The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN E-Commerce company is aiming to attract 200,000-250,000 persons to its electronic and mobile commerce market within the next 12 months, a company executive said yesterday, telling Tribune Business it would have 25 retail outlets by the end of May 2012 part of its phased roll-out.

Valentino McKenzie, assistant vice-president of communications at the Bahamas E-Commerce Company, told Tribune Business the firm had invested just over $1.5 million in developing its product and platform since 2007.

"That doesn't include the marketing effort that we are going to be taking on. The market in regard to e-commerce and mobile commerce is about 200,000-250,000 persons, and those are persons we are sure we can get within the next 12 months," Mr McKenzie said.

He added that the company currently has just over 11,000 active customers using a P94 Bahamas account, representing more than 45,000 transactions per week. Mr McKenzie said: "Within one day we had 4,000 persons sign up for an account. When we seek to expand our customer base we can get those numbers to increase. While 11,000 may be a significant number to some, it is a small number to us at this point."

Mr Mckenzie told Tribune Business that the company, as part of the second phase of its roll-out, was going to put the P-94 Universal Phone Card in the hands of consumers.

The P94 Universal Phone Cards, which are in denominations of $1, $3, $5, $7, $10, $14, $20, $50 and $100, allow customers to enjoy new benefits such as free texting, airtime recharge and credit transfers, bill payment and online shopping without the use of a credit or debit card, employing mobile cash transfers. These and other services can all be done via cellular phone, over-the-phone, online, via Facebook or by visiting a P94 MSP outlet.

Mr McKenzie explained: "The card is about three times the size of what the old BTC phone card used to be. The difference is that while the P94 is a phone card, it also does what a phone card cannot do. You can make calls, top-up your account from BTC, get iTunes credits and send minutes to persons in Jamaica or Haiti through Digicel."

Mr McKenzie added: "You can also use the card to pay your BTC post-paid account, telephone account or REVOICE account. It also can be used for a host of different things like paying your light bill, water bill, cable bill, send funds to the banks and pay insurance premiums.

"You can use the card to shop online at your favorite stores like Wal-Mart, and shop on Amazon; so persons who don't have a credit or debut card can purchase goods from international websites without the need for a credit or debit card."

Mr McKenzie said the phone card also allows for more persons to be employed as street vendors, estimating that number would be about 200 nationwide.

He added that the card would also be used as a payment system for its e-bay website, which is expected to launch next month and will connect the entire Bahamas to one online market place.

According to Mr McKenzie, P94 Bahamas allows Bahamian entrepreneurs to open and manage their own online store-front for free. Customers can visit local stores and purchase products and services with the funds from their P94 account, and choose to have the products delivered to their houses or pick-up.

Mr McKenzie said the company is in the process of hiring some 20 persons, and that each retail location should be able to employ one-two additional persons. "Within the e-bay store that we are going to launch in a month from now, that alone is going to see us add at least 15 persons," Mr McKenzie said.

The Bahamas E-commerce Company is engaged in a joint venture partnership with a UK-based IT consultancy group; an international provider of IT security, electronic and mobile commerce solutions. Mr McKenzie declined to reveal the name of the UK company.