Thandisizwe Mgudlwa
Worldpay, the global merchant payment processing and services giant from FIS will be a lead sponsor at the upcoming ECOM Africa, organisers announced this week.
The gathering is scheduled to take place as a hybrid event from 4–5 May in Cape Town. This will be the eighth edition of this flagship, specialist gathering in the e-commerce, etailing, and fintech sectors, with limited tickets still available for the in-person event and the online broadcast.
Terry Southam, MD of ECOM Africa says: “Having Worldpay from FIS on board as a leading sponsor for ECOM Africa confirms that the major players in the fintech and e-commerce sectors see the huge potential in the continent with a myriad of opportunities, from Nigeria to South Africa”.
A year ago, NYSE-listed FIS announced the expansion of its payment processing capabilities into the rapidly growing markets of Nigeria, South Africa and Malaysia.
In South Africa and Nigeria, FIS is offering domestic payment processing services in partnership with payments technology company Flutterwave, a 2016 graduate of the FIS Accelerator programme.
Reports indicate that this has enabled FIS to leverage the available technology in Africa while offering its extensive global reach. This also provides customers with domestic payment options, assists businesses to simplify their payments and enables a smooth transition for enterprises who want to expand to the continent.
Cash will not be king for much longer in Africa as the use of notes and coins has seen a major decline in the last two years with card payments increasing.
Nigeria’s ecommerce via mobile is projected to more than double by 2024, valued at $31-billion. In South Africa, this number is expected to reach $9-billion by 2024.
The enormous growth in card payments offers exciting opportunities to businesses in terms of insights into their customers as well as a deeper understanding of their markets, resulting in more personalised and customized products, services and marketing.
Personalisation, a growth in the markets for second-hand products and more sustainable brands, the ongoing delivery revolution and the big move to direct-to-consumer (DTC) in etailing and ecommerce are also big discussion topics on the programme at ECOM Africa from 4–5 May.
Additionally, attendees will hear success stories and be able to explore technologies focused on store design and optimisation, marketing and brand building, payments and security, logistics and fulfilment, as well as business operations.
Some of the leading and exciting names and brands in the current, global ebusiness evolution, including Zappos, Meta, Nestlé, Massmart, OneDayOnly, Bidroom, PicknPay, Chepa, Mantality, Konga, AutoTrader, Loot, UberEats, Sanlam, OneCart and Rugged SA will share their experience.
Other sponsors at the event include Fareye, Freshworks, AWA digital, ZOHO, Gupshup, Citixsys, The Courier Guy, Dataweave and Insider.
Exhibitors who will share their technologies and services are UNISA, RAM Couriers, Pargo, Shopping Feeder (ProceCheck) and Vectra.
Media partners include Insaka, CIO Africa, Bizcommunity, Hypertext, Retailwire, ecommerce(dot)co.za and eCommerce Association Ghana.
