In this episode of ITWeb TV, Sanele Simmons, CEO and Co-founder of Mall for Women who is also a semi finalist in the Mrs South Africa 2025 beauty pageant talks about her journey of how she got into e-commerce.
The e-commerce landscape has undergone significant transformation, unlocking opportunities for entrepreneurs not only in South Africa but globally.
This is according to Sanele Simmons, CEO and co-founder of Mall For Women,an e-commerce platform offering high-end products targeted at women, such as fashion, accessories, gadgets, health and wellness, and beauty.
Simmons, a semi-finalist in the Mrs South Africa 2025 beauty pageant, says Mall For Women’s approach of catering specifically to women’s needs is a key differentiator. She believes in empowering women through her e-commerce platform by providing business support, funding and e-learning courses.
Speaking to ITWeb TV, Simmons said her e-commerce journey started as a dream while she was in high school. “When these things happen, sometimes you don’t realise that it’s a dream, or your purpose that God had created you for.”
She recalled how during the Y2K era, her school had a campaign where learners were asked to come up with a technology concept that was going to ‘save’ the world.
“I had just relocated from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Nataland there was no shopping mall around my school, and it was something that I was missing, so I decided to create a shopping mall. We had to use cardboard to build the structure.”
According to Simmons, her cardboard mall had the latest technologies, which made her the overall winner of the competition. Her creation became a reality in 2020, when she launched Mall For Women, alongside her husband.
Sanele Simmons, CEO and co-founder of Mall For Women, believes in empowering women through her e-commerce platform.
Despite the highly-competitive e-commerce market − with new disruptors like Temu, Shein and Amazon South Africa entering the scene − Simmons has a different perspective, as she sees them as part of the evolving e-commerce ecosystem.
“I do not see them as competition; I love them. I even sing the Temu song in the house. When I started, people were like ‘no one buys online’, even though people had been ordering pizza online, which is e-commerce. It took people a while to understand that when you book a plane ticket online, it is part of e-commerce.”
Simmons noted that the entry of these global e-commerce players has had a profound impact on the South African market. These giants have disrupted the status quo, resulting in a remarkable 30% surge in e-commerce sales in 2023 alone, she pointed out.
With more people having access to smartphones and the demand for online shopping growing in SA, Simmons believes the e-commerce sector will continue to reach greater heights.
Despite the rapid growth and evolution of the e-commerce sector, Simmons highlights that the industry is not without its challenges. She mentioned logistics as one of the biggest challenges in terms of location, deliveries and issues with street names.
“Checking out is also a challenge. Currently, I am using PayPal because I am accepting orders in dollars, as it is a global platform.”
When asked about the emerging technologies that will revolutionise the e-commerce landscape, she pinpointed artificial intelligence and augmented reality as the top game-changers.
Over the years, the platform has seen growth, and is currently streamlining its onboarding process for new vendors, leveraging automation to expedite the setup and enable a seamless integration.
Simmons plans to further enhance the shopping experience for her customers. A key milestone on the horizon is the launch of the Mall For Women mobile app, to offer more convenience.
