The deployment of platform businesses in the township economy: a focus on spaza shops in Soweto

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand how the township economy is leveraging off platform businesses to make them more profitable and deliver on customer needs more easily and conveniently. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with 10 entrepreneurs operating spaza shops in Soweto (a township in South Africa) were conducted. Findings showed that the use of platform technologies has put SA spaza shop owners in a better position to access financial support. The study also found that spaza owners were now better equipped to track their inventory and thus prevent any losses, thus experiencing greater overall profitability. Given that most South African spaza shop entrepreneurs operate on limited budgets and face stiff competition from foreign owned spaza shops, the greatest value of this research is that it not only confirms the adequacy of platform technologies in the spaza shop sector, but it also shows that adoption of platform technologies results in competitive advantage and strategic opportunities