Payments enabler DPO South Africa has introduced “e-commerce in a box”, which aims to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups to bring their offerings online.
DPO SA is a subsidiary of the Pan-AfricanDPO Group, which is one of the high-growth online commerce platforms in Africa, operating across 19 countries, including South Africa.
Named DPO Store, the new e-commerce offering is designed to assist small businesses to build a commerce-ready Web site, including a full payment suite, integrated delivery service and free hosting for R349 per month.
“While we have been planning this product offering for some time, the pandemic economy highlighted the need for a simple yet powerful solution like DPO Store,” says Brendon Williamson, CSO of DPO SA. “For many small businesses, the cost and complexity of designing and developing an e-commerce Web site can be prohibitive. We are allowing even the smallest of businesses an opportunity to explore what the online world has to offer.”
DPO Store joins other such available offerings. Last year, Standard Bank introduced SimplyBlu, a digital solution that aims to ease the process of setting up and managing an online store, as well as securely accept card payments.
Mastercard, in August, introduced “SME-in-a-Box”, a payments acceptance service that enables small businesses to tap into the booming digital economy.
COVID-19 has fuelled a sudden digital surge, forcing many of SA’s brick-and-mortar retailers to embrace e-commerce. Post-COVID-19 trends also predict a sharp incline in e-commerce-related businesses.
Williamson points out that DPO SA’s transactional data also shows a big shift towards e-commerce over the last five months, adding that this is likely to continue into the future.
With the help of pre-built templates, the DPO Store tailors each design to the branding guidelines provided by merchants.
The Web site, with space to sell 150 products from the get-go, is built using WooCommerce and on the PayGate Plus platform, which gives the merchant immediate access to various payment methods, including credit and debit cards, Masterpass, Zapper, SnapScan, Mobicred, PayPal as well as SiD Secure EFT and MoMoPay.
Furthermore, merchants don’t have to outsource to developers or acquire design skills. All Web sites are scalable, meaning customers can shop from any device, at any time.
According to DPO SA, the entire experience is designed to be as painless as possible, and once the merchants provide their design input, the sites are built and ready to accept transactions in five working days.
Williamson says DPO SA has turned to its partner network to ensure products are delivered quickly and safely, and DPO Store Web sites come with integrated logistics.
“We have ensured our DPO Store merchants have all the support they need to grow their business. More than just reliable delivery, we are able to link the DPO Store Web sites to the merchants’ social media accounts, allowing them to easily promote deals across the various social channels. Merchants can also choose to take search engine optimisation and marketing services through one of our partners, or they can choose to do it themselves.”
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