(A column highlighting scientific, technological, engineering and design innovation in Africa)
Dibsr is a Web application that connects consumers to merchants who have physical stores but no online presence. Merchants can list their products, pricing information, location and contact information on Dibsr.com, enabling consumers to find out what products are available in physical stores around them and share the information with others.
When Dibsr co-founders – Ethiopian computer scientist Tewodros Wondimu and software engineer Zelalem Gebeyehu – showcased their technology at Demo Africa 2013, they noted that they had made it responsive enough to work on most mobile browsers.
“Offline retailers have not yet optimized for the 21st Century because they either don’t have the resources or the know-how to build or manage high-tech solutions for their stores,” Wondimu said. “Consumers are losing out because they cannot engage about products with offline retailers.”
Industry research shows that 35 percent of Africans who have access to the Internet do research online before they go out to buy offline.
Dibsr offers retailers several tools that help them to discover and connect with new customers, and to engage on a personal level with their existing customers. With the Local Updates tool, for example, merchants can promote news, events and discounts at their business. Other tools allow merchants to get analytics of their visitors and to see what the new trends are in the market.
“Dibsr provides these high-end tools to small and medium-sized businesses in a user-friendly platform at an affordable rate so that they can focus more on improving their core business and less on the details,” Wondimu.
The co-founders say Dibsr’s model of online listings is particularly effective in places like Ethiopia, where many consumers lack credit and debit cards to shop online. With only 4 percent of Africa’s population owning such cards, most people shop the traditional way – on foot, going from store to store to find products and assess prices. E-commerce is further hampered where there is an inadequate postal infrastructure for shipments.
Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, Wondimu and Gebeyehu are already looking to the future. They plan to roll out specific apps for smartphones and tablets within the year, and are also working on SMS-based solutions for new-generation phones.
