South African Airways in North America launches “Go See Southern Africa” campaign in collaboration with tour operators, hotels and safari lodges in an effort to encourage and increase tourism to SA.

Johannesburg, South Africa – SA Airways in North America has launched a special campaign that focuses on the great experience and value travel that is on offer when travelling to Southern Africa.

Cape Town and the Kruger National Park can ready themselves as these are very popular South African destinations for tourists from North America.

The “Go See Southern Africa” is a collaborative campaign with participation from leading tour operators, destination tourism organisations, hotels and safari lodges that aim to generate increased awareness about travel to Southern Africa.  All parties are working together to offer tourists an attractive, value-added programme.

The campaign follows recent misinformation concerning travel to the entire continent, which has created a hesitation for future travel planning.  

SA Airways, as the predominant airline from the U.S. to Southern Africa, has taken a leading role in developing the “Go See Southern Africa” campaign in an effort to emphasise the great experiences and the great value that abounds for travel throughout the region. 

South African Airways offers the most flights between the U.S. and South Africa, with daily nonstop service from New York-JFK Airport and daily direct service from Washington, DC-Dulles Airport to Johannesburg.  From its Johannesburg hub, SAA, and its regional airline partners, offers convenient flights to over 55 business and leisure destinations throughout the African continent. In conjunction with the campaign, numerous SAA tour operators and travel service providers are promoting very affordable packages and unique value-added offers to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and other destinations within the region.  

Travellers are invited to visit Southern Africa as “now is a great time to explore Southern Africa with the extremely favourable exchange rate for the U.S. Dollar and the very affordable offers that are being promoted by SAA and our participating tourism partners in North America,” says Nico Bezuidenhout, SAA Acting Chief Executive.

“Cape Town is the most popular onward destination in SA for North American tourists.  A large majority of the travellers from North America visiting South Africa come to Cape Town, with many more travelling to the Cape from points other than North America – Johannesburg.

“In addition to Cape Town, other very popular spots for American visitors are the Kruger National Park, the Western Cape (including wine country) and the Garden Route.  South Africa is a multi-destination vacation for most Americans.  They don’t just visit one destination.  They visit several, particularly Cape Town and the Kruger National Park, or Cape Town, the Kruger National Park and Victoria Falls.

” The “Go See Southern Africa” campaign will be featured during 2015 with various offers by SAA and the participating travel partners being promoted throughout the year.  

For a list of participating tour operators that are offering special air-inclusive packages to Southern Africa, visit: www.flysaa.com/cms/US/GoSeeSouthernAfrica.html. The campaign will also be prominently featured in SAA’s advertising, marketing promotional programmes and social media throughout 2015.  Consumers and travel agents will be encouraged to follow the campaign through SAA’s social media channels using the hashtag:  #GOSEESOUTHERNAFRICA  

About South African Airways (SAA)  South African Airways is a Star Alliance member that offers flights to 38 destinations worldwide. Domestically, SAA operates 544 flights a week between Johannesburg – Cape Town, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth. Regionally SAA offers 24 destinations across the African continent and its international network creates links to all major continents from South Africa through 10 direct routes. In the regional category, SAA has received the Skytrax ‘Best Airline in Africa’ Award for 11 consecutive years.                                               

Issued by SAA Communications

For more information, contact:

Tlali Tlali This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+27 82 333 3880  

A new online art and craft marketplace launched in January 2015, allowing South Africans to sell their art and handmade goods online. The Craft Shoppe is a virtual craft market, offering sellers their own store within the main webstore, and the opportunity to sell their work to both South African and international online markets.

The website is free to join, and members can list as many items as they wish. Sellers can log in to their own private dashboard to list and track products. They can offer discounts and coupons, apply shipping fees per product or offer free shipping for certain orders. The website tracks all orders and sales, and credits members' accounts with the proceeds of their sales less 15%. The Craft Shoppe has provided a step-by-step Seller Guide to help new sellers get started and make the most of all of the features that the website offers. Further, their Support Forum gives members a direct link for answers to questions.

