Sky.Garden, a Kenyan e-commerce platform specializing in electronics and home products, has removed 1,500 of its 30,000 vendors as part of a crackdown on counterfeit goods.
The company denied claims of a vendor boycott, asserting that the move was part of a marketplace clean-up aimed at removing sellers of counterfeit or substandard products.
“We have not observed any boycotts from vendors. However, we recently conducted a thorough cleanup of the marketplace. This process involved removing brokers and sellers of counterfeit or substandard goods,” Sky Garden said.
In addition to counterfeit sellers, Sky.Garden also eliminated brokers who falsely claimed to represent vendors. Brokers typically facilitate the sale of products on behalf of vendors but do not hold inventory themselves.
The company’s actions have been met with some resistance, as at least three vendors alleged they were unfairly removed, and several others reportedly stopped listing their products on the platform in protest. At the same time, five customers said that they never received their electronic orders from Sky.Garden and were promised refunds that were delayed.
“We were told to wait for up to 24 hours to receive a refund,” said one customer who waited three weeks for the refund.
Sky.Garden acknowledged some delays in issuing refunds but attributed the problem to complications with specific merchants. “However, we have since resolved these issues, and all outstanding refunds have been processed,” the company clarified.
The e-commerce platform claims to have a 75% fulfillment rate and an average commission of 8%. Fulfillment rate refers to the percentage of customer orders that are successfully processed and delivered on time.
In 2022, Sky.Garden was acquired by buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) firm Lipa Later for KES 250 million ($1.93 million). This acquisition helped the struggling company, which had previously announced layoffs of over 50 employees. Some of those employees were retained following the acquisition.
“The transition over the past year has been a continuous learning experience, and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made. Our primary focus remains to position Sky.Garden as Kenya’s leading marketplace,” said Juliet Wanjiru, Sky.Garden’s managing director.
Sky.Garden customers can use Lipa Later’s BNPL services to spread out payments for their online purchases, underscoring the close relationship between the two companies.