In Germany, grocery delivery services are more of a niche business. In countries like Ghana, the demand is much greater. Founder Cecilia Crentsil is setting up the Konzoom delivery service in Accra and knows why online grocery ordering is becoming increasingly popular there.
Note: This translation was created with AI. The original text is in German.
Need to buy two packs of milk, cornflakes and shower gel? In Germany, you cycle to the nearest supermarket. In Ghana, shopping is more complicated, even in the centre of big cities like Accra. There are only a few supermarkets and their prices are often very high.
That is why entrepreneur Cecilia Crentsil and her husband set up Konzoom, an online grocery delivery service. In an interview with WirtschaftinAfrika.de, she explains how she wants to make weekly shopping easier in Accra.
WirtschaftinAfrika (WiA): Cecilia, how did you come up with your business idea?
Cecilia Crentsil: The idea came up during the coronavirus pandemic. We were living in Germany at the time and during the lockdowns we ordered groceries from suppliers like Flinc & Co. At the same time we wanted to spend more time in Ghana. We came up with the idea of bringing the concept of online delivery services to Accra. The need for such a service is much greater there.
Market visit in Accra: relaxed shopping is different
WiA: Why?
Cecilia: Because there are very few stationary supermarkets. There is a supermarket chain called Melcom and a few big shopping centres. But the prices there are very high because the retailers import almost all the products. Also, people don’t want to go into the city centre to do their shopping. With the heavy traffic in Accra, it can easily take an hour or two. So most people shop at open-air markets in their neighbourhoods.
WiA: Is this a problem?
Cecilia: Many people don’t like it. We asked this question in many conversations with friends and acquaintances before we started. Almost everyone said the same thing: that they find going to the market stressful because the markets are very crowded and noisy. There is a lot of pushing and shoving and you have to negotiate prices all the time. As a child, I always found it very unpleasant. Alternatively, people in Accra can go to small grocery shops in their neighbourhoods. But they have a very limited range and little choice.
Ordering groceries online: a time saver for many
WiA: How does Konzoom shopping work?
Cecilia: We have developed an online shop and an app that customers can use to order their goods. When they place an order, both our drivers and our employees in our logistics centre receive a message, also via app. We promise to deliver orders within 60 minutes. We currently employ four drivers, two full-time and two part-time. In total, we now have eleven people in the team.
WiA: Which households order from you?
Cecilia: A typical customer would be a mother with two children who works as an account manager in a bank, for example. She has to get to work early in the morning and pick up the kids from school after work. This takes a long time in Accra because of the busy roads. So she’s happy when she doesn’t have to go shopping. We have many customers who have lived abroad for a while and have also bought groceries online in the USA, Canada or the UK. Some even live abroad permanently and use Konzoom to order food for their parents in Ghana.
Customer promise: low prices
WiA: How did you finance your start-up?
Cecilia: With our own savings and a bank loan. We took the loan from a German bank. The Ghanaian bank we approached first charged 22 percent interest.
WiA: What are your retail prices? Imported food is expensive in Ghana. You also deliver your products. Doesn’t that make them even more expensive than in the supermarket?
Cecilia: No. In fact, we offer many products cheaper than the local supermarkets. Here’s an example: If you buy a packet of Kellogg’s cornflakes in the supermarket in Accra, it costs about 90 Cedi, which is about six Euro. We offer the same packet for 65 Cedi, which is about two Euro cheaper.
WiA: How does it work?
Cecilia: Just like supermarkets, we buy our products directly from the importers, for example Nestle Ghana. That means we can buy at similar prices. But we have a leaner structure and less fixed costs. Our products are therefore cheaper. As well as imported products, we deliberately stock a lot of goods that are made in Ghana and do not attract import duty. This also makes us more competitive. We now work with more than 50 small and medium-sized enterprises in the country. The producers also benefit because we provide them with an additional sales channel.
Ordering groceries online: More success, more competition?
WiA: How many customers do you have at the moment?
Cecilia: We have more than 3000 registered users. About 800 of them have ordered from us at least once. We started with a marketing campaign and advertised on billboards in Accra. We are also active on social networks. We now get most of our new customers through personal recommendations.
WiA: If local food deliveries are in demand: Won’t that attract competitors?
Cecilia: Yes, it does. For example, NokNok from Lebanon has been operating in Ghana for about a year. But unlike us, they only deliver to very affluent areas. We, on the other hand, also focus on the middle class. And the overall demand is very high. More than two million people now live in Accra. So there is room for more suppliers in the market.
Looking for investors to achieve further goals
WiA: Do you have any plans to expand beyond Accra?
Cecilia: Yes, but more in the medium term. An interesting location for us, for example, is the large city of Takoradi, west of Accra. There are a lot of oil refineries there and therefore a lot of international skilled workers and comparatively high incomes. There are also interesting cities in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria. I don’t think we will have much competition from new stationary supermarkets in the foreseeable future. Many cities in West Africa are growing rapidly. Supermarket chains can’t keep up.
WiA: What are your specific goals for this year?
Cecilia: By the end of the year, we want to have a total of 100 Ghanaian producers on our platform to give customers even more choice. We are also looking for business angels. We have processed over 20,000 orders in the last few years and know that our business model works. We are now in a good position to scale the business further.
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