"It's personal" says ECOM Africa, as personalisation in e-commerce takes centre stage

Successful etailers get personalisation right and differentiate themselves by pleasing an ever-demanding customer. This is according to Terry Southam, MD of ECOM Africa, which is returning as a hybrid event from 4–5 May in Cape Town. “The most successful businesses online currently know what their customers want before they themselves even know it. Personalisation is key; customers want it at every touchpoint. Having the right toolsets and services to make effective use of data, gives etailers the opportunities to deliver personalised offers on an individual level.”

Some of the leading and exciting names and brands in the current, global ebusiness evolution, including Zappos, Meta, Nestlé, Massmart, OneDayOnly, Bidroom, PicknPay, Chepa, Mantality, Konga, AutoTrader, Loot, UberEats, Sanlam, OneCart and Rugged SA will be represented at the upcoming ECOM Africa.

Claim your free Expo Pass to attend ECOM Africa 2022 or get R499 off your full conference ticket. Use coupon code: ECOMPRESS at checkout.

Sponsors include Fareye, Wordpay FIS, Freshworks, AWA digital, ZOHO, Gupshup, Citixsys, The Courier Guy, Dataweave and Insider. Exhibitors who will share their technologies and services are UNISA, RAM Couriers, Pargo, Shopping Feeder (ProceCheck) and Vectra. Media partners include Insaka, CIO Africa, Bizcommunity, Hypertext, Retailwire, ecommerce(dot)co.za and eCommerce Association Ghana.

This will be the eighth edition of this flagship, specialist gathering in the e-commerce, etailing, and fintech sectors and the first hybrid edition, with limited tickets available for the in-person event and the online broadcast.

Fintech in Africa

“Africa has a proud track record in terms of fintech entrepreneurship, particularly Nigeria,” says Southham, “and this has gone a long way to bridging the financial services gap in Africa’s various demographics. This sector played an important role during the last two years, and has successfully diversified its offering and meeting the continent’s needs when people were forced to stay at home and many were cashless.”

Another trend that will be discussed at ECOM Africa in May is the big move to direct-to-consumer (DTC). Southam: “Websites are the new storefronts, and for some, there has been a steep learning curve. Besides the obvious goal of maintaining market share, there are other long-term benefits of going DTC; brands have more control over their data which opens up opportunities to connect and market to their customers, and it creates less reliance on third parties”.

Customer loyalty and data keynote

ECOM Africa is expecting to host 1000 selected guests in May this year for its first in-person event since the pandemic. Included in the who’s who keynote line-up is Alex Genov, Head of Customer Experience Research at Zappos, who will specifically focus on customer loyalty and data. In fact, there are several world-class, international speakers with backgrounds in customer experience, data science and building a digital-first business from the ground up.

Southham explains: “The expo floor will feature select in-person keynotes and Q&As, a knowledge bar with select keynote speakers. Our full conference ticket gets you access to all our keynotes and panel discussions along with live Q&A. All information regarding the two tickets are available on our website. Online attendees will also be able to participate, learn, share and inspire.”

The programme will cover specific topics, such as store design and optimisation, marketing and brand building, payments and security, logistics and fulfilment, as well as business operations.

ECOM Africa’s 40+ confirmed speaker line-up so far includes:

Keynote speakers:

- Alex Genov, Head of Customer Experience Research, Zappos, LA
- Michael Ros, CEO/Co-founder - Bidroom, Netherlands
- Liam McCreedy, Founder, Quench, RSA
- Vincent Viviers, General Manager: Pick n Pay Online Marketing & Commercial, RSA

More expert speakers, panellists and moderators:

- Tanuj Shekhar, Group Director of Logistics, Jumia, Portugal
- Dirk Van Der Walt, Co-owner and Co-founder, WeBuyCars, RSA
- George Mienie, CEO, Autotrader, RSA
- Laurian Venter, Director, OneDayOnly, RSA
- Joseph Sindaha, Head of e-business, Nestlé, RSA
- Lauren Hartzenberg, Managing Editor, Retail Editor, Bizcommunity, RSA
- Ajibola Olayiwola, Head of Marketing, Konga Shopping, Nigeria
- James Mew, Founder and MD - Mentality, SA - Based out of Portugal
- Greg Le Roux, CEO, Loot.co.za, RSA
- Paris Philippou, Vice President, B2C Websites, Group E-commerce, Massmart, SA
- Jamie Ostrowick, CTO, Bidorbuy
- Christoph Steyn, Managing Director, Rugged RSA
- Diana Bett, Managing Director, Purpinks Gifts, Kenya
- Carol Odero, Editor-in-chief, CIO Africa, Kenya
- Dumi Mahlangu, Founder: Chepa Streetwear (Pty) Ltd
- Heinrich van Eck, Director, Rugged SA
- Llyod Abrahams, Supply Chain and Logistics Director, The Foschini Group

Industry-leading technologies

An exciting part of the hybrid event in Cape Town will be the partner showcases with the latest innovative technologies, products and services to assist online retailers in reaching their customers faster and more effectively. They will share their experiences with the audience and also digitally interact with them.

Register and contacts

There are still a limited number of free expo passes available. Use the coupon code ECOMPRESS, click here to register for a free expo pass. To join for the full two days of in-depth keynotes, panel discussions, networking and live Q&A sessions, purchase an All-Access Pass conference ticket here and use ECOMPRESS to get R499 off the full price.

ECOM Africa dates and location:

Live in-person and online conference and expo: 4-5 May 2022
Location: CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa

Website: https://ecommerce-africa.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecomafricacon
Facebook: ECOM Africa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecom-africa/