Township

International multi-currency ecommerce solution for a community empowerment project in Cape Town, South Africa
view site: township.co.za

This project was my second collaboration with Lianne Burton. I love working with her because she chooses to work only on projects that are making South Africa a better place. This project is a great example. Township Patterns is a community empowerment project in Khayelitsha and Manenberg on the Cape Flats. They produce and sell handmade fashion items and bags for business solutions. Township’s vision is to expand and market their product internationally through a world-class multi-currency ecommerce store.

Basing an international ecommerce store in South Africa presents some challenges:

PayPal (the leading multi-currency payment gateway in the world) does not support South African rands. So your online shoppers in South Africa are forced to checkout in a foreign currency. Thanks PayPal.

Legislation in South Africa dictates that all local online payment gateways must enforce 3D Secure. This may be familiar to many UK-based shoppers but the rest of the world including the US and Europe have not implemented this. Using a local payment gateway that supports rands means that most international shoppers will be unable to checkout using their credit card. Good thinking chaps. Why be flexible to allow international business?

There are some alternative multi-currency gateways (like WorldPay and MonsterPay) that support rands. They really don’t work as well as they should. They are also not well known to shoppers and with a name like MonsterPay (really?) would your mom feel safe to hand over her credit card information?

To get around these problems and provide a solution that gives the best of both worlds, I setup a multi-currency (and multi-language ready) store with payment gateway switching based on country. This means we can send international shoppers to PayPal to pay in dollars, euros, pounds or yen and send South African shoppers to the local PayFast gateway to pay in rands with 3D Secure.

Then the fun part: designing and presenting Township’s offering beautifully on a mobile-friendly website based on their new brand identity. Buy yourself a a lovely hand embroidered scarf with a unique township inspired colourful print here: township.co.za.