Notes from the Cape

I really do try to buy South African products, and I really do try to support the local economy, but I am thinking more and more that our local economy needs a very serious wake up call if it wishes to retain it’s proudly South African customers.

Why is it that I can buy 1500 full colour business cards from an online company in USA – www.vistaprint.com for R300 (incl shipping), and have it shipped to me in 12 days, whereby the best price that I could find from a local online printer – www.cardshark.co.za, is R375 for 500 cards? That is a cost of 20c per card, as opposed to 75c per card. In addition to that, they gave me an extra 250 cards free after I placed the order.

I have received the cards, and the quality is superb.

Yes, I know that there are a number of reasons why we cannot match those printing costs – our printing costs are higher, printers & parts are more expensive, it is more expensive to import the inks, our total volumes are smaller etc etc.

However, the fact remains that as a consumer trying to keep my business costs lower, it is cheaper for me to print all of my stationary overseas. My business cards from USA cost  almost 4x less per card than the local price!

I think that our local industry needs a very serious wake up call if they want the consumer to support and buy South African – more and more consumers are going to source their stock overseas. This is going to become more and more of an issue as companies become more net-savvy and start using it to find the best prices!

So, South African businesses – wake up, be creative and find ways to start competing. Get that local business otherwise you will be out of business!