Broadband prices

“INTERNETS: ON/OFF” (CC BY 2.0) by altemark

Speed and the internet will drive South Africa’s economic growth

South Africa, like every established economy, has embraced the internet over the last two decades. With Statista’s data showing the daily internet usage at 65% of the population, businesses are now looking to increase their online presence. Despite Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba pointing to agriculture as the primary driver for South Africa’s economy in 2018, […]

Broadband prices

“INTERNETS: ON/OFF” (CC BY 2.0) by altemark

South Africa, like every established economy, has embraced the internet over the last two decades. With Statista’s data showing the daily internet usage at 65% of the population, businesses are now looking to increase their online presence.

Despite Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba pointing to agriculture as the primary driver for South Africa’s economy in 2018, increased investment in the virtual space is likely to become the next frontier for the government. As per eshopworld.com’s research, South African e-commerce will attract 24.79 million shoppers by 2021.

Taking into account South Africa’s 55.91 million residents and $4,826 per capita GDP, the insights agency believes the number of online shoppers will increase by 6.36 million.

Should these projects prove accurate, the industry would be worth somewhere in the region of $4.7 billion per annum. Although that’s still more than 50% less than the $10 billion agricultural exports generated in 2017, the gap is closing.

Indeed, as more people go online and the industry grows, the facts suggest that e-commerce will play a much more significant role in South Africa’s financial state.

Growth is Dependent on Innovation

“Stopwatch” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by .::RMT::.

However, in order for the country and its online businesses to compete on a global stage, operating systems need to improve.

In August 2017, CEO of Loot.co.za Gary Hadfield outlined his plan to capitalize on market conditions and focus on revenue growth. After launching in 2002 with a focus on books, the company now provides an Amazon-style service to South Africans.

Following this diversification, Hadfield believes his company is now in a position to deliver “hyper growth” while still hitting its margin and bottom line targets. For companies like Loot, accessibility will be the line between success and failure. By the close of 2016, Akamai pegged the average load time of South African websites at 3721 milliseconds.

While that’s far from the worst waiting time across the countries assessed, it’s more than 2X slower than Saudi Arabia and Israel. When this is combined with the threat of major outages, similar to those experienced by Seacom, the fate of South African e-commerce isn’t guaranteed.

For Loot and its peers, understanding the nuances of HAProxy configurations is crucial for their overall success. Otherwise known as high availability proxy, HAProxy is an open source proxy that allows networks to balance their loads.

By implementing protocols that can automatically balance network demands, the right HAProxy configurations can decrease load times and increase reliability.

Modern Consumers Demand Efficiency

“Online Shopping with Touchscreen Ultrabo” (CC BY 2.0) by IntelFreePress

To put South Africa’s situation in context, China’s official government statistics showed that e-commerce topped $1 trillion in 2017.

Despite being significantly bigger than South Africa, China’s leading websites are optimized for speed. Research by CDNetworks has shown that 60% of Chinese consumers don’t use European websites because they load too slowly.

Moreover, 85% believe that a poorly performing website reflects badly on a brand. Differences in consumer attitudes are undeniable but the push for greater access, efficiency and reliability is universal.

For South Africa’s e-commerce sector to reach its targets and become a primary driver for the economy, business owners need to embrace the latest coding, software and development techniques.

South Africa’s GDP may never be fully dependent on internet services but it seems obvious industries such as e-commerce will play a bigger role in the future, which is why businesses must continue to evolve and innovate with the latest tech trends.

Tags: