ecommerce Archives - AfricaBusiness.com

Local couriers face unprecedented challenges as Amazon, Shein and Temu disrupt SA’s e-commerce market

11Jun

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Local couriers face unprecedented challenges as Amazon, Shein and Temu disrupt SA’s e-commerce market

Competition amongst local couriers has increased dramatically with the emergence of e-commerce giants, like Amazon, Temu and Shein into the South African market impacting both the micro and macro environments and leading to a greater demand and delivery volume. South Africa’s e-commerce market is expected to reach US$16.3 billion by 2030, with an annual growth rate of 15%, according to a RationalStat report.[1] Another factor contributing to this exponential growth of online shopping is the surge in Gen Z’s shopping habits: with a whopping 98%[2] of tech-savvy Gen Z owning smartphones, 32% of them shop online at least once daily (compared to 25% of millennials, 15% of Gen X and 7% of baby boomers)[3]. Gen Z, the digitally native generation born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, are ...

14Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Real Estate

Get Smarter about Connecting Buyers & Sellers in Online Marketplaces

Key Insights from GOM Conference 2023 By Gil Sperling, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Flow Connecting buyers and sellers in more effective, efficient and content-rich ways is a key focus in the online space at the moment, no matter the industry. Making use of rich data, retargeting audiences and working smarter to deliver a better user experience are the keys to success, across verticals. As a tech platform that's already connecting buyers and sellers on social media, Flow is creating seamless solutions for this transformation. We recently visited the Global Online Marketplaces Conference 2023 in Miami to talk about off-site social ads for portals, why they need it and how it unlocks more revenue for them. The Global Online Marketplace Summit (GOM) brings together C-Level leaders from online ...

14Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

Cultivating a frictionless payment experience for merchant success

By Wesley Fetter, Product Manager at Ecentric Payment Systems In the world of business, especially within the e-commerce sphere, the adage ‘the customer is king’ has never rung truer. Today's rapidly evolving digital landscape requires businesses to provide effortless, seamless, and most importantly, frictionless experiences to customers. Central to this is the payment process, which, if optimally managed, can significantly boost customer loyalty and drive business success. Defining the frictionless experience But what exactly constitutes a 'frictionless' payment experience? In essence, it is a payment process designed to provide a high conversion and approval rate by reducing complexity across all available payment methods - be it card payments or alternative options like SnapScan or ...

24May

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Tech

Online merchants hit by double whammy of fraud as cost of living bites

New research from Ravelin charts the rise of the ‘criminal customer’, now the ‘number one risk factor’ for one in three online businesses The research also shows a marked growth in sophisticated & organised criminal fraud Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Risk Officers (CROs)now have to navigate an increasingly complex fraud landscape New forms of payment amplify dispute resolution issues for merchants Online businesses are being hit by a damaging double-whammy of fraud as the cost of living crisis bites. A survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) at online merchants across 10 countries, commissioned by fraud prevention platform Ravelin has found fraud is on the increase across the board in areas including: Online payment fraud (54%) Account takeover (...

Fintech ImaliPay signs deal with Renda to empower e-commerce across Africa

3Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

Fintech ImaliPay signs deal with Renda to empower e-commerce across Africa

ImaliPay, a leading fintech-as-a-service provider, has signed a major deal with 3rd Party e-commerce fulfillment solution Renda (1st March 2023). The partnership will support businesses across Africa by simplifying and streamlining the process of order fulfillment for Enterprise and Medium-sized businesses across Africa, starting with Nigeria. The two companies will provide key services to ambitious businesses, making it easier to reach their target audiences and for consumers to access the products and services they need. Renda is a technology-driven 3rd Party fulfillment solution provider that enables enterprise and medium-sized e-commerce businesses to grow and scale across Africa. It enables e-commerce businesses to easily search and book a storage space, monitor real time status of ...

18Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, Startups

3 trends set to dominate African mobile apps in 2022

In 2021, the mobile industry in sub-saharan Africa continued to show incredible resilience against the impacts of Covid-19 and experienced high growth. Digital solutions have provided instrumental support for communities and businesses, boosting their transition into adopting a mobile-first approach to tackle most of the daily challenges across the continent, with fintech applications dominating this surge. According to the Mobile Economy Report, 615 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will subscribe to mobile services by 2025, that’s equivalent to 50% of the region’s population. As we enter into a new year, Daniel Junowicz, RVP EMEA & Strategic Projects, at leading mobile marketing analytics platform AppsFlyer, explores three key trends for mobile apps in Africa this year. Inve...

29Jun

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, Startups

Telecel Group ASIP Accelerator powered by Startupbootcamp AfriTech selects Top 10 startups for 2021 Cohort

Telecel Group Africa Startup Initiative Program (ASIP), with Africa's top early-stage tech Accelerator, Startupbootcamp Afritech, has selected the 10 tech startups that will participate in the inaugural ASIP Accelerator. The program received a record 2229 applications and managed to narrow it down to the Top 10, with the help of investors, corporate stakeholders, and industry experts who took part in an intensive 2-day selection process of 20 semi-finalists. Founded by telecoms giant, Telecel Group, and backed by key tech partners including AWS and Google Cloud Platform, ASIP aims to support the next generation of early-stage African tech startups disrupting key industry verticals that include FinTech, InsureTech, AgriTech, eCommerce, Digital Health, and CleanTech. Telecel will provide the...

19May

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Events, South Africa News, Tech

A challenging, risk driven environment awaits us

As many parts of the world deal with the Third Wave of Covid-19 infections, there are growing concerns that South Africa may face harsher lockdown measures in the future as the country ramps up its vaccine roll out program. This will have a telling impact on society and will only accelerate the reliance on ecommerce business models as the public prioritizes their health and safety. Unfortunately, this also means that there will be a challenging, risk driven environment ahead of us when it comes to fraud. This was highlighted at the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) & Insurance Crime Bureau International Fraud Summit which was held virtually on 19 May 2021. Increased Risk “We are really reaching a critical point when it comes to the economy and the extreme measures that...

16Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

SA shoppers are online. Retailers need to meet them with an exceptional experience

Consumers are embracing the e-commerce experience in growing numbers and corporate South Africa is taking serious notice, according to Geoff Hardy, Head of Digital, Immersion Group, a global team of experience design experts. Across the globe online sales have surged, while locally online transactions on Black Friday alone grew by more than 60%, and a recent study released by Mastercard found that 68% of South Africans are shopping more online since the beginning of last year. “The Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly accelerated prevailing trends as well as consumer behaviour and preferences by as much as a decade. This extraordinary industry-wide transformation is a forecast of the future of South African retail,” notes Hardy. He says a solid digital footprint and strategy have become non-negot...

Why ecommerce matters for small businesses in SA

14Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Why ecommerce matters for small businesses in SA

There has been a permanent change in the way that people shop and, in turn, the way that businesses need to operate. In the absence of brick-and-mortar stores being open during the lockdown, as well as a general fear of crowded malls when things were able to re-open, South Africa’s ecommerce sector exploded. According to Trevor Gosling, Co-founder and CEO of Lulalend – financing partner to South Africa’s small- to medium-enterprises (SMEs), he has seen a phenomenal growth in ecommerce businesses who have connected with them for SME financing. Between the period of October 2020 and February 2021, Lulalend saw an 86% increase in loans made to ecommerce businesses and online retailers in comparison to the same period between 2019 and 2020. “The loans were strongly linked to growth-related req...