With smartphone use and e-commerce activity increasing, South Africa's only online retail space might finally take off Some time later this month Kalahari, the brand once synonymous with e-commerce in SA, will cease to exist.The company was acquired in a merger with its main competitor, Takealot, and its brand will fall away in favour of Takealot.com.The merger is a tacit admission by SA’s two main e-commerce companies, which both have significant funding and resources, that cracking e-commerce here is harder than was expected.You would think a mostly hassle-free delivery service would blossom for taking the schlep out of shopping, but in SA it has remained a niche offering.It’s an enigma to me why this is the case, given the cost savings of e-commerce, but the reason has to do with lack of Internet access and the evolving nature of Internet users rather than being the fault of either firm.Arthur Goldstuck, the country’s best telecom analyst and one of the first technology journalis...
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