South Africa has made remarkable strides in online retail over the years with a massive variety of exclusive online stores offering something for everyone, as well as a dedicated store for companies that traditionally only operated with physical locations.
These large multi-million Rand enterprises are not alone, however, as small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SME) can use pre-made tools and website templates to set up competent online stores in an afternoon.
No matter the size of the store, the delivery network to get product from them to customers is also matured to the point where it has become convenient, fast and reliable. There are many options for both business and customer too, with door to door, and drop off points and lockers all offering greater flexibility to the entire chain.
The pandemic then happened and fast tracked the entire industry as people were unable to leave their homes and online plus delivery became the norm.
Despite all of this, South Africans still love physically going to brick and mortar stores. This isn’t just tradition bringing people through stores, but there remains many reasons to visit even when the online option is so tempting.
The immediacy is, of course, one of the biggest reasons. Despite the mature delivery infrastructure almost nothing is as fast as physically buying items in store.
Another boon is discovering new items to buy. While online stores go out of their way to recommend items, most simply want to log into a store to buy specific items, pay and be done with it. The physical shopping experience has a massive edge here as customers walk through the isles to find what they want, discovering more on the way.
This can also lead to massive savings. There is no real parity in any store between what is offered on the shelves and what is sold online, resulting in some great deals only appearing in person. Many franchises are operated by owners or managers, while the online ones are usually done by the big corporate offices. These owners and managers may make decisions to clear stock with fantastic deals that the online store wouldn’t, resulting in savings for you.
Finally many items are simply a headache to buy online and can lead to many unneeded returns or miscellaneous problems. Clothing is one of the biggest examples with no number of size charts and user reviews able to properly infer how a purchase feels on your specific body. Other items include DIY components and construction materials whose quality needs to be inspected in person.
During the recent Black Friday sales we saw social media awash with scenes of long lines and record turnouts with some even showing up at midnight to line up outside to be the first ones through the door.
With all of this in mind the brick and mortar store sees no signs of dying off in South Africa, which means that companies of all sizes need to properly equip themselves, especially in the realm of Point of Sale (PoS),
PoS is where, at the end of the day, every company makes money, and it’s a crucial step for the business closing a sale and the customer having a good experience.
In this field ASUS has cut its teeth with a range of PoS devices to ensure those sales happen as seamlessly as possible. Everything from touchscreen PoS All in One (AiO) machines to mini PCs and even displays, ASUS has you covered.
For both the front tills and the back office, ASUS also offers a wide range of business-focused notebooks to manage every aspect of your company.
Even better is that you can buy your PoS, notebook and other hardware all from one vendor, cutting down on admin to outfit a company. ASUS South Africa also offers volume purchase options to acquire bulk computing hardware at competitive pricing and unmatched support.
