A look forward to 2022 for Terminal Africa

September 13, 2023

2021 was an amazing year of growth for the team at Terminal Africa. We launched our product in March, joined the Baobab Network accelerator programme in August, and grew our customer base to more than 350 businesses across Africa. By the end of the year, we’d helped our customers earn more than $270,000 selling their products online.

At Terminal, we constantly engage our customers and the wider community of small business owners, to understand their evolving challenges and learn new ways we can extend the value that Terminal provides. The holiday break allowed our team to reflect on the lessons learned in the past year and we now cast an eye to the future with renewed optimism and excitement for 2022. Here’s a look at our top objectives for the year:‍

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Introducing the Starter Plan & Rewards for Growth
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We’re kicking off 2022 by introducing a FREE starter plan to make it even easier for small business owners to get started selling online. For many business owners new to eCommerce, the range of services that Terminal provides can be quite daunting because they don’t know where to start. So our team created a streamlined plan, that provides direct access to our core value services without the need to build a tailored website. Below is a preview of the offerings on our new starter plan:

Terminal Starter Plan
Single Page Storefront to Sell your Products.
Basic Dashboard.
Corporate Bank Account.
Google Ads — Call, Search.
Local & International deliveries via DHL Express, Kwik, Fedex, Sendbox & UPS.
Payments in Local Currency.
Stock and inventory management.
Complete up to 25 Free Transfers monthly to any Local Bank Account.
Sell up to 50 Products on storefront.
3.5% + N150 Transaction Fees.

In addition to the starter plan, we’re also making some changes to our pricing. The new structure will reward customers for growing their businesses on Terminal, by reducing the cost of their operations as they scale. Below is a look at our new tiered pricing model for the year:

Terminal Basic Plan — N5,000 / Month
Everything included in Starter Plan.
Add Custom Domain to Storefront.
Customisable Premium Website Templates.
Digital Corporate Invoicing.
Discount Codes for Customers.
Google Ads — Call, Search, Display, Shopping.
Global Payments in 12+ currencies.
Unlimited Free Transfers to any Local Bank Account.
Unlimited Products.
20% Discount on Local & International Deliveries.
2.5% + N150 Local Transaction Fees.
5.9% International Transaction Fees.

Terminal Premium Plan — N9,000 / Month
Everything included in Basic Plan.
Buy Now, Pay Later — Klarna, CredPal.
Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp & Twitter Ads.
30% Discount on Local & International Deliveries.
2.0% + N150 Local Transaction Fees.
4.5% International Transaction Fees.‍

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Renewed Focus on Community
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This year, we’re launching a range of several public services aimed at serving the larger community of small businesses around Africa. The first service launching in Q1, our shipping rates service, allows any business owner to access free information about how much it costs to deliver a package. Through this service, business owners can compare delivery rates and times from our carrier partners (DHL, Fedex, Gokada, Kwik, Red Star Express, etc). Therefore, enabling business owners to make informed decisions about the best carriers to deliver their packages.

Later this year, this service will also be extended via an API, to allow other innovators building in the eCommerce space in Africa to integrate logistics into their products.

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Launch of Terminal Advertising
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In May 2021, we launched a logistics service to enable our merchants to deliver products to customers anywhere in the world with ease. When combined with Terminal’s global payment network, we made it easy for every business on our platform to serve customers anywhere in the world. However, without a way to target and market to the global audience, many of our users have struggled to tap into the full potential of selling online.

This year, we’re going to change that with the launch of advertising on Terminal. With the few clicks of a mouse, a business in any African country will create targeted adverts to customers interested in purchasing their products in any country around the world. They’ll do this with the knowledge that they have all the tools in place to accept payments and deliver their products to their target audience. This service will complete the commerce picture for our customers and it’s one that our team is eagerly anticipating.

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Launch of Mobile App for Terminal Africa
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A long overdue update and perhaps the most common request that we received from customers in the last year. The first version of the mobile app will provide access to our core business management tools such as money transfers, orders and product inventory management as well as package delivery. Later on in the year, we’ll extend the service offering to include other core features such as editing websites, managing ads and analytics.

In conclusion, 2021 was a ground breaking year for our team. With the current plans in mind, it’s easy to understand why our team is so excited about our potential in 2022. As we progress through the year, we look forward to providing you with more updates. You can also follow up on our social channels to stay up to date.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful year ahead!

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