Wood-Mizer Africa extends its lead in the African sawmilling sector with news of the February 1, 2023, launch of its new e-commerce site.
A first for sawmillers in Africa, the online store brings the benefits of e-commerce to its customers with slick, safe and flexible shopping available 24/7.
E-commerce continues to grow globally with customers increasingly voting for the convenience of online shopping rather than the traditional brick and mortar route.
Forbes Magazine recently pinned e-commerce at 20.4% or ± 5.7 trillion USD of global retail sales in 2022, up from only 10% in 2018.
German-based Statista estimates that online sales will continue to skyrocket annually with the total reaching ± 8.1 trillion USD by 2026.
The shift towards online retail has seen Wood-Mizer responding in equal measure. The corporation’s e-commerce network now spans North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa with more regions coming onstream later.
The migration to online shopping’s also laying the foundation for suppliers such as Wood-Mizer to increase its competitive advantage over rivals that don’t hold similar capabilities.
E-commerce provides comprehensive benefits for shoppers and manufacturers.
For consumers, the primary benefits are wider choice, the ability to compare, shorter lead times, lower costs, and greater convenience.
For manufacturers, e-commerce has increased the demand for just-in-time delivery, putting pressure on them to deliver products more quickly and efficiently. It has also led to increased price competition among suppliers, with this two-fold win benefitting consumers.
Sawmillers globally have demanded the same, with online shopping serving to cut their costs, reduce lead times on spares, improve productivity and extend their competitive advantage over rivals in a bid for market share.
This is especially true for time-sensitive industries such as sawmilling, where production delays due to breakdowns can impact performance and repeat business.
Online shopping platforms have become a critical conduit for these sectors to drive costs down and get faster response times to strengthen their competitiveness.
Speaking to Wood-Mizer Africa’s Managing Director and Regional Sales Director for Emerging Markets, Mr Bruce Husi, he said the company is delighted with its extended e-commerce capabilities.
“We continue to lead the way in the sector. Our online store is a first for sawmillers in South Africa. Once we expand into Africa, that’ll also break new ground for sawmillers on the continent.
“Offering online shopping capabilities to our customers is vital for our ongoing competitiveness, he continued.
“It adds an additional tier for sales, improves our supply chain capabilities and underscores our ability as a global corporation to create solutions that can grow our customer’s businesses,” Mr Husi says.
Direct benefits for shoppers include faster deliveries beyond scheduled Wood-Mizer trips or standard deliveries, a choice of couriers for customers to choose from, tracking of parts ordered online, and an easy and secure payment method that, in total, offers more convenience and speed.
“We’re excited about the future of e-commerce,” Bruce Husi adds.
“It’s opened up a new frontier for Wood-Mizer that we’re now using to innovate relevant solutions that are transforming how our customers and we do business.
Wood-Mizer – Leading through Innovation.
