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

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.

A new innovative technology company has been born in South Africa, from the capital city or let me say the silicon city Pretoria. Pretoria is one of the first cities to provide free internet access through wifi to its residents and it is no surprise that one of the world's social networks has been created there.

A South African internet start-up, Red Diamond World has partnered with other companies in the launch of Cybatar, a new social network available to everyone with internet access on mobile or computer. The website launches on 07 October 2014 at midnight and they invite everyone to sign up for accounts. This social network will run from trusted servers and and the company assures users of security as they use the site. A unique feature that the social network comes with is the ability to also share .PDF and .doc documents which Facebook, Twitter and other social networks do not do. This means that users will not have to use email to leave the social network to email websites and other file-sharing sites to share files making life easier.

The social network also brings solutions for companies and professionals to increase their online presence. Social and online marketing experts advise companies to utilize website and social platforms to reach more people and Cybatar comes as another website that will have a great impact on you online presence.

Be part of the first group to register for accounts. Visit www.cybatar.com and register today.

Indie games are fast becoming a trend in South Africa, catching on from the overseas markets. These days, children and adults alike are playing mobile games as never before. People are always hungry for something different, which is where indie games – or ‘independent’ games – come in, providing players with something other than the mass-produced mainstream products.

Now, Somerset West can boast with its very own game studio that started turning its cogs in February this year. For its first month of existence, the studio was run out of the founder’s mother’s basement – typical indie game studio protocol, if history is anything to go by. Now, running from a house close to De Hoop Primary School, the studio focuses on creating mobile games (such as their recently released Afrikaans game, Fanie de Beer) and has oodles of style, creativity, skill and initiative.

While the Apmil Game Studio has only been up and running for a few months, the people who daily put their shoulders to its wheels have been building up relationships for the last three-and-a-half years. Even though the studio officially started up in February, the idea of an indie game studio had been brewing in the mind of Studio Head, Pierre Bezuidenhout, since 2011. Pierre started lecturing in the Animation Department of Cape Town’s City Varsity in 2011 – and this is where he met the three students who would later join him in this grand venture.

Pierre, as leader of the team, is Apmil’s Programmer and Technical Director. He has previously worked in advertising and animation for Wicked Pixels in Woodstock and held the position of lecturer at Concept Interactive as well as at City Varsity. His impressive skill set includes a sharp eye for detail as well as design flair and programming aptitude in different digital languages and platforms – he is also quite the people-person. Altus Barry is the Technical Lead, taking charge of rigs, renders and other related tasks. Mabet van Zijl did her major in 3D Narrative and, as Generalist, leads Apmil’s marketing and writing in between her usual workload. Louren Hattingh takes the roles of Lead Animator and Concept Artist. While each person has their area to lead, the workflow runs with a ‘rock-paper-scissors’-style in which one falls under the delegation of another while dealing with respective area-specific tasks. Sitting around a whiteboard, each armed with a marker, they discuss character design, story line, player motivation, level arrangement, time constraints and load division before jumping in with the actual development.

The first released game, Fanie de Beer, is a 100% physics-driven, full 3D, indie puzzle game with a distinct South African flavour. Playing as Fanie de Beer, a 12-year-old farm-boy, the player utilizes simple little rocks by tapping once on the screen to clear best friend Jaco Kriel’s fields of strategically placed, ancient landmines. Built in Unity, the game takes place in a single day – with the story starting early in the morning and ending in the evening – transporting the player through a dynamic day/night cycle and colourful, saturated farm fields as they progress through the 84 levels, meeting new mine types and increasingly difficult challenges as they go along. Written and designed in Afrikaans, then carefully translated into true farm-style English, this game is unique, fun and proudly South African. The demo is available for download from the Google Play Store, while the full game can be purchased on Samsung Apps and Amazon.

The next game in the pipeline is different from Fanie de Beer in virtually every way. Where Fanie is a very colourful 3D puzzle game with just enough back-story to set the player up for the context and flavour of the game, the current project is a heavily story-driven platform-game that takes place in a fictional world made up of parallaxing silhouettes and strange characters.

Apmil Game Studio has not only been created as a platform to build games, but also as a springboard for fellow animators, developers, designers and illustrators. It’s a breeding ground for collaboration, ideas, innovation and learning. Each person hones their skills while doing fun and challenging work through creating games and stories as well as fulfilling the creative needs of small to medium-sized businesses in the Western Cape and Gauteng.

Apmil Game Studio services include animation, app creation, game creation, rendering/stills, asset creation, video editing and UX. The creative division of Apmil, led by artist Janet Botes and writer Michelle Albinson, offers logo design, graphic design, online/web design, interactive design, writing, editing, proofreading and illustration.

Apmil prides itself on being different: Fresh ideas, innovative applications, strange and wonderful games – they are all things that receive the studio’s love and attention to detail. To find out more or to get involved, contact Pierre Bezuidenhout at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call him on 082 499 3133

Studio ingredients:[A]ltus makes the bus and [P]ierre drives the bus; [M]abet takes the bus t[i]ckets and [L]ouren makes the bus move. Thus, [apmil].

Free demo: Google Play – bit.ly/fanie_demo 
Full version: Samsung Apps – bit.ly/fanie
Official Trailer: Youtube – bit.ly/fanie_trailer 
Apmil page: Apmil/Fanie – apmil.co.za/fanie-de-beer 

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}The United Christian Democratic Party are proud to announce the launch a new party website aimed at improving communication between the Party leadership and the general public at large.

{pp}It's human nature to avoid confronting bad news and to imagine that today's troubles will pass more quickly and easily than they really will. I recommend that in terms of marketing, assume the opposite: business conditions will be worse than you actually expect.

{pp}Lutho has taken SMEs unique financial circumstances into account by providing a service that will give them the freedom to “hire” a website without stretching their budget.

The biggest advantage to this is that no long term contract needs to be signed and customers are allowed to cancel their subscription at anytime. All the developing costs are spread over the whole base of Lutho’s “subscribers”.

{pp}Lutho, the South African based online marketing company today officially launched a unique website wizard that will make it possible for aspiring entrepreneurs and small and medium sized business (SME) owners to get their own professional-looking website and a company-branded email address in less than two hours.