by Herman Manson (@marklives) MIH Internet Africa is set to close several of its ecommerce stores. This could potentially include Style36, 5 Rooms, SAcamera and Kinderelo. All the affected specialist stores are currently offline, with messages suggesting they are “shut down for site maintenance” purposes.

Meloy Horn, head of investor relations at Naspers, says in a statement released to MarkLives that MIH Africa is in the process of restructuring operations to focus upon general e-tail stores, rather than upon specialists.
“Plan to grow aggressively”
“Naspers subsidiary, MIH Internet Africa (MIHIA), has decided to restructure operations to focus specifically on the general e-tail businesses such as Kalahari, which we plan to grow aggressively over the next year,” says Horn.
“Kalahari had a very strong Christmas and has just introduced an advanced platform successfully. The restructuring will allow more resources to be dedicated to core operations. In South Africa the group is considering closing some non-core brands (such as Style36 and 5 Rooms) and is consulting with staff.
“This process does not affect other Naspers subsidiaries with e-commerce investments in Africa, including Media24, which is focusing on fashion e-commerce. Media24 continues to leverage its magazine titles to drive e-commerce activity, especially through fast-growing fashion vertical Spree, and is planning to expand substantially in this area.”
Details after internal consultation
Horn says more details will only be released after the internal consultation process has ended.
“On a group basis we remain very excited about the future growth prospects for e-commerce and continue to build out our platforms in many markets around the world,” says Horn.
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