eCommerce goes freemium with eShop

eShop, a new “freemium” eCommerce solution, launches today to South Africans. If you’re thinking of selling products online, eShop deserves a serious look.

eShop’s setup is refreshingly uncomplicated — integration happens through copying and pasting code generated via eShop into your existing website. The service is available to SME businesses, as well as larger enterprises.

eShop’s free account offers basic, but essential functionality needed to sell up to 10 of your products online. Should your needs grow beyond the features offered in the gratis version, there are three paid packages to choose from.

There are no setup fees and eShop offers secure online payments through a variety of payment gateways. eShop also allows integration into Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook Store functionality allows you to sell your products directly from Facebook and link it to your Facebook page. eShop’s well-rounded service offering includes an integrated South African courier service that will display shipping costs to customers in real-time, plus a store owner can setup custom shipping/delivery rates.

The company behind eShop, DiaMatrix believes that eShop is the answer to “various challenges SMEs in South Africa have encountered previously in selling products online and that it will change the traditional model of setting up ecommerce stores, by reducing the capital outlay and maintenance costs dramatically.”

DiaMatrix cites a recent paper commissioned by Google South Africa in which Arthur Goldstuck from World Wide Worx reported on South Africa’s growing online retail industry. According to the report, in 2010 online retail sales stood at R2.028 billion and this number increased 30% to R2.636 billion in 2011.

Earlier this year, Ventureburn took a look at MIH’s QikCommerce, one of the eCommerce solutions that offers addtional WordPress integration and will be competing directly with eShop.