South African businesses can now get an ecommerce-ready website, including a full payment suite, integrated delivery service and free hosting for R349 per month. SA’s largest payment service provider, DPO South Africa, has launched DPO Store, a service that’s’ designed to help start-ups and small businesses move online easily, quickly and securely.
“While we have been planning this product offering for some time, the pandemic economy highlighted the need for a simple yet powerful like DPO Store,” says Brendon Williamson, CSO of DPO South Africa. “For many small businesses the cost and complexity of designing and developing an ecommerce website can be prohibitive. We are allowing even the smallest of businesses an opportunity to explore what the online world has to offer.”
Williamson says many businesses have been forced to take their offerings online in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This move is reflected in the 129% year-on-year ecommerce growth in North America, compared to a decline in traditional retail figures for the same period. According to IBM’s Retail Index, this has accelerated the shift away from physical stores by five years. Williamson says DPO South Africa’s transactional data also shows a big shift towards ecommerce over the last five months and says this is set to continue into the future.
DPO Store builds and hosts the websites and, with the help of pre-built templates, tailors each design to the branding guidelines as provided by merchants.
The four-page website, with space to sell 150 products from the start, is built using WooCommerce and on the PayGate Plus platform. This gives the merchant immediate access to the most popular payment methods, including credit and debit cards, Masterpass, Zapper, SnapScan, Mobicred, PayPal as well as SiD Secure EFT and MoMoPay.
With DPO Store, merchants don’t have to outsource developers or require design skills. All websites are responsive to each device, meaning customers can shop from any device: mobile, desktop, or tablet.
Williamson says ensuring products are delivered quickly and safely can make all the difference when it comes to building repeat business and a loyal customer base. For this reason, DPO South Africa has turned to its extensive partner base, and DPO Store websites come with logistics built in.
“The DPO Group is committed to supporting the growth of business in Africa,” says Williamson. “We have already had a good response from our merchants in Kenya and we are certain South African business owners will jump at the opportunity to leverage the extensive DPO merchant network and our global reach.”
Interested business owners can apply and will also receive training on how to maintain their sites, although there is a dedicated help desk for ongoing support, should they need it.