SA environment creating the ‘perfect storm’ for ecommerce industry

According to Groupon South Africa, the country’s current online environment is creating the “perfect storm” for a lucrative eCommerce industry. While certain internet statistics suggest that an online market is taking shape, competition is furthermore becoming more and more significant.

Earlier this month at The South African eCommerce Awards 2013, Yuppiechef was awarded best eCommerce Website of the year with Simplicity and Takealot being the runners-up.

Groupon SA, which was also one of the 20 finalists, has accordingly received positive feedback from South Africa’s online market increase. Groupon South Africa joint CEOs Daniel Guasco and Wayne Gosling notes that the industry is mainly driven by three elements.

Business Day Live reports on Gosling for stating the following:

“These are credit cards-— the propensity to use credit online. Logistics, (which has made delivering of the goods easier) and the price of connectivity. Connection speeds are going up and prices going down because of competition. When all these things come together it will create a perfect storm of the success for eCommerce, we’re on the cusp of that happening.”

Having said that, there are still some remaining obstacles in the ecommerce industry. Fraudulent behavior online is still one of the industry’s most concerning issues locally and abroad.

“In fact just last week we had an attempted attack which we stopped in seconds, because of the kind of systems we have in place… we work closely with the banks and the logistics company and we have a range of software (to curb online fraud),” Mr Gosling said.

A recent study by DMMA (Digital Media and Marketing Association and Echo Consultancy) found that 39% of South African adults have access to the internet. Representing 14-million people, these figures suggest that the online population has grown by a massive two-million in the last 12 months.