Business partners to expose Barbados to the world via internet community

An up and coming e-commerce platform is introducing Barbadian businesses to the international market by offering local products for sale online and shipping them to key source markets.

Theo Leacock, Rene Sabazan and another partner, after spending most of their working lives in hospitality, made the bold jump into entrepreneurship.

With no experience in web development or coding, they came up with the concept of Omniverce Limited. It is a platform similar to that of e-commerce giants Amazon and Alibaba, but intended to help hundreds of Barbadian businesses make the much-needed transition into the digital space.

“I personally had to learn a little bit of coding, a little bit of technical work that I hadn’t been exposed to before,” Leacock, the CEO, told Barbados TODAY.

“I did have some experienced developers working for us, because it is a lot of work putting code together, algorithms, and then there are some software integrations that have to be perfectly connected to some other software connections, otherwise it breaks the site.

“So it is a very intricate process and it is very important that everything works together, because it is a very heavily-coded site,” he added.

The site features over a 1 000 products posted by 144 registered businesses. According to Leacock, the hard work creating the site was to ensure that users could benefit from an enjoyable online experience.

“Barbadians are more accustomed to Amazon and other overseas entities, but for a local business, it is new and people now have to catch on. We have to build trust and a huge clientele. It started slowly, but we have seen some exponential growth from the beginning until now. We expect to see that growth continue into the future,” said Leacock.

The directors are intent on using the platform as a tool to move the fortunes of this country’s tourism industry beyond on-island business activities and are negotiating with a number international carriers to broaden cross-border commerce. In an apparent answer to a recent call from Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins, Leacock said the website would allow visitors to support their favourite Barbadian businesses even after they had returned home. Simultaneously, the site caters to the needs of Barbadians in the diaspora.

“Whether they are from Canada, the UK, the U.S, wherever, they could still enjoy Barbadian businesses. It’s just at the click of a mouse or the tap of a phone screen,” said Leacock.

Last week, the Barbados Trust Fund Limited announced a partnership with Omniverce which allows clients of the fund to use the digital platform and receive advice tailored for e-commerce. The initiative also received support from Minister of Energy and Business Development Kerrie Symmonds.

The three entrepreneurs started working on the project in July 2019 and officially launched in June 2020.

They were all ex-employees of the Hugo’s Restaurant in Speightstown which was one of three establishments closed in January 2020 without prior warning from the owners. But unlike scores of the restaurant’s employees caught in the shock closure, the three had left the company approximately four months before, simultaneously dodging months of unemployment for workers in the sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Leacock, who has spent the last 10 years working as a chef, his fellow directors are from “spiritual” families and believed that God placed the idea in their hearts even when they did not know from where the finances would come.

“I don’t have any background in coding or development work or anything… My professional background is that I am a chef, so that is totally different from what I am doing now. So all of the knowledge that I have acquired with the late nights, going to sleep late, waking up early and all of that dedication was tiring, stressful and hectic, but I learned a lot about the business that I am in,” said Leacock.

“I believe once you have a passion and desire to learn, anything can be learnt. Regardless of whether you have the money to take you through school, once you are passionate about it, anything can be done. Nothing is impossible,” he added.

His colleague, Sabazan worked as a waiter and butler during his previous career in hospitality.

“I am more the people’s person, so my role is helping to form relationships, bringing clientele, bringing vendors, continuing to maintain these relationships and make sure that everything runs smoothly on those ends,” said Sabazan, who is also the marketing director.

With a limited budget, much of Omniverce’s marketing has been geared toward social media and word-of-mouth, but Sabazan said their promotions are always very strategic. 
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb