MobileMandu – Buy/Sell Electronic items
Around 2019, Nepal’s e-commerce market had just started to flourish. Various e-commerce platforms were coming into the market. However, e-commerce was not only focused on electronics. Khima Subedi of Lalitpur did not see this problem as an opportunity and did not plan to operate e-commerce where only electronic materials can be bought and sold.
She has been working in the offline market of mobile and accessories through VS Group of Companies for the past 10 years, and now she feels that she should go into e-commerce. Then around 2019, the system development work was started so that only electronic goods could be bought and sold. But shortly after that, the Corona epidemic made the country very busy. Offline business, business quadrupled and online business got a chance to flourish. At that time, e-commerce boomed.
The system was being built even during the epidemic. After the system was built, MobileMandu came into operation on October 28. Khima Subedi, the managing director of the company, said that the system started to be developed in 2019, but due to various reasons including the epidemic, MobileMandu was launched on October 28.
“When I was collecting 10 years of experience in offline business, I decided that I should go online now,” she told ICT News, “then in 2019, after starting the system development work, MobileMandu has been operational since last October. The future is online.’
VS Group of Companies has been selling mobile, tablet and other electronic items in Nepal for the past 10 years. Ipro is also the official dealer of Nepal for The Great Asia brand. The company has also been selling and distributing phones under its own brand ‘Canvas’. There is a credit problem offline but not online. Again, the future is online. There is no option to go online willingly or not. For the same reason, VS Group of Companies also launched MobileMandu e-commerce after thinking that it should go online along offline.
Although e-commerce is a new concept for Subedi, she says that after planning to work on it, it takes time to manage the team. ‘E-commerce was a business of a different nature. Its market is also different. The implementation phase is also different,” said Subedi, “Initially, it took time to manage the team. After that, it took some time to research the product and find out the customer’s interest. However, we are moving forward by overcoming the challenges that come during the journey.’
Currently, 10 people are employed in MobileMandu. Accessories, tablets, home appliances, laptops, gadgets, gaming, style and sports, electronics can be purchased at MobileMandu. For that, the company has collaborated with various companies.
Try to win the trust of the customer
In Nepal, e-commerce has not been able to win the trust of customers. On top of that, it is even more difficult to win trust in electronic products. But Subedi claims that MobileMandu is working to win the trust of customers.
‘We do not sell goods by persuading customers. We do not send one item in the photo and another item. We also import and sell electronic products,’ she says, ‘even while importing, we go to the factory and maintain the quality. We don’t bring what we got because we got it cheap. If someone doesn’t like the product, we have arranged for an immediate return.’
If the customer does not like any product, the company takes the return on the same day in Kathmandu Valley, but it takes up to a week for the case outside the Valley. If a product is found to be defective, they can replace it with another product. Now even MobileMandu is getting good responses from customers.
MobileMandu’s delivery service is available all over Nepal. Khima did not give information about cooperation with Nepal Can Move for delivery. The company provides delivery service for a maximum fee of 100 rupees in Kathmandu and 200 rupees outside Kathmandu.
MobileMandu upcoming plans
In 6 months of its release, MobileMandu has caught a rhythm. Now the company plans to take it even higher. Subedi did not inform us that MobileMandu will be further refined and that new features will be introduced in the coming days. The company is also planning to introduce the MobileMandu app after some time.
Currently, vendors cannot sell their products in the mobile world. But in the future, the company plans to add a system where the vendor can create an account and sell goods.
In the future, MobileMandu has also prepared to sell IT products in wholesale form, and it has also advanced its preparations to bring its gaming accessories under the Bell brand.
For this, the company registration process has now progressed. Apart from this, in collaboration with various colleges and corporations, the work has progressed so that they provide goods at a discount.
Women in IT Sector
Subedi started doing IT business about 10 years ago. Ten years ago, women working in the IT sector were negligible. But now the interest of women in the IT sector is also increasing. But it is his experience that there is still a mindset of underestimating women.
Having studied management, she never paid attention to what society says and what others think. The confidence of ‘I can’ kept him going. That confidence has brought Subedi here today.
‘I never felt that I can’t do it because I’m a girl,’ she says proudly, ‘I don’t feel like I’m less than a boy. I don’t even feel like that.’
Learning Business with the Chinese
VS Group of Companies has been importing goods from China and distributing them in Nepal. During 10 years, Subedi saw many ups and downs. He has the experience of learning a lot about business from the Chinese while doing business.
She further says, ‘I learned a lot about business from the Chinese. They sincerely suggest that in Nepal there is always reality on one side and advice on the other. It is not our custom to think critically.’
She says that while Nepalese women are plagued by the idea that they have nothing to do, in China, 80 to 90 per cent of the frontline workers are women. She has experienced that she has also been encouraged by seeing women in China being inspired.
