The e-Commerce revolution in Trinidad.
Just a short time ago it seemed that not many local businesses made the leap from brick and mortar to the open spaces of the world wide web. I remember when we set up D Rite Stuff‘s e-commerce webstore what seemed like ages ago back in 2008. We ventured into the web with a payment gateway in the US because there was no other option available at the time. So many things have changed since then, webstores are now a necessity to most local businesses to keep up in this retail climate.
Moving forward to 2019 Trinidad and Tobago is attempting to move forward with more e-commerce stores popping up every day, yet the main issue remains to be the credit card processing for local companies previously we had to use US based companies such as 2checkout or PayPal or UK based companies such as Skrill/Moneybookers, this isnt the case anymore , slowly we are getting that sorted as WiPay (T&T’s version of PayPal) , First Atlantic(based in the Bahamas) and now Republic Banks E-Pay are moving us in the right direction.
For those who say online shopping cant work in Trinidad and Tobago I give you the figures quoted by the Government in the previous budget of Trinidad which states ;
“Madam Speaker, the popularity of online purchases has increased significantly over the past few years. Reducing the demand for these items helps to save on foreign exchange and to assist local industry. There are 31 Courier Companies registered and bonded in Trinidad and Tobago and is estimated that the value of packages cleared by these Courier Companies exceeds $1 billion a year “ [Colm Imbert- Minister of Finance, Trinidad & Tobago]
link to pdf
Thats Billion with a “B” so there is a demand for online shopping in Trinidad and with the new payment gateways opening up and new e-stores opening in your browsers everyday the growth of the sector is now starting.
