Academic text book supplier Van Schaik Bookstores is to make its online presence, VS Online, available exclusively through Kalahari.net.
Van Schaik Bookstores launched VS Online in March last year, to sell prescribed text books to most South African tertiary institutions.
Van Schaik`s Bookstore MD Chris Wolf says that while his company recognised the importance of harnessing the Internet as an additional delivery channel, it soon realised that the business models of retailing and e-tailing are fundamentally different.
"In the traditional retail environment, your business model is based on customers coming to you, whereas in e-tail, the product goes directly to the customer," he says. "This means that, when retailers go online, your business needs to be re-engineered to deliver on customer service promises.
"It made sense for us to partner with Kalahari because Kalahari has established itself as SA`s destination of choice for consumers looking for books on the Internet. Through its debit-based payment option made available through icanonline, Kalahari also offers convenient payment mechanisms for students who generally don`t have credit cards."
Kalahari.net CEO Hein Pretorius says the partnership will enable the companies to focus on their core competencies, offer more convenient service to VS Online customers, and increase Kalahari.net`s product depth.
Both Kalahari and Van Schaik are part of the Naspers group.
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