Elijah Olusehinde Kolawole, the CEO and founder of The Owlet, an easy-to-navigate digital market has restated its commitment to democratising shopping in Africa through Owlet.
Owlet is Africa’s first social media marketplace and is defined by tech aficionados as one of the amazing new digital products rocking the ecosystem.
Born in Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, a country plagued by traffic and a growing population, the mathematics graduate from Osun State University saw congestion and overpopulation firsthand. When he moved in with his aunt in Ogun State, he witnessed the inefficiency of the physical markets.
The Owlet is Africa’s first social media marketplace. Its goal is to revolutionize shopping on the continent by allowing entrepreneurs to earn more from their businesses without the high overhead of a physical shop.
It also seeks to provide a better connection between consumers and merchants to simplify shopping on the continent.
For consumers, The Owlet offers convenience by allowing buyers to purchase over five million products from over 10,000 sellers all across Africa.
According to the company, business owners can now have their digital shop. The Owlet helps them earn more by providing an easy-to-navigate platform that allows customers to easily purchase the items or services you are selling.
“You can now do your grocery shopping without worrying about lugging heavy bags or buying what you don’t need. The Owlet is a digital market that offers entrepreneurs and customers better shopping experiences,” the company said.
“I keep telling people that building The Owlet was not even the hard part, but they never believe me. The hard part came when we had to run campaigns to bring business owners online. For a brand built on being online, we had to ditch everything we knew about online marketing and walk into the streets to get people to try our marketplace. For young people, adoption of our product was easy. For the older generation, it took a lot of convincing for them to trust our brand,” Kolawole said.
The physical marketing method also brought his young team together and bonded them even closer.
“You may not know this but there is a major youth empowerment drive powering The Owlet. We set out to create employment for as many young people as possible. The average age of the team is between 24 and 25 years. Our team comprises of brilliant social media and marketing experts trying to impact the world in their own way and we are so proud about all we are achieving.”
In the words of the CEO, The Owlet wants to improve the shopping experience across Africa. The business model was hyper-criticized especially when Elijah said he would not be looking for investors and self-fund the entire project.
“Our lights are on, and they are in no danger of being turned off. All our staff are paid promptly and in full. Our freelancers and interns are striving bullishly to secure permanent positions. We have one of the best employer brands around.
“Even if I go back to when we first started, I’d still do it the same way. I wouldn’t have it any other way. We don’t have to worry about what we are doing with investor funding, and we don’t have to explain anything to anyone but ourselves. We have no exit strategies. We are just taking bold and exciting steps at will. When we misstep, we take a step back and analyze before moving on,” CEO, The Owlet stated.
The Owlet connects business owners with consumers through a marketplace that offers a convenient and hassle-free way to shop. It is a revolutionary marketplace that intends to change the eCommerce industry, eliminating the inefficiencies of the old guard with their antiquated business models.
