3 SA ecommerce sites really stepping up to the plate

Over the last couple of years, South Africa has seen a massive growth in online businesses and ecommerce websites. While the eCommerce Awards are great at recognising the top performers, it is almost impossible for a new website to immediately win an award, due to the first part of the awards requiring a high numbers of votes.

Longer established websites such as bidorbuy and Kalahari already have massive databases of customers. With that in mind, I have identified three ecommerce players who are different and have the potential to make a big splash in the space.

1. eBooze.co.za
eBooze is an online liquor store with a difference: your delivery comes to you within 60 minutes. While it is only offering that in Cape Town for now, plans are afoot to roll out to other major centres soon. I’ve tried it, and your beers often arrive within 30 minutes. What’s more, they are delivered cold.

When I interviewed the guys behind eBooze previously, I asked how they did it, and Juanita Jacobs from eBooze simply said something to the effect of: “Anyone can deliver in under an hour. But we actually are committed to it.”

2. EasiOnline.com
EasiOnline launched earlier this year and has seen steady growth in its business. The site now boasts an easy purchase process, good delivery times, expert support and full certifications. It offers over 5 000 products and the number is growing weekly. It’s also barely had any fraud, because of how it handles transactions.

Many of its goods are for the home and office, with a slight focus on mothers, women and electronic appliances. When interacting with first-time customers it found that customer service was lacking elsewhere and made a commitment to make every sale more engaging. It sounds like an old cliché, but personalised service is by far where it is making the most progress, and stepping up to companies such as Kalahari.

3. CableKiosk.co.za
I like to watch video clips and movies on my large screen television at home, but I needed a cable that would carry this from my MacBook Pro to an HDMI port. Every single shop I visited had no idea what cable I needed, and tried to sell me hubs and adapters of all shapes and sizes.

But CableKiosk not only provides an enormous range of products in a niche industry, it offers immediate support and know their product offering extremely well. Not only were my support queries answered in minutes, but the information provided proved that the people behind it are experts at their game. Why? While I have not interviewed the owners of CableKiosk yet, I would bet that they have simply committed themselves to becoming as knowledgeable as they can be.

The point to make here is clear: be committed to something, and the rewards will come. Too many new ecommerce businesses simply want traffic, sales and to ship as soon as possible, but it is the smaller customer engagements and service differentiations are what count far more.