Phumi Körber Founder of WISIOI

Women in

E-Commerce

Phumi Körber, Founder of WISIOI

E-Commerece & Fashion

Phumi Korber - Founder of WISIOI

How did you get into eCommerce?

My background is brick & mortar retail buying, and 10 years ago, I got approached to be a lead buyer for an eCommerce store. This was when online retail was very tiny and I got hooked into the future (now current) of shopping from the palm of your hand.

What does running an eCommerce based business entail?

Testing, Analytics, Implementation, more testing, analytics & implementation

What are some of your biggest challenges?

We run a peer to peer marketplace where you have 2 customers, the buyer (sales) & the seller (stock). The biggest challenge is finding a balance in customer acquisition, meaning we need to find the right kind of stock in the right sizes for the right shopper profile.

What are some of the tech/eCommerce trends you see that all female entrepreneurs should take advantage of?

Fintech and niche marketplaces are the fastest growing tech businesses currently in South Africa. Less than 10% of these businesses are founded by females. There is definitely room for us to occupy this space.

How can other women break into the space?

I think women should embrace technology, we need to teach our girls to be excited about the tech space and the possibility of teaching them to code from a young age. There are so many free /affordable channels of education available on the internet that you don’t even need to go to an expensive university to learn the tech arena. Google for example has an online academy that teaches tech skills such as UX/UI, Analytics, SEO, engineering etc. There are also multiple initiatives that are specifically designed to help women embrace tech such as Women in Tech.

How to sign up or shop with WISIOI?

Simply download our app from the App Store or Google Play Store and upload the items you’d like to sell and literally turn clothes you no longer wear into cash.