WATCH | The growth of e-commerce and how to embrace it in your business

The Covid-19 pandemic as well as the national lockdown saw businesses face many challenges as many chartered into unfamiliar territory with e-commerce. While other businesses thrived during the accelerated shift to digital, others are still finding their feet. 

Lockdown restrictions have now been lifted and the world is settling into a new normal, but the impact and transition into e-commerce continues to expand with no signs of stopping. 

In this episode of Nedbank’s expert talk series Ahead of the Curve, we’re joined by the National Head: Commercial Card Strategy at Nedbank Commercial Banking, Pascalle Albrecht, to look at what changes businesses need to make to stay ahead and develop a digital and e-commerce presence. 

A study conducted by World Wide Worx and Mastercard revealed that online sales grew in South Africa in 2022 by 35%, which brought the country’s total online retail spend to R55 billion. 

To capitalise on this growth, Albrecht says businesses need to look at things like optimised search, hassle-free delivery and secure payments.  

For her, this means levering off existing platforms, reviewing what’s worked in the past versus what hasn’t, partnering with businesses that share similar digital aspirations and have new skills, and agonising over what the client wants in a product and buying experience.

“Without this client understanding of what our customers expect, any investments made into digital and e-commerce will be muted,” she stresses.

Staying relevant

Albrecht warns that if businesses are not able to make the pivot into digital e-commerce they will become irrelevant. 

“The time has come for businesses in South Africa to review their strategies and ensure that e-commerce and digital are the foundation of their holistic strategic direction. It is certainly that time for the augmentation of business strategies."

This does not mean that businesses must go "full blast" and invest heavily in creating the best-in-market e-commerce platform. Instead, it requires businesses to be willing to do some deep learning and heavy testing, she adds. 

Watch the video below:

Making the shift

Creating your very own digital platforms for your consumers to stay relevant cannot be done overnight, but with the use of existing platforms such as Nedbank’s super app Avo, you can enhance your presence immediately.

The curated e-commerce platform, which has built-in functionality, enables merchants to quickly and efficiently access an e-commerce value chain with relatively low investment – rather than building their own - and gives access to a built-in market of more than 450 000 customers in new geographies.

“We have really taken our digital-first and first-in-digital versions to heart and we have got solutions that cater for various stages of the e-commerce journey. We have smaller and more affordable solutions like our tap-on-phone feature through PocketPos which enables a business to accept a card payment through their smartphone. We have also partnered with multiple digital wallet services like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Masterpass,” she says. 

“In terms of 'Big Data', we have a solution called Market Edge which provides rich insights into businesses regarding the customer base, key payment insights, who is purchasing from them, what they are purchasing and how often,” she adds. 

Partner with Nedbank Commercial Banking on your digital journey HERE and find out more about the business-changing products.