Begin Your Online Shopping Experience at www.belizeon.bz
All over the country, businesses have been choked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most have been shifting their way of doing business to be able to stay in the market. Tonight, we introduce BelizeOn. Now, once you have access to internet, almost anyone can buy or, for that matter, sell their products on this new online e-commerce platform. The platform is new to Belize; it places vendors of locally made and imported products at your fingertips at anytime of the day. All you need to do is log in to the virtual marketplace and order; your shopping will be sourced and delivered to you without the hassle of going to the stores. You save time and money. Here is how it works with Duane Moody.
Duane Moody, Reporting
It’s an online e-commerce platform where you can source and buy almost anything Belizean from small, medium or large scale entrepreneurs; particularly those uniquely branded souvenirs or products from artisans, the agro-processing sector, groceries an d even clothing. BelizeOn provides a virtual shopping experience, similar to that of Amazon or Ebay with shipping between one to three days and your purchases are delivered right at your door.
Michael Fuller
Michael Fuller, Marketing Manager, BelizeOn
“We were looking for a way to help out Belizeans on a whole. There are a lot of Belizean made products out there that a lot of people don’t know about. I myself, when I go to PG or any remote area of the country, I’d stop at a souvenir shop just to peek in and see what the tourists are buying—stuff that’s not necessarily available at supermarkets in Belize. And you would be surprise that there are a lot of Belizean-made products out there that a lot of people don’t know about. So we were looking at those people first and how we could promote them in a bigger arena. We don’t shop outside of the country to bring in for you. We have Belizean businesses who import products into the country. We are talking about alcohol or apparel or jewellery; that can be found on BelizeOn. Apart from that, you have products like honey, car care products, soaps—all different kinds of soaps—food products, salsas, meats—you could buy fresh meat on BelizeOn. So it is literally a place where you can go browse. We have over a thousand two hundred products right now and you can shop in one area without having to go out in, waiting in lines, being in contact with people—I know with COVID-19 we wanna keep that distance still. But the site is really there so you can relax and find literally anything that you need.”
It’s a multivendor site that serves as a bridge between a wide range of vendors and customers from all over the country as well as persons overseas. It is all at the tip of your fingers—be that through your mobile devices or while at home on a desktop. A simple click of your browser gives you access to a list of products that you can add to your cart, checkout and then pay for the items.
It is cheaper for the vendors who buy in as well as the customers.
Michael Fuller
“We were looking on how we can get vendors to not have to pay so much when it comes to commission for getting their products out there. I mean some of these people are start-ups, they are entrepreneurs, they don’t really have tonnes of money to promote their business. And so if you really think about an online platform, you are avoiding rent, you’re avoiding having to pay for shelf space or competing with shelf space. You have one area where your products are being displayed to literally everybody in Belize and outside of Belize, Belizean Americans or Belizeans living aboard. And you get it delivered to anywhere in the country, I mean even the remote areas of the country.”
A number of agro-producers attached to the Belize Marketing and Development Cooperation are taking advantage of the great opportunity to get their products into homes.
Amir Marin
Amir Marin, Marketing Officer, Belize Marketing and Development Cooperation
“They provide a service that we can reach to a larger community or market. So we facilitate that service to our stakeholders that work along with us in terms of the agro-processing unit. So we promote their products, homemade Belizean products. So we access a wider market and with that we get the opportunity to list various products, actual Belizean products.”
Carolyn Wade
Carolyn Wade, Sales Manager, Karl H. Menzies Co. Ltd.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase all our products. Most people when they walk into the store, some can’t make it and some find it easier for them to go online and shop. With that we can show them everything that we have. The good part with BelizeOn, the products you can put on it are unlimited. So whatever type of products we have from any of our divisions, from surface solutions, we carry automotive paints and house paints, we can put those products on BelizeOn and it’s open to the public.”
Michael Fuller
“We’ve had traffic of up to three point five million people every month looking through our stuff, clicking through, engaging with us. And these are people within the country and Belizeans living abroad or people who just want to buy for Belizeans living in the country because you can do that. You can shop outside of the country and have it delivered to someone here. Apart from social media, our highest point on the site so far has been about twenty-six thousand shoppers at one given point.”
There are a number of packages are available for vendors to get on the platform.
Michael Fuller
“To get onto the site is pretty easy. You full out a form, send us your product information—meaning your title, description, price, basic information and pictures. After we get that it is between one to two business days that we get your products up on the site.”
The site also has a chat function for those who may want a specific product. BelizeOn will find a vendor who has that product and notify you when it is available online. So begin your online shopping experience at www.belizeon.bz
