Ask Andy Higgins anything about eCommerce

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eCommerce has always been a place where one views, reviews and buys, what do you envisage being the next evolution of ecommerce and how will it fit into the iOT ecosystem ?
 
Takealot is getting a lot of funding from its investors, but is failing to make any headway on becoming a profitable entity that doesn't have to rely on solely on investors to keep it afloat.It managed to burn through 1 billion rand investment in less then 2 odd years.It also surprises me that they haven't considered importing and dealing directly with manufactures on a large scale and cutting out the middleman entirely.

Why hasn't takealot seized the opportunity to make investments in other e-commerce sectors, like cloud storage, secondhand market, streaming services ect, I find it amazing that it's sticking to it's guns and just focusing on one area of market which it already has vast majority of market share and still failing to make any worthwhile profit.
 
What are your thoughts on the recent investigation and news about takealot and onedayonly inflating retail prices to show increased savings, are they handling the matter correctly, it seems they have some good spin doctors working in their PR department.
 
South Africa is most certainly catching up with the technological aspect of commerce, and eCommerce is becoming more and more trusted. The question I pose to you Andy is this: Do we as South Africans tend to focus on a too small audience when it comes to eCommerce? What I mean with this is, that most eCommerce websites I come across focus on local areas and restrict growth and expansion to international markets, is this not limiting...
 
Hi Andy,

What are your biggest hurdles in terms of growth in the South African online commerce space, and do you foresee the growth to continue at the current pace or wane off after a number of years?
 
Hi Andy

How can we use the online space to help eradicate or reduce unemployment. Jobs are so hard to come by, so can we look to online solutions to get more people to easily find work

Thank You
 
Hi Andy I've created a fully functional woocommerce website integrated with payfast. Will you be my eCommerce Business Mentor?
 
Hi Andy,

With regards to the mitigation of Know your client and anti-money laundering obligations enforced by The Financial Intelligence Center and further acts,, why do South African eCommerce sights feel the need to be above the law and do away with the enforced compliance in order to win over "market share" of potential buyers(where no user verfication and KYC/AML Obligations are enforced on the end user)? in light of understanding this, why does the government not fine and shut down these operational eCommerce Sites and MarketPlaces?
 
Hi Andy,

What is the single most prominent thing that you see new online shop owners do/get wrong in South Africa?
 
If you could give your younger 25-year old self any advice on getting involved in eCommerce space in South Africa, what would it be?
 
Hi Andy

Nobody has asked you this

But growing up into a successful businessman, who has been the one person who inspired you to go out there and become the person you are today.

We all have our heroes growing up, who has been yours?
 
Online purchases are still limited to the wealthy, tech savvy 1%. What are your plans to bring ecommerce to the masses?
 
Hi Andy

Bidorbuy recently radically hiked the commissions it charges sellers on sales, some categories seeing an increase in excess of a 100%. That's not including the additional commission introduced at the same time which is now payable by sellers on all shipping costs.

Reason given in some Bidorbuy correspondence is to cover the increased banking fees because it now obligates all sellers to accept obscure and little used payment options which are expensive to process. Many people are unhappy with that answer as they only ever accept Eft's via Bidorbuy's Bobpay system and the processing fees on Eft's are extremely low. The other reason given was to make the fees easier to understand, they weren't particularly hard to understand before so that reason does not resonate.

Considering Bidorbuy's fee system is now more aligned with international market leader eBay but does not offer any of the perks eBay offers for their fees, like deeply integrated shipping assistance and tracking, buyer/seller protection across the board(Bidorbuy's protection is limited, buyer only and not obligatory). It seems the new value offering is very poor, a fee increase was perhaps due but the magnitude of this increase looks like price gouging with little added value for sellers. Not very much added value for the majority of buyers either yet they will feel the trickle down effect of these new fees as increased prices.

What are your thoughts in this regards, is Bidorbuy ever going to innovate again as they did at the beginning or are they going to rest on their laurels as the first and currently only major platform of its type in South Africa?
 
Hi, do you think the recent trade war between the US and China (somewhat less Europe) will have a domino effect on the local market in terms of those 2 countries protecting their local markets and pushing fees / taxes either favorably or negatively?
 
As an e-commerce site owner, my biggest worry is that South Africa's online shopping market is still very small, too small to make real profits while competing with the likes of Takealot, Bidorbuy, etc. With our couriers being very expensive, how would we be able to expand our websites to the overseas markets without charging too much for shipping?
 
When comparing your ecommerce businesses to Amazon, what is stopping you to go globally as well?
 
Are the African continent in your scope when doing ecommerce business or mainly South Africa and why?
 
What have you found to be the most effective marketing technique for your ecommerce businesses?
 
Hi Andy

What are the most common e-commerce laws South African e-commerce startups should be aware of to trade locally and internationally?
 
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