You know what, we like doing research at Stuff. Sure, it’s not as fancy and glamorous as all the reviews and press conferences but at the end of the day, what we spend most of our time on is research. Usually it’s to check facts for an article or story, while other times it’s just so we can learn a bit more about a subject we’re writing about. Seldom does a bout of research yield a discovery, yet that’s what happened this morning when we stumbled across Samsung’s local e-commerce website. What started out as a quest to prepare for the slew of new gadgets and gizmos Samsung is announcing this afternoon during the Galaxy Unpacked event ended up with us being surprised because we had no idea Samsung even had a local retail site!

Fact of the matter is samsung.com/za/ is a pretty standard online marketplace, very similar to what you’d expect from Huawei’s online store or the iStore website. Offering every piece of modern Samsung tech you could possibly hope to find. You got your TVs, your mobile phones, your smart watches; even intelligent washing machines and fridges, all under one Samsung URL.

It makes sense that Samsung would follow the route of other locally dominant tech companies and host their own marketplace site, given that they’re more likely to pull in better margins if they’re not having to go through loot.co.za or takealot. It’s a smart move on their behalf, even offering specialised customer support, direct-to-business or consumer purchases and a handy little news and updates section if you’re the sort of person that absolutely must be in the loop with all things Samsung at all times.

Hey, we need those features, it’s our job to keep up. Take those judging eyes and perhaps turn them inward for some seriously needed introspection.