TechInAfrica – Products from Africa, especially crafting goods like cultural antiques, art, and collectibles are slowly being noticed globally. Most of the time, these products are modestly handmade and are also sold to the region’s locals—which makes us wonder, there has to be a reason why those products aren’t sold globally despite their growing popularity. One of the main reasons why these goods aren’t emerging effectively in the global market is the lack of platform to do so. Flexi Africa, a Zimbabwe-based e-commerce platform, addresses the growing interest of products from Africa internationally.

Flexi Africa promotes retail stores and manufacturers of African products to open up their own online store on the platform—for the whole wide world to see and buy them. Each and every individual seller has their own liberty to shortlist the things they’d want to sell; not just limited to cultural antiques or homemade art pieces, but they can also sell phones, speakers, laptops, or other manufactured goods. The sellers are also expected to take the pictures of the goods they want to sell, along with writing a detailed description so that they wouldn’t leave the buyers puzzled.

The best thing? They can do it at the convenience in their own homes.

In addition, sellers can also design and upload their business logos to be displayed on their respective profiles, as well as the feasibility to upload their own portfolio in order to attract more customers in their network.

Why was Flexi Africa founded?

Speaking with Nass Aoun, Co-Founder & CFO of the company during one of our podcast sessions (it will be out very soon, I promise!), he commented that Flexi Africa was initially founded to bridge the gap between African businesses, individual sellers and global buyers. For foreigners, cultural artworks and clothing pieces from Africa can be so much more interesting than it is for locals. Furthermore, the consumer class of Africa is growing exponentially, in which it would serve as a contributing factor to the macroeconomy of the region.

In other words, Flexi Africa is a framework to bring African businesses in the world’s spotlight. This is achieved by the extensive marketing trend that the startup implements—and such notion is best to be applied in Zimbabwe first.

Why Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe, often regarded as one of the most staggering economic scenes in the continent, serves as Flexi Africa’s entry point. Despite this, the e-commerce sector of the nation has more than doubled in the last four years, and Flexi Africa aims to stand at the epicenter of this growth. With an economy in billions and GDP of 16.29 billion USD, Zimbabwe poses a hefty potential for Flexi Africa to reach out to other countries—both in Africa and also globally.

Other than the opportunity presenting itself via the overall growth of the nation, Zimbabwe is also a place where management is easy for the founders—in certain aspects, of course. For the initial steps of Flexi Africa, effectiveness and clever governance play key roles in developing it to its pinnacle.

Who is Flexi Africa’s delivery partner?

Okay, so you might be wondering, with a platform as seamless as Flexi Africa, it might be hard for foreign buyers to conduct a full-fledged transaction with local sellers. Well, buyers shall not fret as Flexi Africa partners itself with the world-renowned DHL. When it comes to delivery and logistics, DHL is a conglomerate that doesn’t need any introduction. Hand-in-hand with DHL, sellers are provided the easiest ways to deliver the goods to their designated buyers, both locally and globally. In addition, both parties can track their delivery real-time thanks to DHL’s tracking services.

Flexi Africa has been built on the pillars of hard work, honesty and trust. The company believes that they are the fundamental qualities that are required to move forward in the continent’s dynamic and highly competent market.