Jaco Transfer and its three co-founders including CEO Loic Jasmin are changing the Haiti food transfer and remittance industry. In addition to offering the traditional staples offered by its competitors, the fledgling startup has staked out other markets ignored or underestimated by older competitors. Jaco Transfer sells motor scooters for example? Motor scooters? Yes! But what does this have to do with helping folks in Haiti? Um, plenty, and rather clever thinking. Family members wanting for male relatives to have economic autonomy can order a scooter and have it home-delivered to said relative to start a motor scooter taxi company. The company also offers home goods. So if a client would like to help a relative in Haiti set up a home goods business in Haiti, the he or she can order everything in bulk to send to said relatives. And Jaco Transfer doesn’t stop there. It offers electronics…so if you have a relative who’d to be spoiled with an HDTV…well…there you go! Other electronic products offered by the company include refrigerators, stoves, mobile phones, pedestal fans for those heat waves, and even blenders.
One of the reasons why the company is thriving is because Jasmin and his three twenty-something co-owners are bringing not just new products, but new tactics. They no doubt realize that the Haitian immigrants who arrived in the United States in the 1970s and through the 1990s are reaching retirement age. Their USA-born and Canada-born and raised children are taking over or assisting them with some of their responsibilities which of course includes remittances. Members of this younger generation may not live where there is a transfer money office, but they do have access to the internet. This is where Jaco Transfer comes in. The company’s website makes it easy for users to log on and order. And then there are all these Web 3.0 and Web 4.0 strategies that the other older companies have not taken advantage of in the way the Jaco Transfer team has. Jaco Transfer sends out newsletters to existing customers and makes a point to send coupons regularly, an incentive traditional Haiti food transfer companies do not generally offer. The company is hyper-active on social media, a platform neglected and under-used by most of the other Haiti transfer and remittance companies.
Follow along as Jasmin answers more of my questions about Jaco Transfer.
Kreyolicious: What milestones accomplished by Jaco Transfer thus far that makes you especially proud?
Jaco Transfer: I think our biggest accomplishment at Jaco so far is to have created a community of Haitian online shoppers that love our service. Getting people who had been sending transfers to Haiti in retail locations to switch to online transfers is no small feat! On top of that, many of the people who try Jaco out are shopping online for the first time. We try to surpass our customers’ expectations to create a community of happy users. I think we’ve been successful in doing that. Those same customers who were shopping online for the first time are now effortlessly placing orders every few weeks! I think that’s our biggest accomplishment.
Kreyolicious: Where do you see Jaco Transfer five years from now?
Jaco Transfer: Five years from now Jaco Transfer will without a doubt be a top player in the Haitian remittance industry. We plan on using Jaco to have a positive impact on Haiti. The Diaspora is one of our biggest assets as a nation and should be given the opportunity to participate directly in strengthening our economy and bettering our country as a whole. That’s Jaco’s mission, and I’m confident we’ll make it happen.
This concludes PART II of the interview with Mr. Jasmin of Jaco Transfer. Be sure to watch out for PART I and PART II of the interview with him. Meanwhile, don’t keep your those relatives in Haiti waiting for that diri, pwa and somon!
CLICK HERE to visit the Jaco Transfer website! Use kreyolicious as your promocode and you will get 10% off your order. Hurry!
