Considering only 1% of retail in South Africa happens online, PriceCheck CEO Andre de Wet emphasises the importance of making the most of the 70% - 80% of users who use mobile devices to research prospective purchases. PriceCheck offers more than just the price comparison service it became known for, as offline shops (bricks and mortar stores) now have the ability to create catalogues to list on PriceCheck without the need for an online shop.
This way, when users browse and search PriceCheck for products, the search results returned will show the closest retailer selling the requested products first, followed by online shop listings. That means shops will no longer need to fret with payment gateways, designing websites, maintaining websites or even online advertising. All that is required are a few photographs of eight or more products, the store's location and contact details.
In South Africa shoppers mostly use online tools to research product prices, before making a purchase. As De Wet adds, "Somebody on a mobile phone shops online, but doesn't buy online - there's a massive difference. Desktop thinking we have to take right off the table.
"At this point, as a society, we don't want to buy anything from our mobile, but it'll come once the integration with a mobile wallet happens. It will be far easier, but, right now, I don't want to type in a credit card number or my address on a mobile phone, but I do want to know where I can find the product."
De Wet continued that South African shoppers don't mind going to an offline store to make a purchase, because less than 1% of South African retail happens online, meaning 99% of shoppers still go into store to buy products.
PriceCheck helps all retailers, big or small, to increase their visibility online, and ultimately this additional avenue of discovery will lead to more feet through shop doors.
