Its reputation is growing, and it's a fantastic reputation. However, there are issues of concern in the e-commerce space at the moment. The first one is about the 300% increase in reports to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman. You can always look at it as a result of the sudden e-commerce boom and the fact that there are more participants in the space but it is a bit of a concern to us.

The E-commerce Forum of South Africa is quite important, and I'll tell you why. When you operate in isolation as an entrepreneur with your own store, be it brick and mortar or an e-shop, it becomes very difficult to get to the pulse of what's happening on the ground. To understand how to manoeuvre the regulation that basically governs what you do on a daily basis and be able to influence the decisions that are made for you on your behalf in government.

Before you get into the e-commerce space, you first have to look at yourself as an entrepreneur. You have to have that entrepreneurial way of thinking. That's first and foremost the most important thing to consider. You can't view this as a side hustle. You can't enter into this space and think it's a quick moneymaking scheme. Just like in any business, you need commitment to the business.

Dealing with both the brick and mortar and the e-commerce space deserves similar respect. The brick and mortar entrepreneur needs to understand that making that cross over to e-commerce can be slightly tricky.

One of the challenges when you're starting out with zero customers, is you always ask yourself, "Who has the best trick? Who's going to pull the rabbit out of a hat for me and tell me that this is the path to take to get my first 1000 customers or even one customer?"

Like in any business, when you start using words like 'cheap' and 'quick', you need to step away. Business is not for a quick buck. It is dedication. It is passion. It is vision and it is driven. So there is no quick scheme for entering e-commerce.

The number of people that have jumped onto e-commerce! Three years ago, e-commerce was just a word and people would ask, "What are you talking about?" And all of a sudden, today, when you say e-commerce, people know exactly what you're talking about in the streets. The only thing they don't know is how to get on it, but they do understand that it's there.

We were always told as women, historically, that we can't have it all. For me, I say we can have it all because e-commerce says that you can have it all. One of the challenges for women is the fact that they have responsibilities beyond what their male counterparts have.

It's an interesting thing. Recently, I discovered some statistics that are a bit, I don't want to say worrying, I don't want to say interesting either. But in the Eastern Cape, 50% of households are led by women. I found that to be a very interesting stat and very telling.

E-commerce is not unique to any industry or sector when it comes to threats. There are always going to be threats. But what does the future look like? It looks bright provided we get into bed with regulators to make sure that we are not overly regulated.