The xneelo team were out in force at Ecommerce Live last week – one of the largest in-person events for online business owners in South Africa that attracted more than 2000 visitors.
Our goal was to meet and engage with South African online business owners and help them realise their full potential online. Our delegation included members of support, marketing and product, to ensure that no matter what questions came our way, we could provide the best advice possible.
We asked the team for their biggest highlights from the one-day e-commerce event.
Our new Managed WordPress Hosting e-commerce theme turned heads
Our visit to Ecommerce Live coincided with the launch of Athletic, our new WordPress Starter Site built with e-commerce businesses in mind, exclusively available with Managed WordPress Hosting.
Athletic is an all-in-one Starter Site featuring an easy-to-set up e-commerce theme and payment gateway, which enables you to get your business online quicker.
Product owner Darren Kerr explains, “We met a lot of business owners who are interested in building an online store, or moving to a value-for-money e-commerce solution. Many of the entrepreneurs we spoke to were looking for someone to build an e-commerce website for them, so our e-commerce enabled Athletic starter site was quite an eye opener for many delegates. It was something they could simply setup and use right away without needing to call in expert help.”
We provided tried and tested advice to entrepreneurs
Xneelo recently partnered with Heavy Chef to produce an E-commerce Marketing Guide aimed at entrepreneurs wanting to grow their online business. The guide features advice and tips from some of the country’s most successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, such as making your business digitally compelling and choosing the tools to set you on the road to success.
The event provided an opportunity to engage with entrepreneurs and share some of the advice included in the guide, as well as hand out free copies of the beautifully printed version.
“It was great to represent the brand in-person and interact with people at various stages of their e-commerce journey. We spoke to people who were thinking about starting an e-commerce store, those that were running a store as well as seasoned professionals,” explains xneelo Digital Marketing Strategist Jason New.
“The E-commerce Marketing Guide garnered such a positive reaction from people and was a great conversation starter with delegates thinking about starting an e-commerce business. A few asked how much the book cost and were pleasantly surprised when we said it was free.”
We gave a keynote on web hosting
xneelo’s Head of Product Kerry Nebitt also took to the stage to give a talk on choosing a domain and web hosting partner for an online business. Kerry took the riveted audience through every step of starting an online business, from choosing a domain name and hosting plan, to setting up an e-commerce store and outlying the costs involved.
“It was a very worthwhile experience. Most of the audience were there to learn how to build a website and break into e-commerce and actually came to our stand during the day to ask questions and follow up. Engaging with delegates and customers was a real highlight”, says Kerry.
From everyone at xneelo, we wish to extend our thanks to the Ecommerce Live team, and to all the entrepreneurs and online business owners we met during the event.
For more advice on taking your business online, read E-commerce Marketing Guide: From idea to online business
