{"id":632047,"date":"2026-03-05T11:34:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T09:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=632047"},"modified":"2026-03-05T11:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T09:37:07","slug":"south-african-e-commerce-pioneer-announces-new-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/632047-south-african-e-commerce-pioneer-announces-new-ceo.html","title":{"rendered":"South African e-commerce pioneer announces new CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African e-commerce platform Bob has appointed Anita Erasmus as its chief executive officer designate, signalling a leadership transition at a company with deep roots in the country’s online retail history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erasmus took up the CEO Designate role on 1 March 2026 and will work alongside co-founder and managing director Andy Higgins during a six-month handover period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She will formally assume the position on 1 September 2026, at which point Higgins will move into the role of Executive Director of Strategy and Chief of Payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that capacity, Higgins will focus on advancing Bob Pay and leading long-term strategic planning for the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appointment comes as South Africa’s e-commerce market continues to expand rapidly, with a 2025 World Wide Worx report charting the sector’s acceleration over recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online retail turnover reached an estimated R96 billion in 2024, representing 35% growth from R71 billion the previous year, the report found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That figure represented 8% of total national retail sales, up from 6% in 2023. The report projected online sales would exceed R130 billion by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is a pivotal moment for Bob because we are entering a new phase of growth and maturity as a business,” Higgins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith a strong foundation in our product, culture, and market position, the focus now shifts towards strengthening what works, deepening our impact, and leading Bob confidently into its next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erasmus brings nearly a decade of experience within the company, having previously served as Head of Business at Bob, where she ran the shipping service’s day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her tenure, she expanded the Bob Go logistics offering substantially. The business now processes more shipments in a single day than it once handled in a full month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said that Erasmus\u2019 operational leadership also contributed to the development of strong courier partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Bidorbuy to Bob<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Andy Higgins, Bob Group managing director<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Higgins is one of South Africa’s longest-serving ecommerce entrepreneurs. He founded online auction marketplace Bidorbuy in 1999 after working on European auction websites for QXL.com in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He secured funding to launch the platform across South Africa, Australia, and India, but the dot-com crash nearly ended the venture shortly after launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higgins was forced to sell the Australian and Indian operations, retrench 25 staff, and cut costs aggressively to keep Bidorbuy’s South African business alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The turning point came around 2005, when ADSL broadband began replacing dial-up and South Africans started shopping online in meaningfully larger numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He co-founded logistics software company uAfrica in 2012 alongside Jaco Roux, who had previously built price comparison site Jump Shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higgins was also instrumental in the early development of payment gateway PayFast and served on the boards of PayFast, Private Property, and Takealot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

uAfrica became a strategic partner of Shopify, localising the global e-commerce platform for South Africa by integrating local payment gateways and shipping solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2022, Bidorbuy and uAfrica merged to form Bob Group. The following year, the business rebranded, with Bidorbuy becoming Bob Shop and uAfrica becoming Bob Go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group added Bob Box smart lockers and Bob Pay to round out an integrated commerce ecosystem spanning marketplace, payments, shipping, and collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob’s next phase of growth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Erasmus said her focus would be on disciplined, sustainable expansion that balances profitability with scale, rather than pursuing growth at any cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our focus is on serving more customers, solving important problems, and increasing the value we create in the market,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll this while remaining disciplined so that expenses do not grow at the same pace as gross profit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higgins said Erasmus was the right person to lead the company’s next phase. \u201cHaving been with us for nearly a decade, Anita understands the DNA of this company better than anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe has consistently demonstrated the ability to turn high-level vision into practical execution, which is exactly what Bob needs as we move from our foundational phase into purposeful growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said it would concentrate on deeper platform integration, operational efficiency, and innovation to strengthen South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African e-commerce platform Bob has announced a chief executive officer designate to take over from founder Andy Higgins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":632048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[28372,67063,3636,81364,83647],"class_list":["post-632047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-andy-higgins","tag-anita-erasmus","tag-bidorbuy","tag-bob-group","tag-bob-shop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632052,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632047\/revisions\/632052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}