Opening e-commerce to SME designers

Shopstar was created by Cape Town-based web development company JGH Internet, which has been providing internet-related services to the SME market in Cape Town for the past 10 years. This has given it insight into the opportunities in supporting economic growth via optimisation, freeing up creatives to continue to create.

Jens Herf, MD of JGH Internet says, "E-commerce is still a new market in South Africa, but already existing in other parts of the world, enabling Africa to be technology adaptors and fast track the development for the unique needs of the continent. In South Africa e-commerce is growing 30% per annum.

"There are currently three other players in the South African market but they focus on the international market and none of these products are looking at integration of online shopping, point-of-sale (POS), customer relationship management (CRM), marketing and the logistics in one easy-to-use interface, at an affordable price."

Shopstar has been collaborative in its approach, working with top Cape Town brands (eg. www.dearrae.co.za) and logistics companies in the creation of a solution that addresses the major barriers to entry for small and medium businesses into the e-commerce space. As it grows, a virtual marketplace is going to be created profiling top sellers and marketing them to registered shoppers.

Future modules include Point-of-Sale (POS) and inventory management tools enabling ease of use in-store, at markets, fairs and other remote sales locations. This simplifies the stock and client management component of the business, making it fully mobile.

"We seek to develop and simplify the African e-commerce market by providing a platform and tools to emerging businesses thereby fuelling the much needed economic growth. In South Africa there are currently 4.5 million online shoppers and we believe the site has the potential to be at the forefront of the African e-commerce industry," concludes Herf.

For more information, go to www.shopstar.co.za.