NAIROBI: M-Shop is a phone-based system that allows users to buy what they want using their cell phones. This includes bus booking, airlines ticket booking and shopping online. In that event users will pay for the services and goods through mobile money services such as M-pesa, Airtel money or Yu cash. After that, the system sends a ticket number to the customers at a fee of 2.5% for every transaction. The customer will in return use that ticket to collect their goods or service at a merchant shop. Here in Kenya, that is not as simple as it sounds. “Kenyan shoppers and merchants are yet to embrace online shopping” says Marcel Auja, M-shop co-founder. “We have had to spend a lot of money to convince businesses to venture in our online transactions,” he added. “At the moment we have only one bus company but plans are underway and we will have at least three bus companies by end of this month of April. We will also have several events listed in our platform,” Auja told HumanIPO. “By the end of December 2011, we had over 13,500 transactions clocked and this was with only one bus company. We are targeting crown bus, easy coach, Transline, Kampala coach, Randa coach and many others. In airline industry, we also targeting local airlines like Jetlink and fly540,” said Auja.
