DionWired launches online shopping experience

"The DionWired brand has grown from six to 18 stores in under three years, and is present in major centres across the country. We believe that the time is right to move into the online shopping space," said marketing director of Massdiscounters, Richard Millson.

DionWired has focused on simple shopping and designed its website to be user friendly and easy to checkout, with online support available seven days a week.

"Our research included a live trial for a four month period, focused only on Gauteng customers. During this time, the model was refined, navigation processes improved and security made robust. After making customer-led improvements, we went live nationally in late 2012."

Added benefits and security

The online shop's features include exclusive online promotions and extended product ranges, free delivery on all orders to anywhere in South Africa and free returns. If a customer does not like an item, it can be collected or returned to one of DionWired's stores within 10 days for a replacement or a full refund, Millson explained.

"[We] have opted for bank level encryption in our checkout. We do not save credit card details and we have made usage of 3D Secure, an additional level of authentication on credit cards. In addition, our web and call centre team manually review every order looking for anomalies," he said.

TV licence verification

DionWired is currently the only South African website carrying out real-time SABC licence verification during check out.

"We identified this gap in the market whilst developing our online strategy. Online retailers weren't handling the TV licence checks very well or even legally in some cases. We had an opportunity to make checks simple and seamless whilst also adhering to the SABC's strict legal requirements. We sell a lot of televisions online as a result," he said.

Mobile shopping

DionWired is also poised to take full advantage of another important trend - shopping by smart phone. According to Millson, 15% of DionWired web traffic is via mobile devices. This bucks the global trend which is well under 10%.

Millson said that DionWired aimed to continually evolve its website to ensure it remained relevant, was feature rich and focused on providing an enjoyable and highly usable online shopping experience. As a result, a number of exciting enhancements will be introduced during 2013, including local store specials and barcode scanners.

"We will continue to innovate. We also intend to keep a close eye on the global e-commerce market in terms of new trends and will respond accordingly," he concluded.

For further information, log on to www.dionwired.co.za.