The online shopping industry in South Africa is pathetic. There are a number of reasons people do not shop online; security, stupidity and general lack of trust in the general process.

Keyboard by Xelcise, courtesy of Flickr

I admit… I am a Facebook addict! I eat, breath, sleep AND Facebook and so do millions of other users. Twitter is also in the picture now, competing for my time and status updates. These networking sites and media tools are changing social behaviours and experiences so it’s not surprising that businesses are also getting hooked on to this culture as well.

Is your product available to all? Is everyone and the keyword here is “EVERYONE” able to purchase your online product? Are you able to accommodate all your willing customers? You have probably answered yes to all my questions but I’m going to tell you no! No you are not accommodating every potential customer and because of this you are losing sales. Almost everything that is available for purchase online is purchasable only by credit card or PayPal. To use PayPal you need a credit card.
The blatant truth here is that unfortunately with the worldwide recession many people like myself, have lost their jobs and with the loss of a job they also lose their credit cards as well as their credit status with the credit providers. Though I work for myself and earn a better income than when I had a job, I am still considered to be "un-credit worthy" because, I do not earn a regular income.
Then there is the older and wiser generation who are financially well-off but, refuse to own a credit card or even a cheque account because they do all their financial dealings in cash, and then there is the stigma of credit card fraud which detours these oh so valuable potential customers away from doing any form of online financial transactions.
So my point is yes I can afford to buy online goods but, no, I cannot buy anything online because I don't have a credit card. For many of you who are involved in online marketing, you need to investigate this aspect very carefully and ask yourself am I making my product available to all or am I only catering to the select few who own a credit card?

This is what I love about PayFast www.payfast.co.za  a South African payment processor for South Africans to send and receive money online. If you have an online business this is a great payment processor to integrate into your site and it is available to consumers worldwide. The thing is, is that PayFast has several payment features that caters for every consumer. It has a credit card facility, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) facilities and then my favorite – the Ukash feature!!! Ukash allows consumers who do not own a bank account to buy a voucher using cash, they then use the code on the voucher to make an online purchase. Consumers can purchase this voucher from many different retailers such as Pick’n Pay, Checkers or Shoprite, Ukash is also available to consumers worldwide (except for USA) from various worldwide retailers.

This mommy works online.... @ SA Bizzz