Manuyoo is an impact business. We use economic action to serve society. Impact before profit. We are a lot more than just an online retailer. Read here what is necessary to achieve our goals.
When you look at our website, you might think: well, another online retailer. And hopefully you like the products you see. Perfect. That's intentional, because that's all you need to know as a customer. But let's take a look behind the scenes:
Manuyoo is an impact company. What does that mean? It means that we use economic action (trade) to solve a global problem for society. It also means that we strive for financial sustainability, but not profit. And it means that we believe that social change can only be successful if it meets the economic needs of the stakeholders involved.
So the first entity we serve is SOCIETY. The global problem we are solving is the severe imbalance in global value add between Europe and Africa, the aftermath of hundreds of years of colonization. Solving this problem directly contributes to SDGs #1, #8 and #10.
To achieve this, we are serving our CUSTOMERS here in Europe. What do they expect? They are overwhelmed by the diversity of African-made products. They need curation and structure to reduce complexity. They expect fast delivery and confidence that products are according to the standards they are used to. They want easy and secure payment, and full EU customer rights. In addition, they need to be educated and surprised with a fresh and positive view on African businesses in order to make conscious purchasing decisions.
The third stakeholder we serve are our partners: AFRICAN SMEs. We provide them with everything they need to access the EU market. We do that very pragmatically: Enabling them to meet EU standards, helping them to register their brand in the EU, giving them feedback on product development to meet EU customer expectations, ensuring that packaging meets customer and regulatory requirements, working with laboratories to certify regulatory compliance (e.g. food safety), providing them with benchmarking and market intelligence on similar products, helping them to physically bring products to the EU market (logistics, taxes, etc.), preparing marketing materials to present their brands in an attractive way to reach the end customer effectively.
Our aim is to enable our partners to grow on their own in the EU market, whether through their own distribution channels or through large retail chains. We are convinced that our world will look different when every household uses 100 Made in Africa products every day. That’s our purpose.
Now that we have shown you what goes on behind the scenes, please forget all this. Be inspired by the products & stories of our partners, buy them, enjoy them, spread the word. That's the best contribution you can make - we'll do the rest.
