Zimpost moves to digitisation

Zimpost moves to digitisation
Published: 21 May 2018
State-owned postal and courier services company, Zimpost, has introduced two new digitised services namely the Virtual Post Office and the Zimpost Mall.

The organisation is seeking to transform its services provision from being entirely manual based and moving to the electronic platform and also to the mobile platform.

Zimpost acting managing director, Mr Sifundo Moyo, told The Herald Business that the organisation wants to provide services that bring convenience to customers.

The transformation is also aimed at bringing services that are in line with levels that are found anywhere in the world especially other leading postal organisations.

The Virtual Post Office is an online customer portal where customers can access or they can interact with Zimpost virtually. It is a substitution of an actual physical visit to the post office because the site provides services offered by the physical post office.

Mr Moyo said the company wanted its customers to find it much easier to do business with the postal and courier services firm without necessarily going to the post offices.

"What customers can do now is they can go to our web page and then take a tour of the post office virtually. And we have various service categories. The person can go to the area they have interest. If the person has questions or queries — it is an interactive site, they can ask questions on the responded tour and it's just a matter of touching a button and the response comes out.

"We are now able to give people the capability of finding out the cost of the item they want to post.
"Once they enter the information on the particular field they get a response. And we also have services that can be obtained online. For instance if someone wants to rent a post office box, say in Bindura, he can go to the post office site and then go to Bindura and send an enquiry to see if there is a box available.

"If there is a post office box for renting, the response will come out there and there. If it's not available, the response will also come," said Mr Moyo.

The second digitised service is the Zimpost Mall which is an online shopping site. The company now has an E-shop which provides space for interaction between buyers and sellers.

The company has replaced the manual way of buying goods and sending goods with the new web-based system. The site can be reached by going to the Zimpost Mall website.

Mr Moyo said SMEs who ordinarily struggle to access markets outside Zimbabwe can now do so on the platform by uploading their products which will be seen by the world at large.

It also provides an opportunity for family members outside the country to buy goods online for relatives in Zimbabwe and they will be delivered by Zimpost.

"As Zimpost, being part of the Universal Postal Union, which is a family of all the post offices in the world we are able to have goods delivered to any part of the world without any challenge.

"Someone in the UK can purchase groceries for someone in Zimbabwe through our Mall website. For example, if they pick Pick n Pay on our platform this buyer can see the items while he is in the UK and place orders and pay using visa cards or whatever card they have. The instruction will then come to Zimpost and to Pick n Pay to say these items have been bought and are to be delivered to the given destination.

"When you make an order, the system requires that you specify where you want the items delivered, and the order will be prepared and the delivery will be done," added Mr Moyo.

As the programme progresses, more E-tailers and companies from different sectors will be available on the platform allowing for ease of access of products for both customers in Zimbabwe and those outside.

Mr Moyo also told The Herald Business that anyone can sell online. The E-shop will allow customers to compare prices of commodities from the various registered shops and also save transport as time progresses.
- the herald
Tags: Zimpost,

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