Walk into almost any South African town and you will find a small business owner who already sells online. According to a new study of 1,400 South African small and medium-sized businesses, 86% of respondents generate sales online. The research, conducted by technology market research firm World Wide Worx and commissioned by Amazon, was released this past Tuesday.
What the findings reveal is that the conversation has shifted. South African small businesses are no longer figuring out how to get online. They are dealing with what comes after: costs, deliveries, and the pressure of managing customer expectations at scale. Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of World Wide Worx, put it plainly at the launch: "We expected to find a market that was still wrestling with the basics of getting online. Instead, we found a market that has moved past that stage and is confronting an entirely different set of challenges."
The numbers back him up. Some 62% of active online sellers identify logistics and delivery as a major challenge, and 46% struggle with returns management. By contrast, only 5% cited connectivity and 12% cited payment systems as significant hurdles. Meanwhile, only 32% of businesses selling online currently use major marketplaces, which is exactly the gap Amazon is looking to fill.
Nearly two-thirds of the businesses surveyed have been selling online for at least six years, and 76% also maintain a physical store, painting a picture of a hybrid retail market that is maturing fast. Amazon's head of marketplace for South Africa, Suzelle Abe, says the goal is to give these sellers the infrastructure to grow beyond what they could build on their own, locally and into international markets.
The real question now is whether Amazon can earn the trust of South African entrepreneurs who have already built something without them.
Originally published by TechCabal.