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Cape Town - Despite being a new player, the e-Commerce Africa Confex surpassed expectations according to the organisers.
The conference covered from the survival and flourishing of SMEs and small businesses to expanding business into Africa. The two day confex, a combination of an expo and conference, took place on February 3 and 4 in Cape Town at the CTICC.
Visa shared its success story in a presentation by the head of emerging products and innovation, Dougie Hendersen, the talk evolved around the process that Visa has taken in the digital payments realm.
Country director of Google SA Luke Mckend provided an analytical overview of e-commerce in Africa and addressed the adoption rate of online shopping in the region during his keynote.
Raphael Afaedor, co-founder of Jumia and CEO/co-founder of Supermart, joined Simdul Shagaya, CEO and founder of Konga.com via Skype, discussing what to consider when growing your business beyond SA's borders and the factors that are making certain markets more promising than others.
Raphael co-founded one of Nigeria's largest online stores, Jumia in 2012 and has since left to start Supermart, an online platform that allows the consumer to shop from over 18 000 grocery items.
Simdul was on Forbes' list of "The 10 Most Powerful Men in Africa 2014" and also won "Entrepreneur of the Year" at the 2013 All Africa Business Leaders Awards.
Other advisory panel members included Paul Galatis, director of online brand Yuppiechef and Bid or Buy CEO Jaco Jonker.
Jonker gave attendees a layout of the basic steps required in order to make your first sale and the importance of getting to market quickly. He highlighted the importance of the eCommerce Africa Confex.
"It is especially valuable for SME players looking at setting up an e-commerce business including those taking their current online business to the next level," he said.
A track focussing on online customer engagement brought Louna Lohann, GM for Spree, Andre de Wet, CEO of PriceCheck Online and Gerhard Lampen, head of Sanlam iTrade to the stage.
Lohann mapped how good delivery management is key to growing your e-commerce customer base, while De Wet expanded on the best strategies to deliver an online checkout experience that will turn browsers into buyers.
Lampen explained how to take advantage of social media analysis to increase your following and achieve your business objectives.
Banking challenges
On the expo floor Africa's largest banks - currently involved in improving the perception of online transactions and combating online fraud as well as driving the general growth and development of the e-commerce industry - had a strong presence.
FNB, Absa, Standard Bank and Nedbank, all had teams of experts on hand at their exhibitor stands to provide specialist advice and showcase their solutions to establish and grow a successful online platform.
Other vendors building e-commerce in the region hosted on the exhibition floor included eSolutions by DPD Laser, Courierit, WinFreight, iGroup, One World, Sociomantic, RAM, Payfast, Interroll, iVeri, True ERP, Website Design, Vizury, ThisIsMe and Episerver.
Amazon Web Services' Dan Mbanga and Mike Needham showed delegates an example of the agility within which infrastructure can be setup for your e-commerce platform requirements.
Dimension Data introduced a best practice design and highlighted implementation principles, as well as a demo for scalable, secure e-commerce sites and general web infrastructure.
Following the success of this event, the 2016 eCommerce Africa Confex is set to take place on February 17 and 18, again in Cape Town at the CTICC.
