Swiss Post is giving small businesses access to the booming e-commerce sector with the Kaloka online marketplace. Numerous stores in Berne are now offering their items on a shared shopping platform. Shoppers in a hurry who order before 1 p.m. on working days will receive their shopping by 4 p.m. Orders submitted by 5 p.m. will be delivered by 8 p.m. The start-up notime’s environmentally friendly Cargovelo courier service provides same-day delivery. If you have more time you can order your items the usual way by post or collect the goods directly from the store yourself. Swiss Post is using the new service both to test a new same-day delivery format in the Berne area, and to make its services available along the e-commerce value chain. This allows small businesses to focus on their core business while Swiss Post takes care of, for example, the online shop, packing, and payment collection.

One-stop offers with the SMS shopping service

Local providers, who often do not have their own webshop, can use Kaloka to present their services on a shared e-commerce platform. Swiss Post is supporting local providers in Berne by offering their diverse products to local people from a single source. From the outset there will be thousands of products in the online shop from more than 40 small providers in Berne – from opticians to florists and fashion boutiques.
If you have neither the time for shopping nor the inclination for surfing, you can let Kaloka do the searching for you: simply send an SMS to receive suitable suggestions from the current range via SMS.

Kaloka will run as a pilot project until 15 September 2016. It will then be evaluated to see if and how the project should be continued.

More at www.kaloka.ch