Since its launch in August last year Vodafone Fiji’s online retail service VitiKart has carried out more than $2 million worth of transactions for the various businesses which were listed on the platform.
During a webinar yesterday, Vodafone Fiji head of corporate affairs and E-Commerce Shailendra Prasad said more than 6000 orders had been processed through the VitiKart platform so far.
“We have currently 60,000 users that visit the VitiKart platform every month,” he said.
“On average, the sales that they do online or purchase that they do through VitiKart averages around $320, so that’s the average spend per customer.
“So you can see whilst it’s only a year into the launch of Vitikart it is already beginning to build into a significant online platform in terms of the sales numbers.”
Mr Prasad said even though these sales numbers may not be comparable with Amazon or AliExpress in terms of the dollar value however given the market size of Fiji and early stages of customers transitioning into online sales this was by no means a small achievement for a year.
He said as they added more businesses and products and as more customers and merchants got comfortable with this platform these numbers were beginning to pick up.
“We see about 52 per cent of the payment for all purchases are made by M-PAiSA and currently M-PAiSA is processing close to about $120m worth of transactions every month.
“A lot of these users are now getting comfortable using mobile payment as well as doing online shopping.
“So that’s clearly an opportunity for business and if you are not in the space than you are definitely missing out.”
The other 48 per cent of the transactions was said to have been made through Visa and MasterCard, debit and credit cards.
“This is mainly done by Fijian diaspora abroad who are purchasing for their families in Fiji and paying from overseas and these items are then either picked up by the family member or delivered directly to their homes,” said Mr Prasad.
“Vodafone currently processes close to about $16m every month, international money transfers from abroad where families send money to Fiji.
“This is a sizable amount and now accounts for almost 28 to 30 per cent of the overall international money transfers into Fiji.”
He said the VitiKart platform also provides the Fijian diaspora overseas to ensure their money was not being abused by family back home.
“One of the things that a lot of these people who send money from overseas are asking us is when they send money to the recipient in Fiji, they really don’t have much control on the person receiving the money on how they spend it,” said Mr Prasad.
