The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) will launch two e-commerce platforms that will be hosted by locally sourced goods organisation Proudly South African (Proudly SA) on July 1.

The first platform – Shop Proudly SA – will be a business-to-customer e-commerce platform. The second – the Market Access Platform (MAP) – will be a business-to-business platform.

Both are aimed at supporting the transformation and ensuring the success of the e-commerce industry in South Africa, says Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau.

These platforms will boost support for small, medium-sized and microenterprises and locally manufactured goods and service, as well as create much-needed jobs and grow the resilience of the economy.

“These platforms are meant to provide seamless and centralised portals that will make it easier for consumers and procurement officers to source locally manufactured products and services, as well as meet their localisation targets,” he says.

The e-commerce platforms will also enable local manufacturers to claw back some of the lost ground they have lost to imports. More than 1 700 locally made products will be housed in the platforms covering all sectors in South Africa, he adds.

The MAP is a response to many large corporates in South Africa that do not have access to locally made products and plugs the gap between corporates and suppliers, says Proudly SA CEO Eustace Mashimbye.

“MAP is a database of reliable, local manufacturers and service providers from which businesses that have undertaken to increase their uptake of local products and services can procure.”

The database is a source of local content and quality vetted companies. Member companies of Proudly SA are automatically eligible to be enlisted on MAP as suppliers, he adds.

“Procurement officials from corporates using MAP will be able to list their tender opportunities and be matched to listed suppliers in accordance with their preferential procurement goals,” he says.