The value of goods sold by online retail in SA is expected to exceed R4 billion for the first time, in 2013.
Unlike many other industries, people working in the e-commerce space should be smiling because they have a potential customer base that is growing constantly, said Luke Mckend, country director for Google SA, during his keynote address at the South African eCommerce Conference in Sandton yesterday.
"We are probably one of the only industries in SA that can claim that we have more potential customers every day and every week of every year because more people are coming online all the time. And this trend will continue."
A lot has changed since the early days of the Internet, noted Mckend, adding that, a couple of years ago, people first accessed the Net via PCs, now they often have their first online experiences on mobile devices. He advised that organisations dealing in e-commerce keep this in mind when creating their online retail platforms.
According to Mckend, the Web is also becoming more local, with geo-components increasingly being built into Web searches. This adds value for both businesses and consumers as it provides a person standing in Sandton City, who is searching for restaurants on their mobile phone, with search results tailored around their location, said Mckend, highlighting that personalisation should be a focus in e-commerce.
When discussing how to improve the e-commerce landscape into the future, Mckend called for payments to be simplified, describing near-field communication (NFC) technology as a possible means to make digital transactions more effective.
In SA, about 90% of consumers who shop online will research products before they walk into the store. Consumers assume that if a product is not available on a business' site, it will not be available in store, said Mckend, noting that all inventory in stores should be visible on a company's Web site or at least in the cloud. "There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to find what you are looking for on the business' site."
For Mckend, technological advances are shrinking the gap between online and offline. Our perception of where we are buying the product is not mediated by the device we are using or by the medium; whether online or offline, consumers are purchasing products and services from a shop and expect a certain kind of experience.
This space is set to get more sophisticated and those in e-commerce need to simplify their offerings and improve personalisation should they want to deliver on what the public has come to expect from an online retail experience, he concluded.
"We tend to think of e-commerce as just being about a Web site, but it is about delivering on the promises we make around choice, efficiency and convenience."
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