By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

An online delivery provider yesterday revealed it is creating an app to provide “digital storefronts” for small businesses struggling to develop such solutions of their own.

Granville Collie, MUTRU’s managing director, told Tribune Business he is “providing a solution” for clients who want to use his delivery service but do not have a website through which to sell their products. The “MUTRU app” will launch next month in a bid to help Bahamian micro and small businesses sell their goods online while also employing his delivery service at the same time.

Mr Collie said: “Over our time in business we realised that a lot of our clients that we would have been approaching didn’t have a website or any way to sell products online. So the app is pretty much a direct response to one of the biggest challenges we’ve seen in terms of small business while we have been in business. So we are just providing a solution for them.

“We understand that a lot of small businesses can’t afford to pay for a website or afford to have an online presence, so we decided to invest the money into the app so we can have a solution for them.”

The MUTRU app is launching next month, with 20 small businesses currently in the process of being on-boarded. Mr Collie said he is looking to “increase that significantly” before the end of July. “Everything will be launching at the end of the month in terms of the marketing and the store, so we’ll be taking The Bahamas by storm to try and get as many businesses on board as possible,” he explained.

Pledging to “bridge the gap” between MUTRU and its customers, Mr Collie said what he is offering is a “digital storefront” for small businesses “where they can have their products showcased on our app. Customers will be able to go into the app to pick out any store in The Bahamas and select the products they want, and pay for it right through the app and then have it delivered by us”.

He added: “This doesn’t really make our job that much easier. This is just really a solution for our clients. The only part of it that would make our job easier would be in the case of customers that we collect cash on behalf of. Because when everything is now sent through the app, we wouldn’t have to manually calculate those numbers and figures as the app would do it all for us.”

MUTRU has no plans to move away from cash-on-delivery as some clients still prefer this option, but Mr Collie said his digital payment services provider, SunCash, has enabled the business to accept electronic payments.

Mr Collie added: “I don’t really have any complaints about SunCash, except for maybe it takes too long to get paid from them. You have to get it in a cheque or, if it goes directly to your bank account, it takes a few days, so for a small business that is a bit difficult, but it is what it is and you just have to deal with it.

“If you’re a small business owner, you may not have a storefront, or if you do have a storefront, as simple as getting online and having a website online and having the ability to accept transactions online, there’s a lot of hoops you have to run through for that.

“The exchange control, Central Bank issues and PayPal do not really exist for Bahamians unless you jump through the hoops that you need to, but a lot of businesses can’t do that.”