Orderin CEO

Thembani Biyam, CEO of Orderin SA. A few years ago, the majority of South Africans had never made a single purchase online. Today, the local e-commerce market has experienced a massive boom as lockdown restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, made online shopping feel like the safer, and sometimes the only, option for consumers. According to a 2018 report from shopping centre and property research company, Urban Studies, retail sales in the country reached a new high of R1-trillion ($65-billion) in 2017 and yet online shopping merely accounted for 1.8% of total retail spend that year. To give some context to just how far South Africa lagged behind in the e-commerce market, 19% of all British, and 10% of American retail spend in the same year, came from online purchases. Fast f...