E-commerce specialist Tanua Technologies has opened several physical outlets across the country for its e-tail entity StopQ.com, gearing it up for the price wars with the traditional retail industry.
The first two stores opened in Benoni and Woodmead last week, culminating an intensive marketing campaign across the mainstream press and the radio broadcast medium.
Tanua`s purchase of a national insurance replacement operation, Cash Power, is the key enabler of the new strategy. Tanua purchased Cash Power in December last year and is using Cash Power outlets to extend its StopQ.com consumer brand.
StopQ.com sells a wide range of home, computer and cellular appliances online, touting itself as "South Africa`s most aggressively priced Internet store.
Patrick Bennett, COO of Tanua Holdings, says sales started out with a call centre approach and an Internet approach.
There are not enough people who are comfortable enough with the Internet to have a viable Internet model. It`s a real uphill battle.
Patrick Bennett, COO, Tanua Holdings
Bennett says the call centre has gone exceptionally well and generates huge turnover. However, while the Web site has achieved a fair degree of traffic, the ability of the Internet to translate into definite turnover has been limited, he says.
``The uniform thing for people to say when calling the call centre is that the price is good, but they`d like to have a place where they can come in and see the product. We could have set up showrooms, but we`re up against the retailers, and the consumers expect more than that.``
Instead, Tanua turned the existing Cash Power stores into co-branded consumer stores where the public can view and purchase products available through StopQ.com.
``Cash Power is the largest insurance replacement company in this country," says Bennett. ``They are also the only national insurance replacement operation. They sell anything - from lawnmowers to garden furniture, they can replace the contents of a household. But the 10 stores around the country were very much geared towards replacement and not actually customer focused.``
Bennett believes the augmented model blends the two businesses together quite well. ``There are not enough people who are comfortable enough with the Internet to have a viable Internet model. It`s a real uphill battle.``
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