“For buyers, shopping from a bidorbuy store means complete peace of mind”, says bidorbuy CEO Jaco Jonker. “They can be assured of high quality products and receive excellent service.”

“Not everyone can set up a store on bidorbuy”, says Jaco Jonker. “To qualify, sellers must have a good selling record. Moreover, they must maintain that good record on the site. We regularly monitor their performance to ensure that bidorbuy stores are really the cream of the crop.”

He points out that verified stores are afforded higher buyer protection cover. “Depending on the store level, it is possible for buyers to get protection of up to R5 000, R6 000 or R7 500 when buying from a basic, advanced or premium verified store respectively,” he says.

Regular verified sellers, who are not a bidorbuy store, can benefit from a maximum of R3 000 buyer protection cover.

Garmin South Africa is among the first stores featured on bidorbuy, with an opening special rate on touch screen golf devices. More than ten virtual stores have opened their doors on bidorbuy including a home store, toy store, fashion stores, jewellery stores, electronics and gadget stores, to name a few.

“For small businesses, being featured in the bidorbuy stores is a low-cost and effective way to break into ecommerce”, says bidorbuy Jonker. “It is also a good way for established businesses to expand their sales and acquire new customers.”

Sellers can set up a basic, advanced or premium virtual store, taking advantage of different levels of branding and buyer protection. The monthly ‘rentals’ are currently R500, R600 and R750 for basic, advanced and premium store fronts respectively. bidorbuy has no listing fees and charges up to 5% commission on items successfully sold on the site.

The bidorbuy stores range from very small businesses for which bidorbuy is a primary or even the only selling outlet to bigger companies that have own ecommerce websites, for which bidorbuy is an additional selling channel.

“Anyone who is serious about ecommerce cannot afford to ignore bidorbuy.co.za, because this is one of the most popular South African sites, with over 1.2-million unique visitors per month”, says Jonker.