ShopDirect offers tangible benefits to local B2C market

Online retailers in SA's business-to-consumer (B2C) market are reaping dividends from ShopDirect's scalable and affordable online shopping technology solution.

This South African solution enables start-up e-commerce companies and established retail stores to maximise the Internet as a channel to market.

"ShopDirect is offering tangible benefits that enable our clients' businesses to grow. We focus on the management of technology so clients can focus on their own business," said James Flower, MD of ShopDirect.

Mynewlaptop.co.za is a case in point. ShopDirect's solution has allowed this laptop retailer to tap into a market that was previously out of its reach due to the high cost of other e-commerce providers. The company has increased its monthly turnover by 50% in the first three months.

"ShopDirect was the only company that offered a product that was simple enough to understand, set up and manage - even for someone with little or no Web site experience - with the scalability to operate a large online business with a cost-effective price structure," said Kobus Rossouw, MD of Mynewlaptop.co.za.

"ShopDirect's solution also had all the functionality that we required to successfully operate our online laptop shop, such as enabling us to update products and prices through a browser interface from anywhere in the world 24/7, and sales reports."

The ShopDirect e-commerce solution enables retailers to set up affordable, secure, scalable and easy to use online shops. The B2C platform provides online shopping facilities, customised pricing levels (automated management of discounts) per customer, credit card payment processing, and hosting services along with technical and online marketing support.

ShopDirect also provides merchant enablement services for credit card processing to ensure an online shop can transact in as short a time as possible while the business secures its merchant credit card processing facility from the bank.

Retailers are able to handle high volumes of transactions with ShopDirect and then integrate this financial data with their point of sale and accounting systems.

According to Rossouw: "When we initially set out to find an e-commerce product we realised the importance of partnering with industry experts that will enable us to set-up our online shop as quickly as possible. We were also looking for a technical partner that would support us in the long run with expert advice and consultation on an ongoing basis, due to the complexity of the ever-changing technical aspects of the IT world, leaving us to focus on our core business."

ShopDirect counts mynewlaptop.co.za among its other clients, whose online retail outlets include companies in the clothing, computing, medical, music, pharmaceutical, publishing and research industries.

ShopDirect www.shopdirect.co.za offers a three-tiered pricing system based on set-up costs and a monthly fee. These are basic, customised and full package solutions tailored to the needs of the start-up or established businesses. ShopDirect also offers a reseller programme targeted at Web design, Web development and hosting companies.