Massmart appoints consumer ecommerce executive
Massmart Group has appointed Thembani Biyam as its ecommerce vice president for consumer platforms.
Biyam previously served as country manager for OLX and CEO of food delivery app Orderin.
“Through these experiences, he is well placed to continue driving the growth of Massmart’s app and website offering,” said Massmart.
Biyam said his first priority was to continue driving the group’s revamped digital offering — which includes the revamped Game website and Makro mobile app, as well as a “significantly-enhanced” Makro website.
“Following these successful launches last year, which helped contribute to almost 100% group ecommerce gross merchandise value growth, we are working on more exciting developments aimed at offering our customers an unmatched shopping and delivery experience that they can trust.
“One of the things customers can now look forward to is a revamped Builders website in the next few months.”
Massmart senior vice president for ecommerce, Sylvester John, said the company was encouraged by the continued progress across its platforms, fulfilment operations and service levels.
“We look forward to the further improvements ahead under Thembani’s leadership of our omni-channel platforms,” said John.
Ecommerce challenges in South Africa — and how Massmart is tackling them
Biyam highlighted some of the challenges in the ecommerce industry in South Africa, which makes up just 4% of retail sales, and how Massmart was addressing them.
Biyam said that significant security and privacy improvements in the online sector — key issues when it comes to growing consumer trust — helped spur growth in the industry during the pandemic, particularly in the food delivery segment.
Other barriers to ecommerce adoption in South Africa are high data costs and poor Internet infrastructure.
Massmart is trying to combat this with a mobile-first approach by deploying “lite” websites and apps that use data sparingly and reduce connectivity challenges.
Biyam added that speed and reliability were also important in the online customer experience.
“We recognise that customers expect fast and reliable delivery when shopping online,” he stated.
“Reducing the customer promise for delivery to 2–5 days and pickup to next-day, across Makro, Game and Builders was a huge team effort and has been very well received by customers.”
In this regard, Biyam over 80% of Makro and Builders orders were delivered in two days or less with “high” on-time delivery rates during the first quarter of 2023.
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