• Lafarge has engaged in e-commerce to standardize its market,
• With Lafarge people can build houses in Zimbabwe from anywhere in the world,
• WhatsApp chatbot is helping, guiding customers to do online purchases.
Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe is the leading industry in producing the best quality of building materials in Zimbabwe, operating the market with good quality of cement and other cement-based products, now it has upgraded its marketing standards into more of e-commerce, the E-Verse which includes, Mr Bina the online store and Muvaki, a Digital Assistant.
Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe is engaging more into e-commerce, in so doing the company is giving customers a room to purchase building materials online, by introducing an online store (Mr Bina/Lafarge’s Binastore) accessed via the website www.binastorezimbabwe.com offering the services 24 hours daily, they can purchase cement, tiles, Rhinoset and other building materials.
Lafarge cement cost varies with a type like Masonry 22.5, Lafarge PC32.5, Lafarge SupaSet, prices in USD; $6.09, $8.04 and $9.05 respectively. People can now build their dream houses in Zimbabwe from anywhere in the world with Lafarge by simply purchasing the required building materials like floor and wall tiles, roof tiles and toilet suites through Mr Bina.
Registered retail agents can digitally order hardware products and pay online, for ordinary customers to order cement straight from Lafarge, they must order at least 30 tonnes, for the benefit of customers advisable for customers to be registered with Lafarge. Payment methods and details are also provided for customers to processes their payments online, Lafarge encouraged customers to quote their account numbers as a reference whenever they do their transactions, the company uses Eco-cash Merchant codes and four banks; Stanbic Bank, Ecobank, CBZ and Standard Chartered Bank.
For the customers convenient, Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe also created a digital Customer Care Assistant (Muvaki) on WhatsApp, which can be easily accessible to everyone. Muraki is an automated online chatbot developed to give an adequate response to several structured questions like product prices and help for online shopping as well as directing customers to responsible customer’s services depending on their requests. The chatbot will notify you if the conversation has ended so that people start again a conversation or to choose a different option if they need more clarification on Lafarge services.
Most companies are adapting into technology to boost their marketing levels by allowing customers to do online payment which saves time and transport costs to and from physical stores, digital marketing is the way out for businesses, therefore, small companies and entrepreneurs should copy these standards.
