Trillion Looks Store is using E-Commerce and FinTech to connect Artisans to the global market. #40Days40FinTechs Initiative Season 5, Day 21
Uganda is blessed with very many quality Artisans. However, most of these are not earning as much as they would rightfully earn due to market access challenges. This market information gap is what Trillion Looks Store was established to close. It has since embedded e-commerce with financial technology (Fintech) and in so doing contributing to Uganda’s economic transformation through connecting Artisans to a wider global market.
“We are a social enterprise that works with marginalized Artisan designers to enable them produce quality products and sell them to a mass market across the globe through e-commerce. Our platform was designed for Artisans mainly men and women who make handcrafts. We encourage them to produce quality products which we then upload on our platform for potential buyers. We started this platform in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when Artisans wouldn’t access buyers due to the lockdown. So, we created a platform that would keep Artisans in business by connecting them to buyers. So, on one hand, we have the Artisan designers and on the other hand, we have the potential buyers,” Cerinah Kasirye, the Trillion Looks Store Founder said, adding;
“For customers, you simply log on to our platform and select a product of your choice. If it is a drum, you click on it and find its details. You then select the quantities you want after which the system will automatically calculate your bill depending on the country you are in. When you click buy now, the platform will then collect your basic KYC information and you will pay digitally through mobile money or bank cards. We shall then proceed to deliver your product with the help of our transport partners. The delivery time depends on where you are and we always communicate this with our customers.”
Kasirye noted that since inception, they have onboarded at-least 200 Artisans and served more than 1000 customers locally and globally. She revealed that 60 per cent of customers are women.
Trillion Looks Store has featured on Day 21 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.
Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.
With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.