Online fashion retailer Zando.co.za, has seen 10 million South Africans visit the site in its first year of business.
Zando went live in January 2012, and selling only shoes, soon expanded its product offering to include clothing, accessories, sports and beauty. As a result of this expansion, Zando and its 200 employees moved to a larger premises in order to support and ensure its growth in the online retail space.
In May 2012, it reached a consistent weekly unique visitor count of 200 000 visitors per week, making Zando one of the top five leading retail e-commerce websites in South Africa according to alexa.com. The company‘s YouTube channel accumulated over 55, 000 views after launching its TV advert in August 2012.
Zando also became the highest searched for word on the South African web, beating eBay in November 2012.
In the same month, Zando announced a partnership with eBucks and the growth potential and opportunity within the South African e-commerce landscape attracted two key investments from J.P Morgan in September 2012 and Summit Partners in November 2012.
Zando also focused on driving its m-commerce in 2012 with iOS leading the way in terms of sales and shoes the main driving category behind mobile. The highest conversion rates took place through tablets, iPhones and iPads.
MD and Co-founder Manuel Koser says “œBy listening to the market, being flexible, unique and innovative with our mobi site and strategy, we saw our best conversion rates in January despite the expected after-Christmas lull. 2013 remains our year to ensure we are continuously flexible for the businesses operational growth.“
