By Jacqui Maroun, Chief Experience Officer, VMLY&R South Africa
What do Ubuntu, gin and WhatsApp have in common? Aside from some feel-good vibes, they are also examples of eCommerce trends that will be a bigger part of our future.
In Latin America eCommerce accounted for 34% of business before the pandemic. During March and April 2020, it grew by 50% with 80,000 new eCommerce outlets.
In China the eCommerce market accelerated in response to the SARS epidemic at the turn of the century. Twenty years on, China has the most developed eCommerce market in the world, not only in terms of size (more than 1 billion users) but also sophistication. Imagine browsing through a supermarket, scanning barcodes and checking out on your phone, leaving you free to run other errands for the day, and your groceries arrive at your house at the same time as you do. The levels of convenience and adaptation to many different lifestyle patterns is hard to believe.
The global view our international network affords us is always fascinating, but let’s come back home and look at the key eCommerce trends that are developing in South Africa. Trends worth knowing and understanding to level up your eCommerce offering for a changed world.