Subscribe

Elite online shopping portal unveiled in SA

Kgaogelo Letsebe
By Kgaogelo Letsebe, Portals journalist
Johannesburg, 27 Mar 2017
Italist, the world's largest online marketplace fully dedicated to Italy's luxury multi-brand boutiques, is now available in South Africa.
Italist, the world's largest online marketplace fully dedicated to Italy's luxury multi-brand boutiques, is now available in South Africa.

Italist is the latest online shopping portal to join the growing e-commerce market in SA. The shopping portal is the world's largest portal for selling brands from Italy's luxury multi-brand independent fashion retailers.

According to Italist CEO Diego Abba, South Africans will now be able to shop at 150 luxury boutiques on the streets of Italy via Italist with access to more than 750 high-end brands like Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Celine, Givenchy, Gucci and Missoni. "On Italist.com the South African luxury shopper will now have access to a wide selection of exclusive products from some of the world's top luxury brands ...and to the most current designers such as Off-White, Golden Goose and Mary Katrantzou selected from top luxury multi-brand stores," he says.

Abba adds that most of the limited edition offerings which are available on the portal are "almost impossible to find anywhere else except for in the physical stores in a few cities in Italy".

The company says the move to SA was only natural as the country and the continent have one of the largest potential e-commerce markets. Abba explains: "This coupled with the ever-growing love for designer products provided an opportunity to establish our presence in SA to fill the gap in the online market for luxury products."

Online shopping seems to be on a slight increase in the country as a recent report by PayPal and Ipsos titled "Annual Global Report on Cross-border Trade" showed that there is an increase in online shopping among South African adults over the last year, and further forecasted continued growth in online spending in the country over the next year. The report investigated the online domestic and cross-border shopping habits of more than 28 000 consumers in 32 countries, including SA.

The report further highlighted that SA's high-mobile penetration rates result in online shoppers increasingly opting to make purchases on their devices (smartphone or tablet) between 2015 and 2016. Speaking on the back of the company's report, Efi Dahan, GM of PayPal for Israel and Africa, pointed out more people were joining the online trend. "People are shifting business from desktops at home to mobile devices. It is very important to understand because once you have a mobile device, it is a personalised device that you can use around the clock, you can shop more, you can get paid and pay with your mobile device."

Abba says the different aspects of Italist like 24/7 customer support feature, where customers can be assisted live during the browsing and purchasing process are set to attract more local consumers. "Our model at Italist is to have basically an unlimited offering, very fast product discovery and zero inventory cost. We do this with our marketplace for established multi-brand luxury retailers," he said.

So far, the portal has had an estimated 1 000 customers with an average initial spend of R10 000 per customer. It plans to continually add new design elements to its portal to best mimic the shopping experience one would get in boutiques along the streets.

Share