His online store sells clothing and shoes and delivers them to you where you are. The store will soon include jewellery and other accessories. The digital age is here, and this National University of Lesotho (NUL) second year student, Lebona Mosala, is part of it.
If you sell clothing and shoes, you can come to this store for help. If you want to buy, you can browse the store, choose what you want, pay using mobile money or bank account and then expect your products delivered to you.
Here it is: https://tranique.com. His digits: +266 68620871 or +266 58152316.
There is an interesting story to tell behind this company he calls Tranique.
“I was raised by my grandmother because I grew up without both my parents,” Mosala said as he related the story of where he believes his love for business came from. “My grandmother was struggling to make ends meet but still, she put bread on the table through a business of selling clothes.”
Mosala said he thought her mother’s clothing business left a strong mark on him, “especially when I realised I and my sister could live out of it.”
(Become part of innovation by joining PhuthaLichaba, the Future Bank of the People: www.phuthalichaba.com).
When he went to High School, the grandma could no longer afford to pay for some of his school fees. So the Government took over. However, even that was not enough to satisfy all his needs, so “I had to do something to fend for myself.”
There would come a lifeline.
“My school gave me a job for which it paid me.” He had to either build new chairs or repair broken ones. That work did not only help him pay for some of his school needs, it made him realise that in order to support himself, he had to get into business.
That built on the love for business already created by the grandma. As we always say, grandmas are some of the most important people in your life because, normally, they don’t teach by words.
Their actions speak louder.
Then he left High School and got into the National University of Lesotho (NUL).
Even in there, the entrepreneurial spirit was still eating him up. So he joined a business of selling tooth pastes and soaps. That didn’t quite click. He explored different business ideas and listened very carefully as others gave their views on what business opportunities existed out there.
One of those ideas connected.
“The idea is that we live in the digital age and we are yet to really use the internet commerce, especially in Africa,” he said. That was a revelation. However, he then took the long route. He explored using the already existing platforms such as those found in China to buy products from there and sell them in Lesotho.
Just as he was exploring, Covid hit!
People who were already in the line of business started complaining about how difficult it was to import from China.
That got him thinking.
What if?
What if he started similar online stores here in Lesotho? What if, instead of Chinese online stores, he created a store that buys from Basotho and sell to Basotho.
He retooled.
So he turned his attention to the newfound idea and contacted developers who assisted him to build an online store, tranique.com.
It works this way.
You can either sell your own products over the platform or come as a buyer. The clothing is not his. He displays products of other businesses although he hopes to include his own going forward.
So what has been the response so far?
He had observed Basotho’s shopping habits before he started and he did not think they were particularly inclined to buying online. Yet he started the business anyway. Much to his surprise, people started buying.
“I cannot say we are a roaring success yet but the fact that people are buying at all is a success in itself.”
He also found that registering a business makes one’s products authentic. “Since online business is a strange idea, people are understandably worried over doing commerce with those they only meet online.” So the surest way to gain trust is to start by registering a company. In that way, you gain the trust of both the buyers and the sellers.
Deliveries are done through post offices, shipping to using cars or meet-up deliveries, whatever suits the situation.
(Become part of Innovation by joining PhuthaLichaba, the Future Bank of the People: www.phuthalichaba.com).
