IXL Social Enterprise Case Studies Energy January 2012 | Page 12

Revolutionizing the way to make energy affordable for everyone

How to sell solar lights?
“How to sell these products in Africa at scale is the
nut to crack. No one has succeeded as of yet: the
question is why? What can we do differently?
There is no doubt that solar will replace oil, but the
question is when, and what can we do to accelerate
the process? How do we make more people aware?
The more we sell, the more aware they become.
Volume drives more volume.”
- David Battley, Director of Business Development,
SunnyMoney

costs over time. Many rural customers only have
significant quantities of cash on hand during the
harvest season. Credit is not easily accessible,
and microfinance is often only available for
first-degree revenue generating activities such as
entrepreneurship or crop investment.
SunnyMoney also lacks an ability to easily
collect payments from customers over an
extended period of time. Collecting payments
is a challenge because many customers lack
official identification that would make them
formally accountable for a payment liability, and
because sending money remotely is logistically
challenging and expensive for people who use
cash exclusively.
The supply chain can’t respond quickly, and
SunnyMoney’s batteries have an expiration
date
Delivering millions of products to meet rapidly
growing demand would be a severe stress on
any supply chain; the nature of the solar lamp
business in Africa makes the strain particularly
acute.
SunnyMoney’s products are provided via
suppliers that manufacture the lamps in China.
From the day that SunnyMoney places an order,
however, it can be as long as six months before
the products are available in Africa. Part of that
time is consumed in shipping, bu H