Stepping up e-commerce would boost SA Inc
A market of 1.3-billion people could be tapped into if postal and internet services were made efficient and accessible
Just over 25 years ago, on August 11 1994 (https://webmail.timesmedia.co.za/owa/redir.aspx?REF=ftMcGIq8dIIyvA7_HXty4JsU54aQznx3s9mQlrkOmaDRHgRztmbXCAFodHRwczovL2Vjb21tZXJjZWd1aWRlLmNvbS9ndWlkZXMvd2hhdC1pcy1lY29tbWVyY2Uv), a man went online and used his credit card to buy a Sting CD. Today this seems normal. Many customers subscribe to music streaming services for a monthly fee, which gives them instant access to 30-million songs.
A quarter of a century ago a CD held just 12-15 songs on average. Yet this purchase marked the first online sale and the start of a global era of e-commerce, an industry that reached $29-trillion (https://webmail.timesmedia.co.za/owa/redir.aspx?REF=05daEH3WKHC_Uh251sHnQP9VKNhWEsLWJKE4gSnQqOnRHgRztmbXCAFodHRwczovL3VuY3RhZC5vcmcvZW4vcGFnZXMvUHJlc3NSZWxlYXNlLmFzcHg_T3JpZ2luYWxWZXJzaW9uSUQ9NTA1) (R433-trillion) in 2017 sales. Is SA taking advantage of an e-commerce market with about 1.3-billion users (https://webmail.timesmedia.co.za/owa/redir.aspx?REF...
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