Vaimo develops new youth portal for Vodacom
Vodacom 4U's new online platform, an e-commerce store designed to appeal to the informed tech-savvy youth of today, will be handled by ecommerce experts and Magento gold partner Vaimo.
Aiming to deliver a new level of user experience in the telecoms industry in Africa, the new site will go live the first quarter of 2013.
"The user-experience is highly interactive and intuitive, allowing users to find and compare suited mobile packages, phones and accessories. Once they have chosen a phone and contract pairing, the application process, order confirmation and payment is a frictionless experience without the 'grudge factor' of buying a handset in a store," says Kevin Clarke, MD for Vaimo.
"Vaimo were by far the most specialised in the field of ecommerce. We went through a gruelling task of trying to find the best company to take the site to the top of the food chain in ecommerce. Nobody came close to the solution that it offered us," says Jarryd Chatz, executive head of sales and marketing: product & ecommerce at Vodacom 4U. In addition, he notes Magento is an industry leader, as a company and a platform. "Vodacom 4U simply needed the best to be the best."
Multichannel expertise
Clarke notes that its multichannel expertise was a key factor in being chosen as the implementation partner. "For us multi-channel is about customers and their lifecycle across every touch-point. It is all about giving the customer the ability to buy anything, anywhere, in a way they want and giving them a consistent experience with all the touch points in which they interact with Vodacom 4U."
The new online presence will integrate with four sales and supplier channels, with a strong focus on social media integration, he says.
"Most of what we offer is so dependent on technology that we have had to come up with a more technological way to sell to our growing tech savvy customer base. Our bricks and mortar stores are great but we needed to position this brand for the online revolution happening in South Africa. For years, our customers have been engaging online with us, but it was mostly limited to customer service. The Magento platform enabled us to evolve our service offering to online contract applications and selling devices online," says Chatz.
