South African e-commerce platform Stockup, which specialises in convenient door-to-door delivery of wine, liquor and non-alcoholic beverages, has expanded its product offering to include gourmet chocolate-covered fruits.
Johannesburg-based Stockup, which has also added a gift registry, recently launched a free mobile lifestyle app for iOS and Android to compliment the site it launched 18 months ago.
The site and app allow users to click through an extensive list of beverages and gourmet food offerings, create a shopping cart, pay and have the products delivered to their doorstep, anywhere in South Africa.
Founder and executive director Cédric Ntumba said Stockup was inspired by many incidents where alcohol ran out while people were entertaining at dinner parties or home gatherings.
“Instead of someone jumping into a car – often someone who has already been drinking – to go and replenish the stock, we believed there had to be a more convenient way to have alcohol delivered to people’s doorsteps,” Ntumba told Disrupt Africa.
The platform prides itself in bringing convenience and offering in one place many items that are not always easy to find in physical beverage stores, with clients ranging from individuals to corporates.
Funded by a small pool of private investors, the company hopes to expand its distribution across borders.
“Regulations can be quite restrictive from country to country so we are still testing and proofing our strategy to ensure a smooth and successful expansion,” Ntumba said.
The site has seen significant traction since it launched, with users sitting at approximately 1,000 per month, and profits increasing by more than 300 per cent.
“The biggest hurdle is the initial slow uptake of online shopping in general in South Africa,” Ntumba said. “There is still some hesitation from South African consumers around e-commerce. People have hesitancy around online fraud and also wanting to tangibly feel products before purchasing, although we have seen a big change in the embracing of e-commerce since Stockup was started.”
