The challenge
Since 1998, Maison Okasol has dressed institutions and dignitaries from its Kinshasa atelier — but every order started with a visit or a phone call. Selling to the Congolese diaspora and to institutional clients meant handling two currencies, payment methods that don't exist in Western e-commerce (mobile money is how the DRC pays), and shipping that ranges from DHL international to a courier crossing Kinshasa. No off-the-shelf shop handles that.
Our solution
We built a platform shaped around how the DRC actually buys. The storefront is French-first and mobile-first, prices display in USD or Congolese francs — auto-detected by the visitor's location, refreshed daily against live FX rates — and payment runs through one abstraction covering Stripe for international cards and FlexPay for mobile money. Checkout offers DHL, per-city local couriers, or atelier pickup with appointment slots. Behind the storefront, the team manages collections, embroidery materials, variants and orders from an admin backoffice, with an order state machine tracking every piece from payment to delivery. Serverless AWS keeps the whole platform at roughly $33 a month.
Results
Maison Okasol is live: a maison whose craft is measured in decades now sells it worldwide. The atelier takes orders in two currencies while it sleeps, mobile money and international cards settle into one order book, and the platform costs less per month than a single tailored garment.
Want similar results?
Let's discuss how we can help your business.