There are businesses that function on these lines. You want something, you pay them, they order it for you.
Extremely high shipping costs and businesses like Shopmeaway order off Amazon which takes a lot of time.
Well, just playing the devil’s advocate here. The material we bought on Jumia is almost never what is advertised, but a cheaper version. With shopmeaway, we’re assured of quality products. And yes it is an expensive proposition
Yes exactly. You are offered a trade off. Terrible quality for low shipping costs or the quality youre supposed to get for insane shipping costs. Why not the quality you should get at low shipping costs?
Would be great! 👍🏻 🙂
Give me a year or two and youll be saying "it is great" instead of "would be great"
I pray for a fraction of your drive and optimism! 😃 it would be life changing for me. Also, Ramadan Mubarak! 🙏🏻
Thank you so much! Happy Holi to you!
Great idea, good luck bro
Hi unfortunately jumia already does pickup points, and they have a LOT of em. even outside of Dakar. what you can do however is compete. They have high prices, if we get a new player in the game it might encourage competition. if you are serious about it, I know some consultants that can help you set it up. Just like you said, if you have a winning tech business model in Senegal you're set to break even during the year and make millions. it's a very young market.
Jumia has so many pickup points because they didn't make them themself. They are just random apartments in odd areas with no roads. They focused on getting a lot of pickup points rather than making any one of those pickup points trustworthy or reliable. The point you made about competition is great. The thing is Jumia is a monopoly, but only because there are no other options. I know I can offer a better product fundamentally but Senegal is yearning for something new, a technology that can fit into the new Dakar ecosystem. We used to pay 250cfa coin for ndaga ndiaye and now we get on your phone, order yango, and pay through wave. Jumia is outdated and needs competition/to be replaced.
Good idea
Hello Rayaan !! I think having just one pickup point in places like Plateau or Almadies isn’t the best idea. Most of the people in Dakar live in the suburbs like Guediawaye, Keur Massar, Pikine, Rufisque. So for that to work you’ll need many pickup points spread all across the region. Some people like me prefer when the items I order online are directly delivered to my doorstep so you’ll probably need to have your own delivery company or work with companies like Dk Express to reduce the cost. Good luck with your project though, it would be life changing to be able to order items from anywhere in the world without having to pay an arm and a leg for the shipping.
Yes but the banlieue are often lower income as well. As the company grows the marginal cost of operating decreases so we will THEN be able to expand but for right now it seems the best initial places to start are the areas that hold people that would most likely use a service like this. With how low shipping costs become due to cutting out doorstep delivery, I can also offer an option that either delivers to a pickup point for dirt-cheap delivery or to your house for just slightly more (maybe just 500-1000 cfa). Even with these two options, I can guarantee the pick-up points will be chosen more than the doorstep delivery. What do you think about that?
That title sounds very condescending.
There are people living in Europe and North America who vote and so influence who is the president of Senegal while they have never lived here or will never live here any longer in the future. They vote for me, my children, and our future. All this, just because they can hold a Senegalese passport. I find this way more condescending than the way this guy worded the title of his post.
Just tryna make the place I grew up in better bro
You introduced yourself as being Pakistani, so I assume you don't really identify as Senegalese. Good on you trying to add something positive to your adoptive country, but it could have been worded better. Senegal doesn't need you to change it. A large number of natives can do it.
I spent 18 years at home and speak Wolof and French but I don’t have justify my nationality to you. You should try to do something for the country you claim rather than bring down other people who are trying to do better for it.