As excited as all retailers get for festive trading, there are areas of real concern for ecommerce businesses, which must be addressed for a successful trading season. During this period: • Volumes of orders could increase by a factor of 4 • Average order values and average number of items per order reach all time peaks • Consumer tolerance for imperfect experience reduces • Cart abandonment increases • Mobile continues its upward surge Emerce...

South Africans are increasingly adopting online shopping as the Christmas rush puts pressure on retailers to generate a healthy bottom line in a tough economic environment. Despite fears of credit card fraud as a significant barrier to e-commerce, data from The Foschini Group (TFG) [JSE:TFG] shows that more people are migrating to online shopping. “We are seeing online stores outperforming the top offline stores, particularly @home which is...

“By understanding the data [delivered to you through your website], you can tailor make propositions – from a marketing point of view, and from a sales point of view – that are relevant.” She adds: “If you get it right, your incremental commercial performance can be multiplied by 6 times or more, because you’re listening to the customer. Customers tell you what they want by how they interact with your website, how they search when they’re...

How to choose an ecommerce platform If they haven’t already experienced it, most retailers will soon feel the pull to begin selling their products online. With so many ecommerce platform options available it is not trivial to select the most appropriate platform for the unique needs of any particular retailer. It is certainly not a “one size fits all” discussion. as a result Emerce Commerce has designed a toolbox of 7 questions to help narrow...

EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION IN THE FAST-MOVING CONSUMER GOODS WORLD? Download Article

The Centre for Retail Research has forecast the trends in online retail sales for eight European countries and the US for more than ten years. The calculation is based on the sales of goods (excluding fuel for vehicles and sales of prepared food in cafes and restaurants). Tickets, holidays, gambling and insurance are also excluded because they are not classed as retailing. 'Online' is defined as sales where the final transaction is made over the...

SIGN POST: Blame government for falling broadband speeds 05-Apr-2015 | Arthur Goldstuck Despite research indicating that mobile broadband infrastructure is more robust in South Africa than in the rest of Africa, it is clearly not robust enough, writes Arthur Goldstuck STATISTICS showing other African countries racing ahead of South Africa in internet connectivity mask a less triumphal reality. While Nigeria, in particular, now has more than four...

Evolving from Multi-Channel to true Omni-Channel experiences By Lynette Hundermark, managing director of Useful & Beautiful The term omni-channel is on everyone's lips today – across all sectors - yet no brand in South Africa has managed to execute on a true omni-channel strategy. Look to the international market, however, and you'll find many examples of companies that have gained a real competitive edge from omni-channel...

Raru director Waine Smith weighs in on South Africa’s ecommerce industry Posted By Graham Peter: Staff Reporter On May 18, 2015 @ 8:21 am In Ecommerce,Interviews Since its launch last year, Raru [1] has become a go-to name in the South African ecommerce market. Headed up by ex-founders of Take2, they have put their knowledge to use and grown the new store into one of the largest in South Africa. On Thursday, Ventureburn sat down with the...

E-commerce habits are making their way into emerging markets PALESA VUYOLWETHU TSHANDU // tshandup@sundaytimes.co.za Original article: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/businesstimes/2016/06/19/Retailer... I don’t know in five or 10 years whether brick and mortar will be 70%, 80% or 90% of the business — customers will decide BRICK-and-mortar retailers are battling to keep customers in stores as the move towards online shopping is fast...