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How Does The Rest Of Africa Shape Up?
borders. With a number of thriving, trend-setting, e-commerce sites making their mark on the industry, South Africa is raising the bar high. Luke Jedeikin has this advice for South Africa’s aspiring e-commerce entrepreneurs: “In the US, your business plan starts with ‘what do you sell that Amazon can’t.’ The same is true here: don’t offer the same product from the same brands as players that are clearly far more dominant than you. They will out buy, out ship, out rank and outbid you. Pick a defensible category. Then it’s about the operational stuff. E-commerce is not simply selling a product via a website. It’s getting the product to the customer on the date you promised. If you can’t offer reliable fulfilment, you don’t have a business. Finally, you need funding – these businesses aren’t cheap.”
By Renee Fortune, Copywriter & Social Media Manager, World Wide Creative, @reneejoyfortune
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@sqroot
How Yuppiechef Became Kings Of The E-Commerce Kitchen An Interview With Co-Founder & MD, Andrew Smith
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t’s taken the award for Best E-commerce Site in South Africa for five consecutive years. In a relatively short space of time, it’s expanded its offering to seven additional African countries. Ventureburn even attributed its existence to the emergence of a “kitchenware cult.” Since its inception in 2006, Yuppiechef has set a benchmark for South African e-commerce. Its founders, Andrew Smith and Shane Dryden still play active roles in the growth of the brand and the implementation of its customer-first philosophy. We were interested to learn more about their approach to the development of the site. Andrew shared some of his insights on the topic.
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@luke_jedi
An Interview With Co-Founder & MD, Luke Jedeikin
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@habanerodesigns @kimaalbaker
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<Heavy Chef / Kimaal Baker, Grant Taylor>
As an online grooming and styling
About becoming an e-commerce
development, so adding his own
store for men, MANSHOP provides
start-up owner, Kimaal says: “Not ev-
modifications to an open source
a premium, niche product offering.
ery passion or hobby can be turned
Wordpress template was the most
With its carefully curated selection
into a viable business and the only
time-saving and cost-effective solu-
of brands, everyday face and body
way to figure this out, is through mar-
tion. About the design of the site,
products take on a more specialist
ket research.”
Grant says, “it was important to me that the site be visually appealing, so
nature. Essentials for the modern man. In this way, Kimaal Baker and his business partner have been able to position the brand beyond the competitive reach of major super-
Sockscription: A Subscription Service For Sock Connoisseurs
I use bold imagery and colours with a dash of humour. I add the odd animal here and there, because people fricken’ love them.” The creation of
markets and retailers.
Sockscription was a relatively easy
Baker’s broader strategy includes
but time-consuming process, with the
vertical integration in the supply
greatest challenge being the building
chain “to include manufacturing, im-
of the site’s back-end. The entire
porting and distribution.”
build process lasted five months.
For now though, his top priority is to ensure that the retail business
In addition to the website, Grant
model works efficiently.
makes use of a Facebook page which has become the site’s primary
When choosing a CMS (Content
digital marketing channel. As Grant’s
Management System) for MAN-
first business venture, Sockscription
SHOP, Kimaal considered Word-
is bound to evolve and grow along
press, Magento, Shopify and a cus-
with the aspirations of this digital sol-
tom-built solution. It was important
opreneur. Bless his cotton socks.
that the solution provided a workable
The idea for Sockscription came to
middle-ground between every digital
Grant Taylor’s fiancé Deidre, while
In a recent interview with Venture-
start-up’s most valuable commodities
they were sitting around a campfire
burn, Peter Harvey remarked that,
– time and finance.
making a futile attempt at toasting
“five years ago we’d load ten start-
marshmallows without setting them
ups onto our payment gateway for
“I’d worked with Wordpress quite a
alight. Reflecting Grant’s super sim-
every established business. Now the
bit in the past and I found that the
ple approach to life, Sockscription
ratio is more like 100 to one.” With a
Woocommerce plugin covered all
as its name suggests, is a sock
dramatic increase like this one, it’s
the bases in terms of functionality.
subscription service that sends cus-
easy to understand why a number
The plugin was also well supported
tomers a pair of socks each month.
of market analysts claim that in time,
with a bunch of third party plugins
One month, three month and six
today’s e-commerce start-ups will
that could really customise the store
month plans are available. According
present a significant challenge to the
experience,” says Baker about his
to Taylor, “each pair is randomly cho-
retail status quo. And with Africa set
eventual choice of CMS. The devel-
sen so it’s like a better version of the
to experience its own Mobigeddon
opment process was bolstered by
lucky packet.”
(Mobile Armageddon), the opportuni-
Kimaal’s experience as a digital proj-
ties for e-commerce to scale across
ect strategist coupled by unrelenting
As World Wide Creative’s head of
perseverance and conscientious
design, Grant also has a working
planning.
knowledge of PHP and CSS
multiple devices will be endless. By Renee Fortune, World Wide Creative, @reneejoyfortune
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@nikkicockcroft
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@Fred_Roed
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A Q&A With Saratogaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Senior Developer, Evan Summers
Saratoga @evanxsummers
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Google Chrome Developer Tools
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