When the pandemic hit, business was interrupted requiring new models to improve survival chances. This was one of the lessons that entrepreneurs, Richard Migambi and his counterpart Fernand Mugisha learnt. They understood the need to find fast means in order to adapt to the shifting business climate. Their shop, Evolve, was one that catered for grocery sales, dealt with the sale of home appliances and that of health and beauty products among others. With their customer reach, they considered themselves to be finding ground in business, however, the coronavirus pandemic set in and everything changed. Reaching their customers was hard and this slowed down sales and profits. But they would later innovate to integrate digital solutions into their business operations, which allowed their venture to tap into new opportunities. They launched eMart, a digital supermarket that allows customers easily access products from the comfort of their homes. Evolve has been a major player in the small and medium enterprises’ digital transformation scene. But the pandemic came and disrupted many of customers’ business models and us, consequently, Migambi says. “Instead of giving up, we instead galvanised to launch eMart six months ago to solve challenges emanating from pandemic restrictions. We stock and sell groceries, health and beauty products as well as baby and mother items at the moment. We plan to extend our product offering to include home decor, furniture and other appliances.” They are also exploring an innovative way to sell Made-in-Rwanda products as well as creating a marketplace for them. The future of business is digital Although a number of consumers prefer to shop at traditional stores, to get the touch-and- feel experience of what they are buying, this trend is slowly changing due to today’s busy lifestyle. Therefore, ordering groceries online is becoming a viable option. Migambi however notices that there is still a long way to go in having customers adapt to this. The first challenge is to change shoppers’ mind-set to buy online rather than from physical shops and public markets. This is why we are offering some great benefits to our customers; customers shopping with eMart are guaranteed competitive prices and quality for goods, as well as free delivery in Kigali City for convenience and time saving, he says. The future of business is digital. Migambi shares how the past two decades have seen disrupted physical business models, where businesses that were slow in embracing this transformation were left behind. Technology has become one of the biggest enablers for business. It’s now unimaginable to see a business without a computer, a smart phone or a website. Bigger and progressive businesses have taken it to the point of embracing full business transformation, implementing management information systems and relying on data generated from them for their decision making. According to the entrepreneur, technology advances businesses beyond measure by enabling better service delivery, better decision making, better business operations and last but not least, sales and marketing. “Businesses that embrace technology evolve. However, technology is not yet accessible to everyone yet and that creates what’s generally called the digital divide. For a business like eMart, the more access to technology such as the internet and smartphones, that’s more potential customers we can tap into.” In addition to using tech to increase their brand presence, Migambi says their focus is also on offering the best experiences for their customers. “Our main focus is making the customer happy; we prepare and do what it takes to make that happen. It all comes down to enabling customers to find the product they are looking for easily on our app, the shopping experience and timely delivering the right product.”
