Nadasen ready to take e-commerce a step further in SA by empowering women
The restrictions enforced by the Covid-19 lockdown have positioned e-commerce as an enabler for those instructed to stay home and stay safe, and has moved more South Africans to purchase online.
In what is expected to be South Africa’s biggest year for the adoption of e-commerce, the Ecommerce Forum South Africa (EFSA) board has announced a new chairperson, Karen Nadasen.
The announcement comes just a week after Minister Ebrahim Patel’s lift on the ban of unfettered e-commerce.
The restrictions enforced by the Covid-19 lockdown have positioned e-commerce as an enabler for those instructed to stay home and stay safe, and has moved more South Africans to purchase online, with SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter claiming the Covid-19 moment could leapfrog e-commerce into the future, an opportunity not to be missed by the country.
“We are also delighted by the government’s decision last Thursday to allow online sales. The EFSA has been working with government since the start of lockdown to ensure this result, and we shall continue to do so to ensure that any issues which arise are smoothly resolved,” Nadasen said.
The EFSA is the RSA Chapter of the pan-African body, Ecommerce Forum Africa, and is the forum for all players in the e-commerce industry, working cohesively with each other to enrich the overall e-commerce industry in South Africa.
Its mission is to increase awareness, confidence and capability of e-commerce and to promote inclusivity in the sector.
EFSA launched a Trustmark Safe.Shop at the end of last year to encourage greater consumer trust in e-commerce.
E-shops are checked to ensure that they comply with the relevant SA laws, and can then carry the Trustmark icon.
“An alternative dispute resolution mechanism is built into the Trustmark to deal with the customer complaints that cannot be solved otherwise,” said Nadasen.
South African e-tailers have seen online shopping spike from its previous trading norms prior to lockdown.
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This follows global growth indicators, including a report from ACI Worldwide, which showed global e-commerce sales in April experienced a 209 per cent growth compared to the same period last year.
“I am delighted to take the chair of the EFSA. We will be building on our existing strengths and representational work with the government, but in particular I want to encourage greater emphasis on empowering women in the e-commerce ecosystem.
“We have set up a working group, led by one of our board members, Mpho Sekwele, to look at how we can push this agenda with government and with international bodies,” said Nadasen.
Nadasen, a passionate technologist in the Fintech sector, also heads up diversity and inclusion for PayU in Africa and is an advocate and avid supporter of women in STEM.
She is regularly described as one of South Africa’s most inspiring women in tech, nominated for IT Personality of the Year 2017, listed among the 100 Most Influential Young South Africans 2017 and the Regional Winner (SADC) of Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government 2018.
Though Nadasen’s industry experience in the technology sector, mostly abroad, ranges from FTSE 100 companies and large multi-nationals, she started out as a Java developer in a small development house in Cape Town.
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