The website was created by Erica Keegan of Johannesburg, South Africa, who, like many South Africans, was inspired by successful US based craft webstore, Etsy, but frustrated by the limitations of having to use Paypal as payment processor. The Craft Shoppe offers a South African alternative to Etsy. Members list their items in Rands, and get paid out Rands directly into their South African bank accounts. All the seller has to do is ship their work in good time and good order.

The Craft Shoppe can be viewed at www.thecraftshoppe.co.za, with all enquiries being directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Written by Erica Keegan, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +27818365416

SOUTH AFRICA – Jan, 2015 – After much anticipation LiveBids Auctions has been launched in South Africa. LiveBids offers a unique online buying and selling platform that incorporates different aspects of various social media.

This means that a choice of interests, following friend’s, search hundreds of products while buying items for a fraction of the cost and selling them to make real profits.

LiveBids aims to help buyers and sellers fully connect in trade with seamless transactions. It is an online marketplace that is simple, interactive and social. It allows users to experience a real-time marketplace, buy products lower than the market value and socially follow buyers and sellers.

Two formats are used, namely online auctions and pay-per-bid. The first of these is the traditional online auction model, where items are sold to the highest bidder. The second is a pay-per-bid model, where would-be buyers purchase credits to bid on items. These credits go to the seller, which is how it is possible to purchase big-ticket items for nominal amounts.

The founders of LiveBids, Rory Vollmer and Paul Hoft, explain that “the idea was to create an online marketplace that was simple, interactive and social, helping buyers and sellers connect and trade. The marketplace is completely people driven”.

Visit www.livebids.co.za to empower yourself by becoming an online buyer and seller today!

For further information regarding LiveBids Auctions, or to schedule an interview, please contact: 

Contact Rory Vollmer,

Co-Founder and Head of Marketing

Phone: +27 (0) 21 300 8446
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: www.livebids.co.za

Cape Town based StateoftheART, an innovator in the online art world, has been showcasing and selling affordable contemporary art by emerging artists since 2010. This month they launched their new website to support the keen interest in South African art, bringing their works to a global  audience with easy access via the web.

The recent boom in the online art trade, currently valued at around R28bn is forecast to more than double by 2018. At least 71% of art collectors have now purchased artwork online according to the 2014 Hiscox Online Trade Report , with that number expected to rise. StateoftheART founder Jennifer Reynolds says "We want to offer our visitors the personal touch and intimacy of a gallery setting, without the limited selection associated with a physical space. More than half of our customers use a mobile device to browse our online art gallery, perhaps because there is something particularly satisfying about viewing art on a tablet as the tactile experience of holding the device feels almost the same as picking up a painting to look at it more closely."

The great advantage of StateoftheART is that it affords visitors to the site the opportunity to discover and buy affordable fine art that would not otherwise be easily found.  The slick and easy to use website allows visitors to browse and buy high quality art in the comfort of their own home, making contemporary art even more accessible. Works can be bought directly from the website and delivered anywhere in the world. The site offers a 7 day money-back guarantee. To discover the world of StateoftheART, please visit www.stateoftheart-gallery.com

About

StateoftheART is South Africa's premier online gallery where you will discover an exclusive selection of carefully curated art by top emerging artists. Our virtual platform is complemented by the brick-and-mortar StateoftheART gallery in Cape Town; an intimate space in which we regularly host exhibitions and where art lovers can view a dynamic selection of works by our represented artists.

For images, information and interviews with Jennifer Reynolds, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Interroll SA, partnering with company SICK Automation, for the largest e-tailer, Kalahari.com, recently commissioned a fully automated tote and parcel handling system for the picking, packing and sorting of goods.

The conveyor system manages the in-bound receiving of goods, the put-away and then onto order processing, to finally be automatically sorted to different destinations for the delivery process to follow. "By having such an integrated system, Kalahari.com has been able to meet the increasing demand with ease, build for the future capacity and have complete visibility through the entire processes", says Annes Schreuder, Supply Chain Director.

