uAfrica gears up for 2014 South African eCommerce Conference

This year’s South African eCommerce Awards is just around the corner, and while the media prepares for the ninth edition of the annual event, this year will also see interesting announcements from uAfrica, the main host of the event.

While traditionally honouring websites displaying excellence in their respective fields, uAfrica also plans to release survey results of its online retail survey at the conference. The company has gathered information on over 116 000 respondents from around the country and will shed light on the habits of South Africa’s online retail sector. Although the country’s figures are nowhere near that of the US’s gross online spend (over US$300-billion yearly), the industry is, nevertheless, growing steadily.

Andy Higgins, Managing Director of uAfrica.com, remarks on the importance of the event and the effect it has on the ecommerce sector as a whole:

The purpose of the ecommerce conference is to help SME’s understand the dynamic of the online retail environments, inform and educate the delegates about the current ‘buzz’ word, omnichannel retail and enable these business owners to effectively manage their businesses online. […] We also want to be able to provide these business owners with tools to help improve online purchase processes, inventory management applications and how to make technology work for them, as well as help with business growth and sustainability suggestions based on our survey findings. The 2014 eCommerce Award winners will also be announced at the conference.

In addition to the announcements and awards — the staple of the event–  Luke Mckend, Country Director for Google South Africa, will be speaking about “Africa as a mobile first continent.” The international key note will also be delivered by Brennan Loh, Head of Business Development at Shopify, one of the event’s co-sponsors.

The eCommerce Awards will take place at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburng, on 4 September.