Locally-owned Orion Online Mall joins Kenya's e-commerce space

Locally owned Orion Online Mall has entered the Kenya online shopping space, which has recently attracted increased activity.

The e-commerce platform, which was launched today, is expected to facilitate the purchase and sale of goods online including electronics and groceries.

“We want to offer a platform where you can order goods and services online,” said Peter Wangai, founder of Orion Online Mall.

The e-commerce sector in Africa has been on the rise and is projected to reach $28,942 million by 2022, according to a 2017 report on the digital market outlook by Statista.

The Orion platform will initially trade from its own stock as it incorporates retailers onto the website for a commission on sales.

“We will also use site traffic for advertisement revenue from corporates and advertisers,” he said.

E-commerce market

Globally, the retail e-commerce market accounted for one-tenth of the total retail sales worldwide at $2.290 trillion as of 2017, according to eMarketer.

Last year Kenyan telco Safaricom launched an e-commerce platform dubbed Masoko with 20,000 products from 160 vendors.

Kenya’s e-commerce sector is dominated by brands such as Jumia, Kilimall, Pigiame among others.

Orion will have to weather competition from new sites by Safaricom and Sky.Garden as well as market leader Jumia, which boasts of 5,000 vendors.

Orion is leveraging on an all-inclusive service provision which includes a service centre and a logistics and grocery outlet under Goldenscape Group Limited, which owns the online mall as well as Veedura Groceries Limited.