Page 108 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 23

Economy
boils down to what kind of
offering you have for the sea of
customers.
For a 21st-century and
contemporary entrepreneur,
you should be on top of your
game by going the extra mile
to differentiate yourself from
others. Never take technologies
that will market and win your
sales volume for granted. As
much as people might like to
refute this issue, you will never
go wrong by making your
brand visible and well-known
in the market. It doesn’t matter
whether you are working with
the Business-2-Business (B2B),
Business-2-Consumers (B2C)
or Consumer-2-Consumer
(C2C) business model. This
108 | we tell the true afrikan story
is because e-commerce
complements whatever type of
business you are focusing on.
We are now living in a dynamic
digital era where you either
join the bandwagon or perish
in the process. For that reason,
an entrepreneur has to take
seriously what they are offering,
seizing such opportunities of
using the internet, for most
African entrepreneurs tended to
be technophobic way back in the
past.
Since geographical reach has
been made easy, an entrepreneur
should ensure that there are links,
referrals and testimonies on their
website. Again, one should take
advantage of sending emails to
these potential customers. That
way, all this will work in your
favor, even for those customers
who want to try out your product
or service for the first time. The
only downside to e-commerce is
that most people think buying or
selling on the Internet is unsafe.
Of course, many issues hinder
e-commerce, such as security
matters embroiled in the form
of cyber-crime. Nonetheless,
e-commerce is the way to go,
especially if you take care to
counter these security issues of
identity theft and card cloning,
to name but just a few. Over
and above, this is the time to
embrace e-commerce, for this
kind of technology was created
to make the lives of both the
buyer and seller easy.
Entrepreneurs are risk-takers
who thrive on technological
innovations of this sort.
Notably, think twice and hop on
the e-commerce ride. It is time
we demystify some of these
misconceptions, hindering us
from shaking off the shackles
of technophobia. The best way
to defy all odds is to implement
e-commerce and give it the right
it deserves in our lives in this
21st century.