Thabo Khoza walked into our office towards the end of 2016 and we were immediately impressed with this young man with buckets of energy and a head overflowing with ideas. It’s almost hard to keep up with him as his lightning fast mind switches from one idea to the next. One thing is for sure, this guy knows what he’s doing and he is going places.
Well here we are in 2018 and Thabo’s entrepreneurial spirit is still going strong.
Introducing Abeba Technologies, (Abeba meaning flower in an Ethiopian dialect), an ecommerce company and middleman deluxe, connecting businesses and people, flowers and customers on line. “What we want to do is connect the business buyer with the business supplier”.
“Dropshipping” is a retail fulfilment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the merchant never sees or handles the product. To date Abeba has successfully completed transactions in Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal.
The biggest difference between dropshipping and the standard retail model is that the selling merchant doesn’t stock or own inventory. Instead, the merchant purchases inventory as needed from a third party – usually a wholesaler or nursery – to fulfil orders.
Abeba Flowers is an online business-to- business flower supplier. Ranging from preserved roses, fresh orchids, lilies, etc. https://www.abebaflowers.co.za/
In Thabo’s opinion the South African flower market is hyper inflated, so consumers and business are purchasing at almost 200% mark up from their online retailers, physical florists or other retailers. Thus by focusing on dropshipping direct from the nursery to the business, companies are able to save costs without losing quality.
Thabo calls White River home and he matriculated at our highly regarded Uplands College. He loves local and his message to businesses here is to think big, which he certainly does. Could Abeba Tech be part of the digitization of the South African business flower market? That’s Thabo’s “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”.
What’s next? The next gap in the market Abeba Tech is looking at is mobile nurseries in townships. Connecting experienced unemployed staff with their own basic propagation and in this area could have a big impact, with the goal to grow, distribute and sell flowers.
Thabo believes that if you can just corner your own market, you’ll beat your competitor.
This man is sure going places and White River is lucky to have him as a resident. We wish Thabo all the best in his future endeavours.
Contact:
063 779 7534
info@abebaflowers.co.za
