Naspers’ e-commerce company reports rising trade

NASPERS-backed Africa Internet Accelerator attracts a combined half-a-million visitors a month at its e-commerce sites, which include fashion retailer style36.co.za, mom and baby site kinderelo.com and furniture and homeware emporium 5rooms.com, founder and CEO Emilian Popa said yesterday.

By global standards, the online shopping segment in SA is small, but a growing number of consumers are turning to the internet to browse and shop.

The online startup incubator, which has been trading for 20 months said month-on-month growth stands at 30%.

“Of 50-million South Africans, only about 1.2-million shop online — half of them for airline tickets.

“It’s a small, though highgrowth market at around 25%, according to research firm World Wide Worx,” Mr Popa said.

Africa Internet Accelerator operates a locally-unique but globally-proven e-commerce model of housing many store brands under one banner.

This model was pioneered by Quidsi.com, the US holding brand for Diapers.com, Beautybar.com, Casa.com and Like.com. Amazon bought Quidsi in 2010.

“You can gain a lot by keeping traffic on the same ‘street’, for instance by tracking the shopper in one store and cross-promoting another store whose wares complement their choices.”

The approach also allows estores to share hosting, corporate services and systems efficiently.

“We started with 5rooms.com a year ago. At the time we were part of Rocket Internet SA. We did a management buyout in September last year and took 5rooms.com private.

“Money was raised from Naspers in November, and part of the capital raising included taking over former Naspers-owned fashion retailer 36boutiques, which we rebranded and restructured,” Mr Popa said.

“The newest addition to the portfolio came with the launch of kinderelo.com in July.”

Rocket Internet is a German group that develops and replicates internet businesses in predominantly emerging markets. It launched Zando in SA last year.

Africa Internet Accelerator has a warehouse in Cape Town and in Johannesburg.

Looking ahead, the company will launch a mobi-site and showrooms in both cities. The company also has plans to ship to neighbouring countries, including Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Naspers is increasingly building its e-commerce platform by investing in emerging internet companies. Late last year, the media company acquired a stake in Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com, for an undisclosed sum. Local stalwart Kalahari.com is owned by Naspers.

Retailers Edcon and Woolworths have been beefing up their e-commerce offerings, highlighting the growing trend towards capturing online trade. A competitive edge can be gained by tailoring businesses according to customers’ demands.

Mr Price Apparel launched its online platform last year.