High downloads for Kenya’s DukaPress Plugin

DukaPress, an e-commerce system designed by Kenyans has received more than 20,000 downloads since its launch 18 months ago, with its founder Kelvin Jayanoris confident of big progress in future.

The open source WorPress e-commerce plugin, was designed in August 2010 after its developers identified that WordPress lacked an effective e-commerce plugin to equal those already available on other platforms.

The plugin has grown to the ranks of the highest rated e-commerce plugins with about 22,000 downloads being made to date. It has grown to the extent of being translated into 9 different languages while enjoying a large consumer-base in the United States and Germany.

“We wanted to build a Kenyan thing, but over time we found that guys that use DukaPress are not actually Kenyans,” said Jayanoris.

“We have not heard of any Kenyan customers. Perhaps there are people out there using DukaPress in Kenya, but I don’t know who these people are,” he added.

“We looked at our competitors and realized they are actually quite huge and have a lot of money at their disposal.” He continued, “So we made the decision not to compete. We built DukaPress uniquely to be very simple. The ideal customer would be someone who wants to set up a shop quickly with no hassle. They just want something that works and I believe we have been able to do that.”

“We are not competing directly with the big boys. We are just carving out our own niche,” said Jayanoris.  

Adapted from Venture Africa: Kenyan WordPress Plugin Attracts International Attention 

by Tom Jackson

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