In a bid to address issues in marketing made-in-Nigerian products to international retailers, Craftmerce has launched Africa’s first B2B marketplace.
When Cynthia Asije, co-founder at Craftmerce, launched her first venture, Adire Lounge, in 2015, one of the biggest problems she encountered was marketing adire to international retailers.
They wanted it, but getting it across to them was a lot of work. After a lot of trial and error, she found a long-term solution that worked for her and other brands that faced similar difficulties. This singular discovery led to the birth of Craftmerce, a B2B platform for African brands looking to access the global market.
To make Craftmerce into what it is Cynthia started building a team with the best players in the field. Amongst them is Sarah Odiavbara (CTO), who oversees the technical part of building a functional and user-friendly website that helps African brands reach retailers worldwide. After months of meticulous planning, the team has unveiled its website, along with major plans to bridge the gap between the local and international markets.
“Africa has a large market, and these industrious people deserve the opportunity to sell their products on a global scale,” said Cynthia Asije and Sarah Odiavbara, the founders in a statement.
According to them, at the heart of it, Craftmerce hopes to help African manufacturers gain access to international retailers, connect international retailers with exceptional African products that are only made via small-batch production processes and sustainably market their brands to retailers to stock their products.
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They noted that their organisation believes that these will not only bridge the gap between local and international retailers and wholesalers but also foster a long-term global business relationship.
Both founders added that Craftmerce is committed to collaborating with reputable African brands that are authentic, into small batch production of high quality, trustworthy, as well as socially and environmentally responsible goods.
They have partnered with DHL, a global logistics company, to ensure easy carriage of the brands’ products.
Currently, it has onboarded hundreds of brands across 13 African countries and a network of over 3000 retailers in the US, UK, Canada, and Europe. They hope to gain even more coverage before the end of the year.
”That new features will be rolled out after this launch, Retailers will be able to apply for Craftmerce credit; our buy now pays later (BNPL) feature to shop from African brands. Also, rolling out is an advanced credit product for African brands and manufacturers, giving them the tools and financing to scale their production,” Asije said while commenting on the organisation’s expansion plans
