A Rhodes University student, Andrew Lynch, has launched an online store called CableKiosk, specialising in consumer electronics accessories following six months of development.
The store was inspired by a bad experience while Lynch was looking for a replacement iPod cable. Lynch says, ““I looked online and in stores and received such poor service and ridiculous prices – I felt like I was being ripped off. I convinced a company in China to manufacture a small batch of cables and ship them to me – for a lower price than a single cable in South Africa! I kept one cable and put the rest on BidorBuy.co.za. Within two weeks I had sold all my stock.”
Lynch worked with Mark Winn, a friend from Phodes University who now works for Google, to set up a plan for the store. Andrew built the site himself from his digs in Grahamstown while working on his MA in Politics.
Winn said, “We really wanted to deliver the best customer experience we could, which is why we have Live Chat support and are always happy to provide technical advice, whether customers or not.”
Lynch has said that the online store will be expanding even further in future now that the pair has added a third person to the team.
“With Kerry Chemaly taking charge of Marketing, we now have a team of three and our product range has extended from iPod and HDMI cables, to adaptors, chargers and most recently cable management, and there’s much more coming.”