Bob Shop – the new name for bidorbuy from March 2023 – was carefully chosen to reflect the importance of our online marketplace within Bob Group (the company formed from the merger of bidorbuy and uAfrica in September 2022).
The common identifier “Bob” will be used across all Bob Group companies, from Bob Shop to Bob Pay, Bob Go and Bob Sync. The letters come from a common abbreviation of “bidorbuy” and speak to the fact that Bob Shop – and indeed Bob Group – will proudly continue the legacy of bidorbuy, and honour the same commitments to buyers and sellers.
Bob will therefore be the stem of each new company name. This will help everyone to identify other companies within Bob Group, even if they don’t use those particular tools or services. When you see the name “Bob”, you can rest assured that the same exceptional customer service and world-class coding excellence will apply. Think of it as your guarantee that the old bidorbuy standards and values will still apply – only in a new, bigger and better form.
Bob Shop at the heart
Although Bob Group is a much larger company, Bob Shop remains at the heart of our goal to build a nationwide community of buyers and sellers. Bob Shop remains the way that people find each other, and connect through shared interests and passions.
At the same time, Bob Shop is now much more closely integrated with a whole array of related ecommerce tools and services offered by other Bob Group companies. By integrating all of these different elements, Bob Group is able to offer so much more than just an online marketplace.
The Bob Group tagline – “everything ecommerce” – sums this up perfectly. Merchants will benefit from holistic fulfillment solutions (Bob Go), easier ways to get paid (Bob Pay) and the ability to seamlessly sell across multiple platforms (Bob Sync).
As sellers become more efficient, buyers will also benefit from new functionality including parcel tracking, and reduced costs (especially for shipping).
A helping hand
As well as the new name for bidorbuy, you’re bound to notice our new logo. Tilt your head slightly to the right and you will instantly recognise a human hand, with a lower-case “b” (for Bob Group, or bidorbuy) as a key element.
The hand is open in greeting or welcome, and to symbolise generosity. We believe that it’s a powerful symbol of our “everything ecommerce” philosophy. We want to make ecommerce in South Africa more inclusive by removing the barriers to entry that currently prevent more buyers and sellers being active online.
The new hand logo symbolises the fact that Bob Group is designed to be a helping hand for merchants and entrepreneurs looking to establish and grow their online businesses. We believe that ecommerce should be for everyone, and we’re here to give people a hand up as they start their online selling adventures.