E-commerce, the shining light in a struggling economy

“E-commerce, the shining light in a struggling economy” this is how Kevin Tucker the CEO of Price Check opened the annual Tech and E-Commerce awards - a glitzy awards ceremony at the Westin Hotel in Cape Town

It was an amazing experience to be in a room with over 250 people all focused on the online sphere and quite comforting that the usual blank looks we get when mentioning SKU, conversion rate, landing pages etc were absent.

I met up with Melissa Rawlston from Maverick Marketing, Henri from Shopping Feeder, Jacque from Bid or Buy and even had a nice chat with Kevin Tucker from Price Check. I was introduced to Justin Drennan from Parcelninja, Trevor Rebello from Makro Online Marketplace, the list goes on. In short it was an online networking fest.

Dan Nicholl the MC took the floor and had the room eating out of his hands with his inappropriate jokes and his tech disability disguised as tech disdain. (I think he still has a Blackberry)

Kevin Tucker took over and went through the nomination, voting and judging process. Over 35 000 votes/surveys were submitted so thanks to all you guys that took the time!

We heard from Michele Lozo of Criteo, the main sponsor of the evening, it was so refreshing in our bleak economic conditions to hear such positive outlook and encouragement aimed at our “industry”

Clem Sunter, the keynote speaker of the evening, had the hall roaring with laughter every time he did his apparently famous chuckle. Once again, his encouragement and optimism towards South Africa in general and specifically to what we are doing was a breath of fresh air.

The winners were announced amid cheering and applause. As expected, Takealot.com snapped up the most awards, but to be fair, they have changed public perception of the online industry in South Africa and deserve every award they won, so well done to them!

The evening officially closed and the DJ’s took over. Over loud music and flashing lights the last few connections were made, hands shook and commitments to another year of changing industries, and breaking records.

Watch this space: Next year same time same place. We are going to do what it takes to get shortlisted.