The challenging economic climate in South Africa due to a weaker rand, increasing costs of energy and higher interest rates, has added pressure to consumers. Because of this, 3.2 million South Africans are shopping online and are driven by lower product costs, faster and flexible delivery, and safer ways to pay.
Millennials are the main online shoppers and most of them do research before making a purchase,” explained Michael Richards, MD of SiteMeUp Online Marketing, “this means that well-written content with thoughtful planning into user navigation is required to improve the user’s experience.” A well-designed site also needs to carry across the company's brand message quickly in order to give the user peace of mind that he is on the correct site and will find what he's are looking for.
“Our research has shown that 50% of beauty shoppers don’t know which brand they want to purchase, so we have channels of communication set up to answer any queries, and help them make an informed choice,” said Dr Alek Nikolic executive director of SkinMiles.com, a new online store selling high-quality skin-care products at competitive prices. SkinMiles.com provides a skin-care hotline during office hours, enabling the consumer to ask questions directly to a qualified person. And if they want to go straight to the top, Dr Nikolic is on email. SkinMiles.com also has a unique loyalty programme whereby you can earn 'SkinMiles' from your first skin-care product purchase, and redeem them at your leisure as they never expire.
Goldstuck states that South African e-commerce is relatively conventional and has not seen the level of innovation brought to bear on most product categories in major Western markets. This indicates that there is tremendous potential in this market for new business models and even underexposed product categories. With this in mind, South African e-commerce entrepreneurs’ can tap into the over 3 million online shoppers in South Africa with their innovative and stress-free websites.
One of the most important global trends in e-commerce is the focus on customers’ journey and ensuring that their needs are met from start to finish. “We want our customers to feel as if they have been given the same personalised service as if they’d been for a consultation and received the advice from an expert in the skincare field,” said Dr Nikolic. “The personal touch is very important to us and we feel that we meet that need for individual attention with the Face2Face skin assessment and the personal contact with me. I check each assessment and examine every photo sent to me before providing a tailor-made skin regime.”
Another concern of the online shopper is having the peace of mind that their personal details will not be used fraudulently. A recognised and secure payment gateway is essential. “We have gone to great lengths to ensure the safety of our customers’ details at SkinMiles.com, by putting various security measures in place,” said Dr Nikolic. Their website is Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypted and uses a strong protocol version and cipher suite. Credit card payments are processed on a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS)-compliant gateway with 3D-secure transactions, in which users require a One Time Pin (OTP) to complete the transaction.
SkinMiles.com has sourced high-end skin-care products from around the world and made them available online to South Africans. “Being part of SkinMiles.com allows our brand, Dermaceutic, to be made widely available to the end-user,” said Justine Campbell, director of Conquest Aesthetics, distributer of Dermaceutic. “It also enables our brand to be easily accessible to the consumer who can’t always have access the likes of doctor prescribed skin-care products.”