Hilton Campbell, Managing Director for Interroll SA comments, "Partnering with South Africa's largest eCommerce company and to be part of the build for the growing industry has been a fantastic experience. There were a number of parties involved to satisfy the complete integrated solution, from getting the go-ahead in November last year to having the system in complete operation in middle of August was a fantastic achievement by all parties."

Come to the eCommerce Africa Confex and visit Interroll's stand as they elaborate on conveyor automation in response to the courier express and parcel industries. You will also have the opportunity to receive specialist advice from teams of experts sent by payment solution providers, PayPal with FNB and PayFast, as well as logistics companies, eSolutions by DPD Laser and RAM, to name a few.

The eCommerce Africa Confex takes place on the 3-4 February 2015 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. For more information visit http://www.ecommerce-africa.com or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Leading South African Payment Gateway, Setcom Payment Solutions, today announced their partnership with innovative e-commerce solution provider, Digital Planet. This partnership will enable Setcom to introduce a wider range of e-commerce services to their existing portfolio of online credit card processing, SID Instant EFT and mobile payment solutions.

“We feel that Digital Planet’s services would be of great value to our client base, as they have a proven track record in terms of optimising efficiencies across the entire e-commerce value chain. We look forward to collaborating with Digital Planet to provide our clients with holistic e-commerce solutions that will have a positive impact on their business performance,” said Setcom CEO, Kumalan Naidoo.

Digital Planet has been assisting some of South Africa’s biggest businesses and brands for over 15 years by enabling e-commerce efficiencies and helping their clients realise e-commerce goals. Running a successful e-commerce business can be very challenging, as it requires efficiencies in a number of areas, such as website design and development, payment integration, digital marketing, fulfilment, customer service and logistics. This is where Digital Planet’s expertise can help improve and streamline competencies across the board.

“Digital Planet continually strives to add value to our clients, and working with Setcom has allowed us to offer more flexibility to our clients when it comes to online payments. This is very important to us because secure payment methods are one of the most important consideration factors for online shoppers in South Africa,” added Cassie van Wyk, Head of E-commerce at Digital Planet.

Setcom facilitates secure credit card and SID Instant EFT transactions across multiple channels, making them a one-stop payment solution partner. Setcom’s payment infrastructure paired with Digital Planet’s e-commerce expertise will surely make for a winning combination for years to come.

About Setcom:

Setcom has been one of South Africa’s most trusted Payment Gateways since 1998. They offer secure online and mobile credit card payment processing, SID instant EFT and fraud prevention services to entrepreneurs looking for a reliable, affordable payment solutions partner.

Part of the Setcom methodology is to offer traditional and non-traditional payment types across multiple channels, partnered with an effective reporting and reconciliation platform that enables efficient processing of payments. The offering is further enhanced by a fraud and risk management system that operates across multiple channels to ensure optimal business performance.

As payments evolved through traditional retail environments and the Internet, Setcom has been at the forefront of developing products that not only differentiate, but allows business to partner with technology to expedite growth and revenues. For more information, visit www.setcom.com.

About Digital Planet:

For more than a decade, Digital Planet has helped companies build and manage profitable online businesses. They offer a complete solution: world-class e-commerce websites, back-end order management systems, e-commerce expertise, online marketing, call centre services and fulfillment services.

Digital Planet was founded in September 1999 when they launched the Digital Planet online electronics store. It was early days for the e-commerce industry in South Africa and there weren’t many skills available, so they built our own end-to-end solution for the business. This solution included the front end marketing, merchandising and technology, as well as the back-end logistics and customer services. They mastered all the nuances of a virtual business in South Africa.

They soon had customers knocking on their door to help them build and run their own online businesses. Digital Planet quickly won clients including the major brands Hewlett-Packard and Discovery Vitality, both of which are still with Digital Planet today, more than a decade later. For more information, visit www.digitalplanet.co.za.

{pp}In December 2008, the total value of sales concluded on bidorbuy.co.za, South Africa’s largest online auction site and marketplace, reached R17.4 million, which represents an increase of 92 percent when compared with the same period last year.