Music retailer Look & Listen will stop selling items through its Web site, just two days before Valentine's Day.
A note on the site indicates that, as of next Tuesday, it will no longer offer consumers the option to purchase online, which applies to both physical goods and digital downloads. However, product research options will still be available.
"Those customers who have funds in a virtual wallet can choose to either convert to a virtual store-based gift voucher accessed via an SMS on your cellphone, or you can opt for a refund," states the notice.
Customers who have an item on a prepaid order will have their stock delivered when the item is officially released.
Look & Listen's decision comes at a time when the online sector is booming, with 2013 expected to be a particularly significant year for the sector. At this stage, it is not known what prompted the move.
World Wide Worx predicted in its last Online Retail in SA report that e-commerce in SA would continue to grow following the country's entry into a phase of "sustained acceleration" in 2010.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck said, at the end of 2011, that online retail in SA was growing at a high rate, which was expected to continue. "The growth rate has been 30% or more for three years now."
In 2011, the market grew at about the predicted 40% rate. Goldstuck has said this year will be a particularly significant one for the online retail industry. "[2013] is the year when the growth of the number of experienced Internet users in SA begins to accelerate. We call that model the Digital Participation Curve, and the curve will rise steeply from 2013 for the rest of the decade, indicating sustained growth."
Goldstuck says the Online Retail in SA 2011 report shows online retail only made up 0.3% of overall retail in SA, but this proportion is expected to grow more than tenfold in the coming decade.
Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley's Global Internet and Retail specialists say what they call the "retail sales disruption" could see e-commerce sales topping $1 trillion by 2016.
Look & Listen's switchboard rang unanswered this morning and CEO Darren Levy did not immediately return a message left on his cellphone.
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