9 Transitioning to a Low-Carbon Economy and Renewable Energy …
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from development partners, they still cannot distribute to the customers
in the last mile because of a shortage of delivery vans: they therefore
resort to leveraging on existing methods such as transportation through
buses. This type of transport presents its own set of challenges because
bus systems mostly lack the capacities and technologies to handle unsupervised large bulk cargo. In this case, products end up getting damaged,
lost in transit or worse, stolen.
There is therefore a need to invest in improving payment and distribution processes in order to bring down the transportation costs for
the customers (UOM 2018). The unavailability of brick and mortar
branches has continuously led to a shortage of product access. Manufacturers simply do not consider far-off areas to be profitable further
worsening access to after-sales which is crucial for solar and cookstove
companies. This deficiency discourages residents from acquiring products because it becomes unclear as to where product follow-ups can be
made. In an urban setting, supermarkets and retail stores that sell cleantech have adopted product bundling. This is a method to entice buyers,
especially through bundling complementary energy products (Vianello
and Damien 2015). It is a method that has worked for the simplest
of bundles like bread and butter. In the same regard, cleantech companies like Living Goods are adopting this bundling methodology for their
improved cookstoves with mosquito nets.
To ease distribution hurdles, commission-based selling is a mode that
has worked for major solar companies. Solar Sister for instance, launched
such a programme and results were positive because the commission
agents who were local community women were not only creating income
for themselves but also availing products more easily (The Guardian
2016).
Another way to solve the distribution hurdle is through training.
There is an increasing need to train the young population in innovative ways of making cleantech products. This has worked for the
improved cookstove industry which moulds stoves from locally sourced
materials as seen by companies like Ugastove Limited and Green BioEnergy Limited. This however, is not the case for solar products that only
come from engineering-strong economies like China and India. Uganda’s
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from development partners, they still cannot distribute to the customers
in the last mile because of a shortage of delivery vans: they therefore
resort to leveraging on existing methods such as transportation through
buses. This type of transport presents its own set of challenges because
bus systems mostly lack the capacities and technologies to handle unsupervised large bulk cargo. In this case, products end up getting damaged,
lost in transit or worse, stolen.
There is therefore a need to invest in improving payment and distribution processes in order to bring down the transportation costs for
the customers (UOM 2018). The unavailability of brick and mortar
branches has continuously led to a shortage of product access. Manufacturers simply do not consider far-off areas to be profitable further
worsening access to after-sales which is crucial for solar and cookstove
companies. This deficiency discourages residents from acquiring products because it becomes unclear as to where product follow-ups can be
made. In an urban setting, supermarkets and retail stores that sell cleantech have adopted product bundling. This is a method to entice buyers,
especially through bundling complementary energy products (Vianello
and Damien 2015). It is a method that has worked for the simplest
of bundles like bread and butter. In the same regard, cleantech companies like Living Goods are adopting this bundling methodology for their
improved cookstoves with mosquito nets.
To ease distribution hurdles, commission-based selling is a mode that
has worked for major solar companies. Solar Sister for instance, launched
such a programme and results were positive because the commission
agents who were local community women were not only creating income
for themselves but also availing products more easily (The Guardian
2016).
Another way to solve the distribution hurdle is through training.
There is an increasing need to train the young population in innovative ways of making cleantech products. This has worked for the
improved cookstove industry which moulds stoves from locally sourced
materials as seen by companies like Ugastove Limited and Green BioEnergy Limited. This however, is not the case for solar products that only
come from engineering-strong economies like China and India. Uganda’s