2. Andrew Higgins
Andrew Higgins, made auctioning online into a multimillion rand business
Vital Stats:
- Business: Bidorbuy
- Industry: Retail
- Established: 1999
Based on the world’s largest online trading community eBay, Bidorbuy was launched by Higgins as an online retail and auction platform. The sites inventory ranges from jewellery and watches to coins, cellphones, electronics and cars.
Thanks to the growing influence of the Internet in South Africa, the platform has grown into one of the country’s biggest online marketplaces. A decade into operation, Bidorbuy had over 1,1 million unique visitors, 26 million page impressions, and 700 000 items listed for sale every month. Its gross merchandise in 2010 was valued at R30 million per month.
“The first thing businesses should be considering is an omni-channel approach. That is, sell across many different channels. The way you do that is you could have your own online store, you could set up anything from pop-up shops to a full-blown physical store,” says Higgins.