Tadias Magazine

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Wednesday, July 29, 2009

New York (Tadias) – Sitota.com is the perfect way to share the joys of holidays and special occasions with your loved ones in Ethiopia. Sitota, the Amharic word for gift, is an online retail space where you can buy flowers, cake, liquor, and yes even live sheep! Within 24-72 hours of processing your Sitota order via Merkatomall.com, your gift will be delivered to your loved ones in Ethiopia.

We caught up with the Co-Founder of Sitota.com, Selam Zemenu, and chatted with her about her growing business catering to Diaspora Ethiopians.

Selam Zemenu, Co-Founder of Sitota.com.

What got you started to open an online gift store?

It is a combination of things. First of, we wanted to demonstrate to our merchant customers how an online store would work on MerkatoMall.com. Secondly, we wanted to fill a void in the market – a way to send gifts to Ethiopia during holidays and special occasions such as weddings, birthdays and graduations.

Tell us a little bit more about Sitota?

Sitota.com is an online store for buying and sending gifts to Ethiopia. Sitota, meaning gift
in Amharic, is chosen as the name of the business in order to keep it simple and help
customers remember the website address.

What kind of products do you offer?

Customers can buy gifts like sheep, cake and flowers and whiskey. We will also start offering oxen and perfumes soon. On top of these, we have delivered special items in the past per our customers’ request such as clothes and baby products during baby showers.

Where are you located? Where do you run your operations from?

We are in Atlanta, Georgia, and currently run this operation entirely via the internet and telephone from the U.S.. This is possible because we accept all orders via credit card and checks. That being said, we plan to open an office soon to meet the growing demand of customers who prefer to pay by cash. We also have an office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to run our logistics operations. It is also available for some of our customers’ friends/family who would rather pick up their gifts in person.

How does the logistics of delivery work in Ethiopia?

As you know addresses in Ethiopia don’t have street numbers and zip codes. Instead we ask for phone numbers, Kebele/Wereda, Keftegna and house numbers to locate addresses. This process can be challenging at times when customers don’t know those numbers and they still want us to deliver the gifts as a surprise. So we rely the ingenuity of our agent there in these situations. In our 1.5 years of business, we haven’t missed a delivery date or been late for any special occasion.

How long does it take for the customer to receive their gift in Ethiopia?

We deliver the gifts to our customer family/friends’ residences within 24-72 hours of your order depending on the city in Ethiopia. Although most of our deliveries have been within Addis Ababa, we have delivered to cities as far as Nekemt, Welega and Mekelle.

Tell us a little bit about you, to help people get to know the person behind the site. How long have you been in business?

Sitota.com is made possible and still running by a team effort. I run the day-to-day
operations. My 5 years of marketing and customer relations skills has helped many customers grow to understand and appreciate the service we are providing. The website is designed as part of MerkatoMall.com by Henock Gashaw, a software engineer with about 10 years of experience. Fesseha (Fish), Our agent in Addis makes sure that all gifts are delivered on time. He also makes sure that our customers’ family/friends are happy and plesantly surprised.

What makes Sitota different from other sites?

It’s very easy for our customers to send gifts to their family and friends anywhere in Ethiopia. We do this by allowing customers to either use our website or toll free telephone number from the comfort of their home. Our secured and reliable website provides a simple ordering process and allows customers choose the delivery date of their gifts.

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

First of we would like to thank our customers for their support. Close to 70% of our business has come from referrals and we appreciate that. We value our integrity, on-time delivery of quality gifts to your friends and family and invite you to try our service. Most of all we enjoy doing it.